The Study of Learning Characteristics of Engineering Students: Emphasis on Learning Styles and Hemispheric Dominance

Abstract

Over the recent decades, a massive amount of new knowledge and research has been added to various fields of science including engineering. Due to the half-life of knowledge and the urgent need for replacing old information with new findings, learning has become quite challenging task for the learners. The demand of new line of learning is focus on critical thinking, problem solving, and applying learned materials in various fields. Also, in different area of engineering, learning and appropriate application of knowledge is of remarkable significance. In order to prepare an appropriate instructional design for different fields of study, the various approaches to information analysis and learning styles of students should be examined and revised. The aim of this research was to study and compare learning styles and their relation to hemispheric dominance in male and female engineering students. The results of this study indicated that engineering male and female students are different with regard to their perception and processing information and their learning styles. Also, there was a significant relationship between learning styles and hemispheric dominance. Findings of this study would be beneficial for appropriate instructional designs, especially in distance education.

Keywords

• hemispheric dominance
• learning styles
• information processing mode
• convergent style
• divergent style