In recent years, researchers have questioned the legitimacy of the so-called myth of learning styles and expressed confusion about exactly when and why the idea first emerged. This historical study traces the origin and emergence of the learning style idea. The author argues that the learning style idea originated in the 1960s as part of a broader…

Research evidence suggests that there are natural variations in children's learning, many of which can be categorized by age and sex. Educators must become knowledgeable about brain growth and its curricular implications. (SK)

Reviews concepts and studies about social class, educational achievement, and learning styles. Attempts to survey literature pertaining to socioeconomic status and educational achievement and to present the main arguments. (Author/MW)

A review is presented of major theories on the characteristics of adult cognition. The roles of social and cultural backgrounds, education, mental ability, and experience as they pertain to cognition are discussed. (JD)

Addresses the difficulties in assessing the receptive capacity and learning style of a child and matching it to the instructional aspects of schooling. Describes a teacher sensitization course that has been developed to make such matching possible. (WD)

This study examined the effects of field dependence/independence and the level of operational development on the mathematics achievement of 450 students in grades 6-8. Field-independent students scored significantly higher on total mathematics, concepts, and problem-solving tests. High-operational students scored significantly higher on all tests.…

Proposes guidelines for the development of a curriculum of visual thinking for early childhood education. Outlines suggestions derived from Piaget's theory and research as they apply to developing children's mental imagery skills in the school setting. Relates Piaget's findings to those of learning theory and "split brain" research. (MCF)

Challenges the assumptions behind discipline-based art education. Defends studio art as educationally sound relative to learning theory and characterizes it as the best defense against the exclusion of art from the curriculum. Recommends studio art as a means for balancing curriculum already skewed toward analytically abstract teaching…

The model described is designed to provide the educational diagnostician with data relative to an individual's content deficiencies in mathematics, mathematics cognitive style, and educational cognitive style. A diagnosis of these three factors requires consideration of cognitive, affective, and psychomotor concerns. The diagnostic mapping of an…

Presented is a discussion of the nature of individual differences in the learning of mathematics, which leads to a review of field-dependent and field-independent cognitive styles. Field-dependence-independence is noted as an important variable in school learning and a study is cited that investigated the relationship between pupil success at…

This discussion asserts that there is no significant difference between traditional instruction and remedial/developmental instruction in improving the academic achievement of skill-deficient students. Because the cognitive style of each learner reflects how learning tasks are approached and completed, matching strategies are needed that deal with…

The need to consider the interaction of characteristics that affect students' learning is stressed. Levels of cognitive development as proposed by Piaget are presented first, with how they relate to teaching mathematics discussed. Then two cognitive styles, relating to the way an individual most efficiently processes information, are considered:…

The papers in this monograph were presented at the first annual conference on theories and research related to learning styles, hemisphericity, and other cognitive-related issues in education. They include: (1) "The Microcomputer and Learning Theory" (Carl Edeburn); (2) "Poems Take Two Brains (or: Poetry Ain't for Halfwits)" (Jack Kreitzer); (3)…

This teacher guidebook is intended to be a comprehensive resource for second language teachers wishing to use and teach language learning strategies to their students. It is intended to be used by both English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teachers and teachers of such foreign languages as German, French, and Spanish to American native speakers of…

A brief review of the history of cognitive style research and a summary of definitions and terminology used by investigators in the area are presented. Most of the research on cognitive style has been motivated by work from three major groups: Witkin and associates; Holzman, Gardner, and associates; and Kagan and associates. Various definitions of…