First Published in 1998. This book deals with what may well turn out to be the missing element in the study of individual differences - cognitive style. Its intention is to distinguish between, and integrate, the research attempts, particularly over the past half century, to make sense of style differences. In several respects this book is unique in that it contains material that is not covered in any other and draws together the various aspects of psychology relevant to the study of individual differences. It is in this sense both a textbook and a source of reference for many professionals working in a range of contexts. The content of the book has relevance for a wide audience.

The first volume in the series considers cognitive style, which may well prove to be the missing link in the study of individual differences. The purpose of the book is to reflect academic debate focusing on key models of style.

This book provides an accessible approach to teaching strategies that will improve the quality of student learning and behavior. The author advocates that the key to effective learning, and therefore the key to a successful school, is not complex management systems but good quality teaching. With this aim clearly in sight he incorporates recent psychological developments on individual learning differences with practical classroom applications. He presents new approaches in three key areas: processing capacity, cognitive style and understanding the structure of knowledge. These are central to the understanding of pupil differences. They affect our perception of how pupils can be helped to learn, why pupils find some aspects of their schoolwork difficult, and why pupils behave as they do. With simple explanations and practical activities this book will help both primary and secondary teachers to improve pupils learning and help them to manage behavior more effectively. The new insights into difficult behavior will also be of interest to counselors and educational psychologists.

A style is any pattern we see in a person's way of accomplishing a particular type of task. The "task" of interest in the present context is education-learning and remembering in school and transferring what is learned to the world outside of school. Teachers are expressing some sort of awareness of style when they observe a particular action taken by a particular student and then say something like: "This doesn't surprise me! That's just the way he is. " Observation of a single action cannot reveal a style. One's impres sion of a person's style is abstracted from multiple experiences of the person under similar circumstances. In education, if we understand the styles of individual students, we can often anticipate their perceptions and subsequent behaviors, anticipate their misunderstandings, take ad vantage of their strengths, and avoid (or correct) their weaknesses. These are some of the goals of the present text. In the first chapter, I present an overview of the terminology and research methods used by various authors of the text. Although they differ a bit with regard to meanings ascribed to certain terms or with regard to conclusions drawn from certain types of data, there is none theless considerable agreement, especially when one realizes that they represent three different continents and five different nationalities.

Publisher Description

First Published in 1998. This book deals with what may well turn out to be the missing element in the study of individual differences - cognitive style. Its intention is to distinguish between, and integrate, the research attempts, particularly over the past half century, to make sense of style differences. In several respects this book is unique in that it contains material that is not covered in any other and draws together the various aspects of psychology relevant to the study of individual differences. It is in this sense both a textbook and a source of reference for many professionals working in a range of contexts. The content of the book has relevance for a wide audience.

The concept of learning style may include more than 70 different models with conflicting assumptions about learning and with different designs and starting points (Coffield et al., 2004). There are many different theories and models of learning styles with varying dimensions and variables (Evans & Graff, 2008). They focus on different aspects of cognitive processes, skills, sensory modalities, the process of learning, and thinking styles. Theories of learning styles assume that anyone can learn, albeit in different ways and on different levels. In this book, Chapter One sets out to explore research and outcomes into learning styles, which refer to the broadest range of preferred modes and environment for learning. Chapter Two identifies, describes, and examines the need for structure among teachers and students, as well as to understand students perceptions of this need. Chapter Three analyses the way students explain their academic results, by ordering six factors (effort, luck, knowledge bases or previous necessary knowledge, abilities, studying methods, and teacher) according to their degree of importance. Chapter Four combines knowledge from pedagogy and recommendation systems, and analyzes how combining four different learning style models (cognitive styles, epistemic styles, hemispheric styles, and perceiving styles) influences the choosing of preferred types of multimedia materials. Chapter Five investigates whether learning using clicker technology with learning styles encourages academic performance and increases pass rate in mathematics. Chapter Six reanalyzes previous research on learning styles in the Scandinavian context in relation to international research.