Title: The Relationship of Cognitive Style to Teaching Style.
Abstract: Although differences between field-dependent and field-independent subjects have consistently been described in research on personality variables, insufficient research has been done in classrooms to describe differences in teacher behavior as related to the field-dependence-independence construct. Using ethnographic techniques; this exploratory study considered a wide range of variables in classroom interaction patterns in order to determine if any differences in the behavior of field-dependent and field-independent teachers would emerge. The results of this study suggest several contrasts in the ways field-dependent and field=independent teachers tend to operate in their classrooms. These results are not intended to prove the existence of such differences, but to suggest useful areas for subsequent empirical research. THE RELATIONSHIP OF COGNITIVE STYLE TO TEACHING STYLE The work of the late Dr. Herman Witkin, Dr. Donald Goodenough, and many others has established a cognitive style continuum ranging from what is called field-dependence to field-independence. One's ability to perceive simple geometric figures embedded in more complex geometric figures has correlated with several personality variables in the research that has been done, but there have been insufficient investigations of the influence (if any) of cognitive style to teaching style. What research has been done often has resulted in the researchers finding no significant difference between the variables investigated or in results which seem to contradict previous findings. A problem for any research effort is selecting appropriate variables to study. Given the problems of some of the previous research in this area, it seemed to this researcher that exploratory research would be useful to clarify what variables would be the most productive to investigate in future classroom research concerning the relationship of cognitive style to teaching style. Ethnographic research in education is a relatively new phenomenon, and the techniques and findings are often misinterpreted or misunderstood. The primary technique that is used in ethnographic research is participant-observation. The participant=observer, as the name implies, is not just an observer, but plays some meaningful role in the research setting so that the observation of the people in that setting is as unobtrusive as possible. Along with participant-observation, i other ethnographic approaches to research include interviews, sociograms, personal logs kept by research subjects, questionnaires, and mapping a school or neighborhood.
Publication Year: 1980
Publication Date: 1980-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 4
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