Who prefers what? Disciplinary differences in students' preferred approaches to teaching and learning styles

This study develops a tool for identifying students' preferred teaching app roaches, with high internal consistency for the scales involved. We examine d these preferences in relation to students' approaches to learning and to two academic disciplines with contrasting academic environments. The sample consisted of 175 engineering and education undergraduates at a major unive rsity in Israel. Responses to our questionnaire revealed students' preferen ces for four approaches that correspond to the four main instructional appr oaches that had been identified in research based on teachers' sources, Stu dents' most favored teaching approach is the lecturer who is organized, cle ar, and interesting, and the second, with a large gap from the first, is th e instructor who provides for students' needs in learning. The two approach es least favored are information-transmission and promotion of self-regulat ion. Students with different approaches to learning preferred teaching appr oaches that best served their learning approaches. There were few disciplin e-related differences in students' preferences, in spite of the very differ ent learning environments, However, all participants preferred teaching app roaches that they perceived as beneficial for learning but that they had no t often experienced, if at all.