Richard J. Riding

Cognitive Styles—an overview and integration

Abstract This review article considered the nature of styles and strategies and then surveyed work on cognitive styles. Different researchers have used a variety of labels for the styles they have investigated. Analysis of the way in which they assessed style, its effect on behaviour and performance, and studies of the relationship to other labels, suggested that the labels may be grouped into two principal cognitive styles. These were labelled the Wholist‐Analytic and Verbialiser‐Imager dimensions. A computer presented method of assessing the position of an individual on these dimensions was described.

Stress in Teaching: A Study of Occupational Stress and Its Determinants, Job Satisfaction and Career Commitment among Primary Schoolteachers.

Abstract A questionnaire survey of 710 Maltese primary schoolteachers revealed that the level of teacher stress, job satisfaction and career commitment was constituted differently in some of the teacher demographic subgroups. A principal components analysis of the stress ratings of 20 items covering various aspects of the teachers work environment yielded four factors described in terms of ‘pupil misbehaviour’, ‘time/ resource difficulties’, ‘professional recognition needs’ and ‘poor relationships’. Teacher sex and ability‐group taught interacted significantly with the stress factors. Results also showed that teachers who reported greater stress were less satisfied with their job and less committed to choose a teaching career were they to start life over again. Moreover, the association between the general measure of job stress and the stress due to each of the four stress factors was strongest for ‘pupil misbehaviour’ and ‘time/resource difficulties’. Of the four factors, ‘professional recognition needs...

On the Nature of Cognitive Style

Abstract This paper reviews the origins of the construct of cognitive style, its fundamental dimensions and their method of assessment. The evidence for the independence of the style dimensions from one another, from intelligence and from personality is presented. The relationship of style to observed behaviours, such as learning performance, learning preferences, subject preferences and social behaviour, is described. Physiological measures and their relationship to style are considered. The distinction between style, which is likely to be relatively fixed, and strategies which are capable of being learned and developed, is discussed. A ‘level’ model is then outlined with, at the primary level: experience, personality sources and gender. Styles operate at the next level of cognitive control. The outer output level comprises the learning strategies. Priorities for further research are outlined.

Towards a Categorisation of Cognitive Styles and Learning Styles.

Abstract This paper considers the construct, ‘style’, in the study of individual differences and learning. The origin and elaboration of learning style as a concept is discussed, tracing the influence of a cognition and a learning‐centred approach to the psychology of individual difference. The authors argue that a contemporary overview of style can contribute to a rationalisation of the theory and facilitate a greater application of learning style in educational practice. A case is made for the need to integrate more fully various models of style into a single construct of learning style.

Type of Instructional Material, Cognitive Style and Learning Performance

Summary The positions of 129 14 to 19‐year‐old students on two fundamental cognitive styles dimensions (Wholist‐Analytic and Verbal‐Imagery) were assessed. They then received, by random allocation, one of three versions of a computer‐presented instruction package on home hot water systems. The versions differed in terms of their structure (large versus small step), advance organiser (absent or present), verbal emphasis (high versus low), and diagram type (abstract versus pictorial). Version 1 had large step, no organiser, high verbal content, and abstract diagram. Version 2 had small step, no organiser, low verbal content, and pictorial diagram. Version 3 was identical to Version 2, except that an organiser in the form of an elaborated introduction was given in which all five topics were introduced and each section began with an overview and ended with a summary. There was a significant interaction between version and cognitive style in their effect on recall. The results were discussed in terms of their ...

Cognitive Style, Gender and Learning from Multi-Media Materials in 11-Year-Old Children.

Eighty 11-year-old pupils (40 males and 40 females) from an urban primary school were assessed for cognitive style by means of the Cognitive Styles Analysis which indicated their positions on each of the two style dimensions, the Wholist-Analytic and the Verbal-Imagery. They then studied parts of three CD-ROM multi-media packages on science topics and after each, completed a multiple choice recall test. An indication of their performance on traditionally taught science was taken to be the performance on science SATs at 11 years. A comparison between multi-media and traditional work indicated that, (a) in terms of overall science performance (traditional and multi-media), Wholist-Imagers and Analytic-Verbalisers were superior to Wholist-Verbalisers and Analytic-Imagers, and (b) Analytics did better on traditional work than multi-media, with the reverse for the Wholists. With the multi-media materials there were three modes of presentation—picture and sound (PS), picture and text (PT), and picture, text and sound (PTS). Female Wholist-Imagers and Analytic-Verbalisers were better with PS than PT, with the reverse for Wholist-Verbalisers and Analytic-Imagers, while the opposite applied for males. For all style and gender groups performance was best with PTS. The findings are discussed in terms of their practical implications and further research.

Cognitive Style and Learning Strategies: Some Implications for Training Design

In designing learning materials there is often the assumption that all trainees will learn in a similar manner. This approach ignorees the important issue of individual differences in cognitive style. Cognitive style may be defined as an individual’s consistent approach to organising and processing information during thinking. Style does not appear to be related to intelligence and reflects qualitative rather than quantitative differences between individuals in their thinking processes. Here the authors argue that conventional training design methodologies (whilst acknowledging learning style) appear to lack the theoretical and empirical bases to acknowledge the important role played by cognitive style in determining learning performance. The aim of the article is to consider the relationship between learning performance, learning strategies and cognitive style and to suggest ways in which human resource development practitioners may accommodate individual differences in style in order that the effectiveness of training and development interventions may be improved.

Occupational Stress and Satisfaction in Teaching.

Abstract Teacher stress, job satisfaction, absenteeism, career intention, career commitment and self‐image as teacher were investigated in a context which allowed many of the characteristics of an educational system to be incorporated in the design. A questionnaire survey of 545 teachers in Maltese secondary schools revealed that some of the demographic characteristics of the sample were related to self‐reported teacher stress, job satisfaction and career commitment. Results also showed that teachers who reported greater stress were less satisfied with teaching, reported greater frequency of absences and a greater number of total days absent, were more likely to leave teaching (career intention), and less likely to take up a teaching career again (career commitment).

The Relationship between Cognitive Style and Intelligence

The relationship between intelligence, as measured by the short form of the British Abilities Scales, and the Wholist‐Analytic and Verbal‐Imagery style dimensions, as assessed by the Cognitive Styles Analysis, was investigated with 119 12‐13‐year‐old middle school pupils (63 males and 56 females). Near zero correlations between intelligence and the styles were found. A Test of Embedded Shapes was also given and this correlated significantly with intelligence, but not with style. The effect of intelligence and style on performance on a range of school subjects was considered, and this showed significant main effects of intelligence and both of the styles. The results were discussed in terms of the nature of intelligence and cognitive styles.

Towards a model for the determinants of occupational stress among schoolteachers

The determinants of stress in teaching were investigated in a context which allowed many of the characteristics of an educational system to be incorporated in the design. Using a specially developed self-report instrument, 545 secondary schoolteachers in Malta reported the perceived levels of stressfulness of 35 items covering various aspects of the teacher’s work environment. One-third of the respondents rated being a teacher as either very stressful or extremely stressful. A principal components analysis of the data on the 35 sources of stress yielded a four-factor structure described in terms of ‘pupil misbehaviour’, ‘poor working conditions’, ‘poor staff relations’ and ‘time pressures’. Repeated measures ANOVA of the factor scores revealed a number of significant two-way and three-way interactions involving the demographic variables of sex, age, type of teaching post, type of school selectivity, type of single-sex school, size of school, and type of curriculum subject/s taught.