Cognitive styles, task presentation mode and mathematical performance

Abstract

This paper reports the outcomes of an empirical study undertaken to investigate the relationship of prospective teachers' cognitive styles and levels of performance in measurement and spatial tasks. A total of 116 prospective kindergarten school teachers were tested using the VICS and the extended CSA-WA tests (Peterson 2005) in order to place them along the Verbal/Imagery and the Wholistic/Analytic cognitive style continua. The same prospective teachers were also administered a mathematical test with 6 measurement and 6 spatial tasks. The results suggest that there were no significant differences between Verbalisers-Imagers and Wholistic-Analytic prospective teachers in their performance on the spatial pictorial and textual tasks, and on the measurement textual tasks. However, there were differences between Verbalisers-Imagers and Wholistic-Analytic prospective teachers in their performance on the measurement pictorial tasks. This difference was attributed to the performance of low achievers. High achievers performed in the same way independently of their cognitive styles. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]; Copyright of Research in Mathematics Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)