techniques, distance education methods of instructional delivery, and uses of technology

and their impact on student academic achievement and engagement while controlling for

learning style. Most of these studies conclude that students have different styles of

learning and that teachers should use a variety of teaching approaches to meet learning

style needs of all students. As most good teachers incorporate a variety of instructional

techniques already, the significance of learning style theory has found little practical

application in the classroom (Coffield, Moseley, Hall & Ecclestone, 2004).

 The literature revealed similar conclusions comparing the problem solving

teaching approach to the content based approach. Dyer and Osborne (1996) examined the

use of the two teaching approaches in a quasi-experimental design studying secondary

students enrolled in agriculture. Using the Group Embedded Figures Test (Witkin,

Oltman, Raskin & Karp, 1971) to measure learning style, they found that controlling for

teaching approach, neither field independent or field dependent students had significantly

higher achievement scores. However, they also found that field independent learners had

higher problem solving scores on non-agriculturally based problems. Though their

findings were limited, they also concluded that different instructional strategies should be

used to facilitate the learning of all students (Witkin et al.).

 Pascarella and Terenzini (1991) summarize teacher/teaching attributes that are

effective for student learning. They include: command of subject matter, enthusiasm of

subject, clear explanation of concepts, efficient structure of class time, use of examples

and analogies in presenting new concepts, avoiding vagueness, and having good rapport

with students (Pascarella and Terenzini).