Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemThe influence of cognitive style on student performance and preferences in mathematical assessment( 2003)This study examined the influence of cognitive style on student performance and preferences in mathematics assessment. Two dimensions of cognitive style are: the wholistic-analytic style dimension and the verbal-imagery style dimension. This study investigated the comparative influence of these dimensions, students' _display of mathematics knowledge, specifically, a fractions test, in different assessment and their preferences toward mathematical assessment. A sample of 74 year seven students aged eleven to fourteen (n = 49 males and n = 25 females) with a mean age of twelve years and one month completed an assessment of their knowledge of fractions. Test items were presented verbally, symbolically and in pictorial formats. As well, students' preferences to aspects of mathematics learning and assessment were examined using a questionnaire. A Cognitive Styles Analysis (CSA) instrument was used to assess students' cognitive styles. These protocols were formed as the basis for the research. Cognitive style was found, to some extent, to influence student preferences in mathematical assessment more than student performance in mathematics. There was a significant partial correlation between a cognitive style and student preferences in mathematics assessment; analytic learners preferred the common test and wholistic learners preferred the project. Specifically, (i) analytic learners preferred the common test to the project, as a way of seeing themselves making progress and as a way of thinking about learning mathematics; and (ii) wholistic learners preferred the project to the common test, as a way of identifying the degree they feel pressured and as a way of thinking about learning mathematics. There was indefinite correlation between cognitive style and student performance in mathematics; analytic learners did not perform better than wholistic learners in the fractions test. Further, analytic learners did not perform better on pictorial tasks than on symbolic tasks. Similarly, wholistic learners did not perform better on symbolic tasks than on pictorial tasks. The implication of these findings for teaching is that cognitive style does not influence students' performance in mathematics. This study allowed the author to glimpse at the influence of cognitive style on students' preferred ways of being assessed, through the windows of ways of learning, mathematics knowledge and mathematics assessment.