The Learning Styles of Taiwanese Mechanical Engineering Students

Abstract

Learning style has been proven to be an important factor that affects student learning performance. By knowing student learning styles, instructors can modify teaching material and teaching methods accordingly for the greater benefit of students. By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of learning styles, students may adopt complementary learning strategies, thus improving their performance. The Index of Learning Styles (ILS) developed by Felder and Soloman has been widely used in the context of engineering education to enhance both teaching and learning. However, the general statistics and reliability of its Chinese version have not been reported. In this study, we conducted a survey, and 223 students majoring in mechanical engineering at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology (NPUST), Taiwan, participated. This study involved a comparison of the learning style profiles of the students against the results of prior related research conducted in the United States. Subsequently, the internal consistency coefficients of Cronbach’s alpha were examined. The results show that the participants were active, perceptive, visual, and sequential learners, similar to their counterparts in the United States. The internal consistency coefficients on the four dimensions in ILS are 0.49, 0.59, 0.64, and 0.36, respectively. The statistics are lower or approximately equal to those of the English version ILS.