impossible to determine the variables outside of the classroom that inadvertently effect

student engagement. These included but were not limited to sickness, family crisis and

lack of time devoted to study.

 Kirton (1994) offers the following anecdote to teachers and students in reference

to A-I theory:

 We all teach children to be more adaptive: before answering the question, please
 read it; be more methodical; present your work more neatly; nice essay, pity it is
 not on the topic I set; and so on. The best teachers taught most of us a lot of
 technique, but changed us (our preferred cognitive style) not at all. In the process
 they found some of us adaptorss) more receptive to working more closely within
 structure than others (innovators). Lesser teachers, especially when faced with the
 less motivated innovators, got even less far. Of course, despite the groans in the
 literature, not all teachers are or ever were, adaptors. The highly innovative ones
 delighted most of us, whether we always understood them or not; some of us (the
 higher adaptors) were just confused. As the saying goes, "You just can't win 'em
 all'." The best teachers win more than most.

 (p. xxiii).

 The undergraduate classroom offers a new context for A-I theory as well as the

introduction of new variables. Although these variables were not discounted by A-I

theory, up to this point, they had not been fully explored.

 Given the previous description of A-I theory, the researcher found two studies of

interest. First considering the undergraduate classroom, Puccio, Talbot and Joniak, (1993)

found that students' stress increased with the perceived adaptiveness of the course.

Specifically, the rule/group conformity construct of the KAI was most important in

determining the relationship between cognitive style and stress. It seems logical that an

innovative student would find an adaptive course stressful, but why would an adaptive

student find an adaptive course stressful? The researcher found the study conducted by

Puccio, Talbot and Joniak one of the few investigations regarding Kirton's A-I theory

applied to the undergraduate classroom.