Impact of Holistic and Learning-Oriented Teaching on Academic Success

• Published in: Journal of engineering education (Washington, D.C.) Vol. 89; no. 2; pp. 191 - 200
• Main Authors: Bernold, L.E., Bingham, W.L, McDonald, P.H., Attia, T.M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.04.2000
• ISSN: 1069-4730; 2168-9830
• DOI: 10.1002/j.2168-9830.2000.tb00513.x

The influence of the preferred learning styles and psychological types on academic performance have been assessed for engineering students. The subjects of the experiments were different groups of students taking the first and the second courses in the civil engineering department. A holistic teaching/learning approach was designed based on the fact that people have different psychological characters and learn in different ways. During the course, many teaching/learning techniques were introduced to foster the learning process for different learning styles and psychological types. The study explores the implications of the learning styles and the psychological temperaments on the academic performance for experimental and control groups. The Learning Type Measure (LTM) and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) instruments were used to assess the psychological profiles and the learning preferences of the students. The paper will discuss the result of a comparison of the final grades of two groups of engineering students taught using two different instructional formats. As will be shown, the holistic teaching and learning environment helped those engineering students that are traditionally less successful.