Correlation of Learning Styles and Myers Briggs Types with Quiz Results

One goal of our research is to create tutorials that span the spectrum of learning styles and personality types. As previously noted, we have chosen to measure learning styles using the Felder/Solomon model and are measuring personality preferences using the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). In order to gain insight into the effectiveness of the tutorials across different learning styles and MBTI types, we separate the pre-tutorial quiz and post-tutorial quiz results based on these demographic data. Data from the Fall 2007 scores for the “Curved Beam Tutorial” are shown in Table 8. Specifically, we are interested in determining if the “Deltas” [(post-tutorial quiz score) – (pre-tutorial quiz score)] are statistically different between the pairs of learning styles. In order to determine this, we treat the data as a sample of a theoretical larger population. “Student-t” distributions are used for the statistical analysis as the sample sizes are relatively small. Recall that the Felder/Solomon scale has four learning style pairs (Active vs. Reflective, Sensing vs. Intuitive, Visual vs. Verbal and Sequential vs. Global). In the Table 8, note that the Visual vs. Verbal pair is missing. This is because all of the students in this data set were determined to be “visual” learners. Note that the last 3 columns in Table 8 refer to “weighted” data. The on-line learning styles survey we are using returns results for which learning preference you have in each of the 4 categories and also includes a weight or strength for that preference. This allows one to differentiate, for example, between someone who is only slightly “active” over “reflective” in their learning style and someone who very strongly prefers an “active” over “reflective” learning environment. The data in these last 3 columns were weighted (using a linear interpolation) according to the weights reported from the learning style survey for each student.