Cognitive Styles and Classroom Learning

(Hardback)

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Description

Cognitive style theory suggests that individuals utilize different patterns in acquiring knowledge. This book describes various styles of processing information that are employed by children as they receive new information in various settingsespecially in teaching/learning situations. Cognitive style is not an indication of one's level of intelligence, but a description of the unique strategies that learners employ in acquiring new information. This book describes individual differences that have been documented through scholarly investigations of cognitive styles, highlights philosophical and theoretical foundations of cognitive style concepts, and pinpoints implications for classroom practice. Researched concepts are interwoven with current issues such as affirmative action and public policy to promote ideas that assist with a better understanding of at-risk learners and troubled youth in general. Currently, the theory of multiple intelligences is receiving widespread acceptance. This book suggests that MI theory is merely a reframing of cognitive style theory. The book also details how some children diagnosed as hyperactive are improperly labeled.

Reviews

"Harry Morgan has done the entire teaching enterprise a service in bringing clarity to the findings of cognitive science regarding learning styles -- and he writes in a manner practitioners as well as researchers will find engaging. In presenting the argument, supported by research, that individuals have different patterns of processing information, Morgan deftly avoids two pitfalls common in the old field-dependent/field-independent distinction: he refuses to pre-judge which cognitive styles are best or to ascribe a one-way cause and effect."-Sheila Tobias author

Author Bio

HARRY MORGAN is Professor of Early Childhood Education at The State University of West Georgia in Carrollton. He is the author of Historical Perspectives on the Education of Black Children (Praeger, 1995).