Complete thesis - Murdoch University

a strong and important minority: they are the multidisciplinary thinkers, whose broadvision may enable them to become, for example, skilled researchers or chief executiveofficers of corporations.Whilst some allowance needs to be made for the different sample sizes between students andstaff, these figures demonstrate a significant variation between these two groups. In particulara clear preference for active, sensory learning is demonstrated amongst students while staffexhibit a strong preferences for reflective learning.Table A.3: Reported learning style preferences (percentages) (Felder and Brent, 2005)EngStudentAverageEngFacultyAverageProcessing Perception Input UnderstandingACT REF SEN INT VIS VER SEQ GLO N64 36 63 37 82 18 60 40 250645 55 41 59 94 6 44 56 101The strong skew towards visual, as opposed to verbal, learning styles is also noted in otherlearning styles research examining the characteristics of engineering students, as is a strongertendency towards sensory rather than intuitive learning.Felder and Brent (2005), in acollation of figures from nearly 20 studies applying ILS to engineering students and staffsupports these findings. Their figures are summarised in Table A.3.A.3 The learning environmentAs has been noted previously, Requirements Engineering (ENG260) is the first of the core SEunits, offered in the first semester of the second year of study, after a common first year. Theunit had, since its inception in 1999, been taught in workshop mode (two sessions of 2-hourstwice per week). Other than during the first few weeks of classes in 1999, the unit has beenco-ordinated and taught by the same lecturer, with guest experts invited in as required. Allmaterial is available online, so lectures and tutorials are replaced by discussion, exercises andgroup evaluation of alternatives presented.The learning environment, and the appropriateness of its web-enabled (or web-enhanced(Boettcher and Conrad, 1999) nature have been described elsewhere (Armarego et al, 2001):the environment goes a long way in addressing the dichotomy of learning/teaching styles.460