Predicting Academic Success and Creative Ability in Freshman Chemical Engineering Students: A Learning Styles Perspective

摘要

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the predictive validity of learning styles on academic achievement and creativity gain. For this purpose, freshman chemical engineering students from Cracow University of Technology were recruited (n = 100). An experimental research design was used in this study where 49 freshman students were enrolled in a two-day creativity training course while 51 students were enrolled in traditional Humanities course. To measure creative ability the Test of Creative Thinking-Drawing Production was used as pre- and post test. Students also completed a dynamic learning style inventory that measured learning orientation, processing information, thinking, perceiving information, physical and time learning preferences, sociological, emotional and environmental preferences of learning. Student performance was measured with grade point average (GPA) and normalized creativity gain (CG). Results show that 74% of the variance in GPA and 63% of the variance in CG can be explained by learning style predictors. Global and cluster thinking are the best positive correlated predictors in GPA while a need for authority figure and intuitive perceiving information are the best negative correlated predictors in GPA. Nonconformist and self-motivation are the best positive predictors in CG while a need for structure and sequential thinking are the best negative correlated predictors in CG. The practical implications are that engineering universities should collect learning style data on students at the outset and then help students accordingly to be more successful and creative. Highly concrete sequential learners and visual theorist who are organized and self-motivated might potentially be offered more challenging honours programs with corresponding special commendations on their projects and thesis, whereas students who are more intuitive, other-motivated would receive more structure through student study groups, frequent deadlines, shorter assignments, and clearly defined learning goals for passing examinations. Active global learners need more space for acting, demanding training objectives, and more nonconventional learning objects for exploiting their creative ability.