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Abstract:
The authors conducted an empirical study comparing the learning styles of law students with young adults at other educational institutions. The law school sample population came from St. John's University School of Law in New York and Stetson University College of Law in Florida. The law school data were compared with the learning styles of a random sample of college and graduate students, provided by Performance Concepts International. All subjects assessed their learning styles by using Building Excellence ("BE"). BE is an on-line assessment tool.

The BE profiles used in this study resembled the class learning-style profiles taken at the respective law schools in prior years. Thus the consistent BE profiles of law school students confirmed that the law school data set was reliable.

The Dunn and Dunn Model was used because it of its comprehensive design. The Model currently includes 26 learning-style elements. Data for this study included results of these elements.

In this study, the results showed that the learning styles of law students differed significantly from college and graduate students for 14 different elements of the 26 elements studies. To have significant findings for 14 categories, and to have each with this level of significance, is unusual. Some of the learning-style preferences of law students comport with our commonly held understanding, such as having a stronger preference for Verbal Kinesthetic tendencies (they learn by speaking while simultaneously listening). However, the general student population was more tactual, as opposed to the law population, despite the proliferation of laptops in the law school classroom.

The findings confirm observations that professors may have about law students, but some findings are surprising.

Abstract:
This essay responds to the provocative remarks by Lawrence H. Summers made at a conference on Diversifying the Science and Engineering Workforce. Summers postulated that a reason for a disparity in women's representation in tenured positions in science and engineering was the different availability of aptitude at the high end. He also commented that there were studies indicating that males perform better on achievement tests than females.

In this essay, Boyle and Honigsfeld share the results of an international study by Doctors Honigsfeld and Rita Dunn. Drs. Honigsfeld and Dunn found that there were differences between high school males and females, throughout the world, in terms of their learning styles. This gender study indicated that female students process academic information differently from their male counterparts. (The researchers also found that, whereas there were differences between the learning styles of boys and girls in five countries, individuals within each group had unique learning styles as well.)

With respect to the differences that Summers refers to, Boyle & Honigsfeld conclude that it may be neither aptitude nor IQ that is at issue here, but the difference between how the subjects of science and engineering are taught and how these subjects are learned by females and males.