Verbal-visual preferences of working engineers

ABSTRACT

Many have argued for increased continuing education for working engineers, but relatively little research has been done on how to most effectively teach that group. Many have also recommended using learner characteristics to enhance learning, but relatively little is known about the learner characteristics of working engineers. In the study reported here, 116 engineers at a medium-sized US manufacturing company were surveyed to determine their verbal-visual preferences as defined by the Verbal-Visual Learning Style Rating instrument. There was a much higher percentage of visualisers in the engineering sample compared to the general population. This suggests that instructional designs for continuing engineering education should be highly visual.