CHAPTER 2
 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

 The purpose of this study was to determine if significant relationships exist

between cognitive style gap, student stress, student motivation, student engagement and

selected demographic of undergraduate students in the College of Agriculture and Life

Sciences at the University of Florida. The specific objectives of this study were to: 1)

describe selected faculty and students according to their selected demographic variables;

2) determine the cognitive style, student stress, student motivation, and student

engagement of undergraduate students; 3) determine the cognitive style gap between

faculty and students and to explore its relationship with student stress, student motivation,

student engagement and specific demographic variables of undergraduate students; 4)

explain undergraduate student stress and student motivation based on cognitive style gap

and selected student demographic variables; and 5) explain undergraduate student

engagement based on cognitive style gap, student stress, student motivation and selected

student demographic variables.

 This chapter summarizes pertinent literature concerned with learning styles,

stress, motivation and engagement. Special attention will be given to Kirton's cognitive

style (Kirton, 2003) as applied to the context of the undergraduate classroom, thus

providing the theoretical framework for the study. Also a discussion of empirical research

conducted to examine learning style, stress, motivation, and engagement, is presented to

determine relationships between these variables.