Engineers have to be Kinesthetic?

scansmom
Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:02:29 +0000

I don’t think this is a stupid question at all, given many of the stereotypes that exist of engineers and engineering students (ie they are “always” kids who loved to tinker, build, take things apart, and are always “hands on learners”). This has even been suggested in some studies that have been done as well. For instance, here is a link to an older study on the learning styles of engineering students compared to the typical teaching methods used in engineering classes, which concludes that engineering students are typically visual, sensory, inductive, active/kinesthetic learners whereas the typical engineering education is auditory, abstract, deductive, passive and sequential.

However, your learning style (auditory, visual, kinesthetic) should not determine your career choice, but is only a guideline on how you might best learn ANY subject you are interested in. In fact, as an auditory learner you may do well in the often large, lecture style introductory classes that frequently do seem to weed out many engineering students.

Teaching and Learning STEM;