A contribution to validation of score meaning for Felder-Soloman's Index of Learning Styles

Abstract

In 1988, Richard Felder and Linda Silverman devebped a learning model that focuses specifically on aspects of learning styles of engineering students. Three years later, a corresponding psychometric assessment instrument, the Felder-Soloman's Index of Learning Styles, was developed. This paper offers a contribution to an ongoing validation work on the ILS instrument, based on the author's three-year study of the relationship between student learning styles and their academic achievement in hypermedia-assisted learning environment. The paper provides an analysis of psychometric properties of the ILS, based on the scores for 557 valid questionnaires collected in the study. This includes test-retest reliability, factor structure, internal reliability, total item correlation and inter-scale correlation. Construct validity is also discussed. In summary, the author supports conclusions found in the literature pointing to the ILS as a suitable psychometric tool for evaluating learning styles of engineering students. The author also concurs in recommendations for further work on validating the meaning of its scores and on improving the specific items to reduce inter-scale correlation.