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relationship and accurate measure of other classroom variables such as engagement,

motivation and stress. Learning style and learning level are both employed by the student

to complete the learning process (Kirton, 2003). However, most learning style theories

assert that students learn best in their own learning style (Coffield et al., 2004). Students

receiving instructional discourse from a faculty member with a dissimilar learning style

may cause stress (Kirton, 2003) which may inhibit student engagement (Pintrich &

Schunk, 2002). Separating learning style from learning level allows the researcher to

examine each independently and determine the significance each has on the dependent

variable. That is, if dissimilar learning style is not found to be a large contributor to

student engagement, perhaps learning level is a superseding variable.

 Faculty members are increasingly faced with more accountability for increasing

student achievement. As student engagement is closely related to academic achievement

(Kuh, 2001), faculty members need to utilize instructional strategies and curricula to

increase student engagement and foster student learning. Research is needed to determine

if cognitive style contributes to the explanation of student engagement. Does dissimilar

learning style between students' preferred cognitive style and faculties' preferred

cognitive style impair student engagement? Are students able to overcome cognitive style

gap as the faculty member engages the learner?

 Purpose and Objectives

 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 variables of undergraduate students at the University of Florida in

the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The specific objectives of this study were

to: 1) describe selected faculty and students according to their selected demographic