This study was conducted to determine if the dissimilarity of cognitive style between the instructor and the student was related to student engagement in nine undergraduate classes. Kirton's Adaption-Innovation Inventory was used to measure cognitive style as a preference to a method of solving problems: either more adaptively or more innovatively. Dissimilarity of cognitive style was calculated by subtracting the cognitive style score of the course instructor from each student. Findings indicated that dissimilarity of cognitive style between course instructor and student had little or no relationship with student engagement in these nine classes. However, it may be that these students were exhibiting enough coping behavior to overcome the cognitive-style gap because they were motivated to learn. More research is needed to fully understand the relationships between these variables, including instructional methods, which may inhibit or facilitate student engagement with regard to Adaption-Innovation theory.