INDEX OF LEARNING STYLES (ILS)

Students preferentially take in and process information in different ways: by seeing and hearing, reflecting and acting, reasoning logically and intuitively, analyzing and visualizing, steadily and in fits and starts.

When mismatches exist between learning styles of most students in a class and the teaching style of the professor, the students may become bored and inattentive in class, do poorly on tests, get discouraged about the courses, the curriculum, and themselves, and in some cases change to other curricula or drop out of school.

The Index of Learning Styles is an on-line instrument used to assess preferences on four dimensions (active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, visual/verbal, and sequential/global) of a learning style model formulated by Richard M. Felder and Linda K. Silverman. The instrument was developed by Richard M. Felder and Barbara A. Soloman of North Carolina State University.

ILS Users should be aware of two important points:

1. The ILS results provide an indication of an individual's learning preferences and an even better indication of the preference profile of a group of students (e.g. a class), but they should not be over-interpreted. If someone does not agree with the ILS assessment of his or her preferences, trust that individual's judgment over the instrument results.
   
2. A student's learning style profile provides an indication of possible strengths and possible tendencies or habits that might lead to difficulty in academic settings. The profile does not reflect a student's suitability or unsuitability for a particular subject, discipline, or profession. Labeling students in this way is at best misleading, and can be destructive if the student uses the label as justification for a major shift in curriculum or career goals. A learning style preference also does not serve as an excuse for a bad grade on the student's last physics test.