Analysis of the learning styles of undergraduate students in construction management bachelor degree programs in the U.S.

This paper presents the findings of a study analyzing the learning styles of undergraduate construction management (CM) students in bachelor degree programs in the U.S. The study utilized the Felder-Silverman model and the Index of Learning Styles (ILS) as a survey instrument. The population of the students surveyed was 1,069 CM students from 36 university CM programs across the Associated Schools of Construction regions. Demographic information, the raw ILS question answers, and the ILS web based survey report were collected from the students. The results were analyzed and compared to both the CM students themselves and to other similar studies done with engineering students. It was found that CM students were visual, active, sensing, and sequential learners and significantly higher for all the learning style dimensions than engineering students. The CM students’ demographics of gender and age had a somewhat significant result, while their regions, year in school, and ethnicity did not have any significant results. This study also makes recommendations for how CM instructors can align their teaching styles with the learning styles of the CM students, and discusses the impacts on the CM industry