INSIGHTS INTO LEARNING STYLES PREFERENCE OF ENGINEERING UNDERGRADUATES: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING

Background and Purpose: Education at higher institutions prepares graduates for the real world. To develop and maintain quality, the focus must not only be on what institutions can offer but also on the learning needs and styles of learners. Despite many studies on engineering learners’ learning styles, limited research has been conducted to compare the learning styles of Engineering and Engineering Education learners. This study was conducted to ascertain the learning style preferences of first-year undergraduates from both groups in a science and technology-driven university in Malaysia. Methodology: This descriptive study consisted of 40 Engineering and 40 Engineering Education learners who attended an English language course at the university. Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire was adopted as the survey instrument. The data were analysed using self-scoring sheet and Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Findings: While both groups chose Kinaesthetic as a major learning style preference, the Engineering Education learners also chose Group, Tactile, and Auditory learning styles as their other major preferences. Both groups chose Visual and Individual as their minor preferences. Contributions: The findings extend research demonstrating the significant role of specific disciplines in Engineering to determine the learning style preferences of learners. The findings also provide useful insights that suggest implications for practice and policy. Keywords: Engineering, engineering education, English language, learning styles, teaching and learning. Cite as: Ismail, N. N. A., Abdullah, T., & Abdul Raof, A. H. (2022). Insights into learning styles preference of engineering undergraduates: Implications for teaching and learning. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 7(1) 390-409. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol7iss1pp390-409

On the problem of the meaning and scope of the term school in contemporary art history (by the case of the Far Eastern region)

Редкое исследование, посвященное современному художественному процессу, его участникам, обходится без употребления термина «школа». При этом его содержание трактуется очень широко: от сложившейся и действующей на протяжении большого отрезка времени системы полного цикла профессионального художественного образования до принадлежности художников одной территории или следования за лидером в выборе стилевых предпочтений. В статье дается краткий очерк истории появления и бытования термина «школа», предлагается уточнение его содержания в современных условиях и на этой основе предпринимается попытка оценить ситуацию с формированием региональных школ в России на примере Дальнего Востока. A rare study devoted to the contemporary art process, its participants, dispenses with the use of the term "school". At the same time, its content is interpreted very broadly: from the system of a full cycle of professional art education that has been established and has been operating for a long period of time to artists belonging to the same territory or following the leader in choosing style preferences. The article gives a brief outline of the history of the emergence and existence of the term "school", suggests clarifying its content in modern conditions and on this basis attempts to assess the situation with the formation of regional schools in Russia, using the example of the Far East.

Mobile Learning in Business English its Effect to South American Students’ Learning Styles in the COVID 19 Pandemic Era: Its Economic Implications

The adoption of M-learning and perceptual learning style preferences of South American EFL learners in a business English course were studied empirically. A descriptive correlational research design was used in this study. Data were gathered from 125 South American EFL students who were carefully sampled among a total of 184 students with mobile phones enrolled in a business English classes of selected South American university. The Mobile Learning Questionnaire (MLQ) and Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire were used in the study (PLSPQ). The data revealed that students in a business English course have a high level of M-learning adoption. It was discovered that respondents favor visual learning, group learning, individual learning, tactile learning, and auditory learning, with kinesthetic learning receiving the least attention. When students are grouped by gender and age, test results show that male respondents had stronger appeal to the utility, acceptability, enjoyment, facilitating conditions, and behavioral intention of M-learning than female respondents. Regardless of their age, respondents acknowledged the benefits of using M-learning in their business English course. Similarly, when the respondents are grouped by gender, no significant differences in learning style preferences are detected. However, the younger respondents prefer group learning, whilst the older respondents prefer individual learning. Finally, a link was discovered between M-learning usage and students' preferred learning styles. The positive link implies that the more M-learning students use, the more learning style preferences they have for group, tactile, visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and group learning tasks. This paper discusses the theoretical and educational consequences.

Preferred leadership style, managerial and entrepreneurial inclination among Hungarian students

Although a great deal of research has been done on leadership styles, and university students have often been the subject of exploratory research in social sciences, the Full Range Leadership model has been applied to young people only in a few instances. In this article, the authors seek to survey the preferred leadership styles among Hungarian students and explore how they correlate with managerial and entrepreneurial inclination. A complex analysis of leadership style preferences of university students combined with their managerial and entrepreneurial inclination, social and cultural resources is rare in the research practice so far. The online questionnaire used in the research was completed by 335 university students studying economics, engineering and social studies both in Budapest and in the country. The questionnaire was completed by 335 university students. The results are exploratory and they amend the existing leadership typologies at some points. Based on the results of the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire featuring 36 self-rating items, four distinct leadership styles emerged within the target group, representing the transformational, the supportive, the defensive, and the laissez-faire leadership types. The multivariate analysis has shown that while managerial inclination is related to the transformational style of leadership, entrepreneurial aspirations are associated with the transformational and supportive leadership styles.

Effect of preferred learning styles on academic achievements: A cross sectional descriptive study.

Objective: This study aims to find out the preferred mode of study for undergraduate Physiology students and effect of learning style preferences on academic achievements. Study Design: Cross Sectional, Descriptive study. Setting: Fatima Jinnah Medical University, Lahore. Period: December 2018 to June 19. Material & Methods: Total 170 undergraduate’s 2nd year MBBS Physiology students were included. The VARK questionnaire (Version 7.1) designed by Fleming was administered to 170 students after taking consent. This questionnaire is a valid tool to assess the learning style preferences of students. It consists of 16 questions having four options each and a scoring chart at the end, for the students to calculate their own scores. The aggregate percentage of periodic assessments throughout the academic year was defined as academic achievement. It was matched with their learning style preferences. A relationship between the learning style preferences and academic achievement was studied. Data was analyzed by using SPSS version 23.0. Results: Out of a total of 170 students, 73 (43%) preferred kinesthetic while 51(30%) preferred aural mode of learning. However, no association between learning style preferences and academic achievements could be found. Conclusion: The study concluded that the most preferred learning style among the M.B.B.S 2nd year Physiology students was kinesthetic. No significant association was found between the learning style preferences and academic achievement. Teaching modalities can be improved and incorporated according to students’ preferences.

Native-like Performance of Pragmatic Features: Speech Acts in Spanish

This study had as its goal to investigate how nonnative speakers (NNSs) of Spanish were able to perform pragmatics which in various ways resembled that of native speakers (NSs). The study focused on three advanced NNSs of Spanish who had contributed data six years earlier to a corpus of NS and NNS speech acts of complimenting, apologizing and refusing. The purpose was to do a contrastive analysis comparing the pragmatic performance of NNSs and NSs in order to capture both similarities and areas where highly competent NNSs displayed knowledge gaps, however subtle. The subjects responded to a language background questionnaire regarding their learning of Spanish and also completed a learning style preference survey. They were then asked to revisit their earlier performance in pragmatics from the corpus data and to describe the strategies that they used to produce their highly-rated performance in Spanish pragmatics at that time. The findings revealed ways in which the three subjects differentially imitated NS behavior, and provided insights as to how they arrived at native-like behavior in their facial expressions, use of clicks, physical contact practices, colloquial language, and cursing. The subjects’ reported learning style preferences appeared to be generally consistent with the strategies that they reported using for dealing with the pragmatic features of interest, such as the way that they dealt with cursing.