The purpose of this study was to experiment with educational cognitive style as a vehicle for providing information to be used to personalize the instruction of ninth-grade biology students. Employed in the study was a conceptual framework called the "Educational Sciences" (as utilized at Oakland Community College in Michigan) which…

The import of cognitive style research for educational problems and research is discussed. Topics covered include a definition of "cognitive style," particularly "field dependence/independence," individual differences in personal characteristics associated with differences in perceptual mode (field independence) relevance of…

The purposes of this study were to investigate (1) the consistency among fifth-grade children in conceptual style across different conceptual style instruments and (2) the generalizability of conceptual style behavior to school related tasks when stability and instability of children's conceptual style were taken into consideration. Children…

In order to study the effects of cognitive style, task structure, and task setting on student achievement and attitudes, structured and unstructured tasks were presented to students in both group and individual settings. It was postulated that through small group and individual activities an individual may display his/her best cognitive style of…

The interrelationships of intelligence, field independence, analytic cognitive style, and spatial and perceptual abilities among boys were examined. The contribution of cognitive style to the prediction of English and mathematics achievement was investigated. Substantial overlap was confirmed between field independence and intelligence. An…

Scores on the Role Construct Repertory Test exhibited significant correlations with other forms of cognitive functioning, including American College Test scores in science and mathematics for a group of 79 college students. The Grid Form of the test was used. Test-retest reliability was low. (Author/CTM)

Industrialization, democracy, and competition, basic traits of American life, have contributed toward standardizing expectations of how children should perform. Standardized tests, and labeling some children as "slow," make it difficult for children with unusual learning styles to achieve. Teachers too often teach for the test score rather than…

This article presents an alternative mode of assessing minority children's strengths and weaknesses by utilizing a conceptual framework referred to as Cognitive Style, that is, the processes a child uses to learn. The process of "mapping" a student's learning style provides both a diagnostic tool and a basis for prescription writing.…

Individualizing any educational program poses the problems of investigating the effects of different environments on different persons and developing appropriate strategies for matching environment to individual learners to enable them to perform to the fullest of their abilities. (JD)

A description of four research strategies which are different from the commonly used between-groups design: the sub-group method, the regression or correlation method, the case study method and the ethnography method. Two studies carried out in Montreal using the regression method are discussed. (AMH)

Experienced teachers had 90 minutes to think aloud and plan the lesson before an experimental teaching session. Most planning decisions concerned lesson content rather than objective-setting, student diagnosis, or instructional strategy. Planning differences were related to teachers' cognitive styles and abilities. Relationships between planning,…

Preliminary data were gathered at the University of Iowa about learning styles and instructional preferences of two groups of family practice physicians: those who attended and those who did not attend a multidisciplinary university-sponsored refresher course. Implications for continuing medical education are discussed. (LBH)

In this study, the self-reported strategies of fifth, seventh, and ninth grade subjects used to learn a list of paired associates were correlated with actual learning performance to test the hypothesis that proficient learners are elaborators. (Author/SB)

Recent doctoral dissertation research about the gifted population is summarized. Topics include: "appropriate" education; social and psychological perceptions; depression and underachievement in gifted high school males; problem solving skills; behavior differences between academically gifted achievers and academically gifted nonachievers; and…

A literature search identified 39 studies assessing modality preferences and modality teaching. The studies, involving 3,087 disabled and nondisabled elementary/secondary level subjects, were quantitatively synthesized. Subjects receiving differential instruction based on modality preferences exhibited only modest gains. (Author/JDD)