Complete thesis - Murdoch University

A.2 Characteristics of teaching and learningThere has been much debate in the literature regarding influences on learning. While it isaccepted that the practice of education relies on the communicative behaviour, emotions,and beliefs of both teachers and students, some authors (Felder, 1996; Kolb, 1984) lookto personality, life experiences, and the purpose of the learning as prime influences, others(Grundy, 1987; Trigwell and Prosser, 1997) add to a particular set of life experiences, studentexpectations of teachers as the dominant influence on learning.The potential to succeed academically is jeopardised by complex lack of matching betweenthe student and the discipline. Attrition in Engineering also involves a complex set of factorsincluding the quality of student interactions with instructors and peers. Motivation andsuccess are adversely affected if their learning styles, and the learning styles of the staffteaching them, are not taken into account. This issue is discussed in greater detail in Chapter9.It is therefore appropriate to look at both teacher and learner characteristics as importantcomponents of the learning environment in which this research was undertaken.A.2.1Learning stylesOther research undertaken within the School looks at learning styles (Fowler et al, 2000),and focusses on instruments developed by Kolb (1984) and by Soloman and Felder (1999).These instruments are applied to all first year students at Murdoch’s Rockingham campus(where Engineering is situated), early in their first semester and a cumulative database isbeing compiled.The term learning styles refers to an individual’s preferences for receiving, integrating andpresenting ideas and information. Examples, taken from Mills et al (2005) include: findingit easier to understand a new concept by reading a textbook, whilst others prefer a pictorialexplanation; variety in how students most effectively demonstrate their understanding:graphically, verbally, or in writing.Table A.1 provides a comparison between Engineering students (both first and final (fourth)year) and first year students in Arts/Commerce and Computer Science/IT. Engineering Staffare also included, in order to identify any mismatches between teacher/learner, while FigureA.2 indicates that some gender biases are also present.In brief, Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory is a simple test based on experiential learning theory.It looks at four stages of the learning process: concrete experience (CE), reflective observation457