2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This is a Work-In-Progress paper. In an educational landscape where personalized learning experiences are gaining increasing attention, our research focuses on the dynamics of student-teacher pairing based on learning styles as assessed by the Silverman-Felder Index of Learning Styles (ILS). The primary hypothesis of our research is that a closer alignment, or smaller student-instructor Silverman-Felder pairing distance, between a student's learning style and their instructor's learning style will yield higher overall student grades and thus better student understanding.
The Silverman-Felder ILS is a widely recognized tool that categorizes learning styles into four dimensions: active/reflective, verbal/visual, sensing/intuitive, and sequential/global. We define ILS alignment as the distance in four-dimensional space between the student’s ILS score and their instructor’s ILS score. A first round of research (n=300 students) indicates a statistically significant correlation between the student’s grade and their proximity to their instructor. This data was collected exclusively from advanced sections of first year mathematics courses. The current research (n=550 students) expands the scope to include general population and advanced sections of first year mathematics. Future work will include first year literature and history sequences to provide insight into non-technical courses.
Using the results of this research, universities may be able to maximize student performance and understanding by providing instructor recommendations to students that minimize their ILS distances.