School Learning and Cognitive Styles

Richard Riding

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136761256
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

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.

Chapter 1

Starting Where you are

Chapter Overview

Teachers will notice several behaviours related to learning. This chapter will consider the factors affecting school learning and behaviour. Some of these can be readily influenced by the school or the teacher, while other factors impact on learning but are largely beyond the control of the teacher.

Observable Classroom Behaviours

The teacher will observe a range of behaviours in pupils including:

• attainment;
• learning behaviour;
• conduct behaviour;
• emotional behaviour.

The Factors Affecting School Performance

Four general areas will influence pupil performance:

• home background – parental care and recognition, parental control and educational background of the parents;
• peer influences – peer support, peer conformity and peer values;
• school – teacher care and recognition, teacher control and quality of teaching;
• individual characteristics – gender, working memory capacity, cognitive style, stability, prior knowledge and learning strategies.

What the Teacher can Affect

While home and peer influences are largely outside the control of the teacher, three key areas can greatly affect performance.

• By taking account of the individual characteristics of the pupils the teacher can adopt teaching strategies to facilitate learning.
• The effective management of behaviour will improve learning.
• Pupils can also be encouraged to develop strategies to maximise the effectiveness of their characteristics.

What the Teacher Sees – Observable Classroom Behaviours

This consideration will begin with what is generally observable to the teacher in the school. Teachers will notice that some pupils appear more confident than others, that some behave in a cooperative way while others are disruptive, that some attend to the learning task while others are lacking in motivation or are poorly organised, and that some do well in assessments while others do not.

School attainment can be seen as part of a cycle in which four elements affect one another. The four elements are emotional behaviour, conduct behaviour, learning behaviour and attainment. Pupils’ success at learning, as shown by their attainment, will influence their emotional behaviour and their motivation and conduct behaviour. The way pupils feel and behave, in turn, will determine the extent to which they attend to their work and hence influence their learning behaviour. The learning behaviour will then be related to their attainment. The elements of the cycle are shown in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.1 The School behavioural cycle

Emotional Behaviour

How a person feels about themselves will affect their performance. The level of emotional behaviour is likely to manifest itself positively in terms of such characteristics as a degree of self-assurance, a quiet self-confidence, an ease in associating with other pupils and adults, not appearing overly anxious or nervous, and not being unduly quiet or withdrawn.

The degree of emotional behaviour will reflect, on the one hand, the internal sources such as anxiety level and past experience, and on the other, the level of external stress which may come from the home, the school and the peers.

For rating by teachers, a general indication of self-perception of pupils may be obtained using the emotional behaviour items on the Emotional and Behavioural Development Scale (QCA 2000). However, an obvious problem with external assessment is that the observer cannot know exactly how a person feels.

Conduct Behaviour

Teachers are likely to view conduct disorder as outward manifestations of misbehaviour such as verbal interruption, distracting other pupils, inappropriate moving about, and physical aggression to other pupils or the teacher. In the UK, the Elton Report (DES and Welsh Office 1989) suggested that teachers generally identify misbehaviour in these terms. Conduct disorder will usually result in reduced learning performance not only of the pupil who is misbehaving, but also of other pupils in the group who were distracted, since if pupils are not attending they will not be learning. By contrast, passive misbehaviour, such as inattention, ‘daydreaming’ and not completing work, is less likely to be seen as conduct disorder because it is not disruptive, but rather as ‘learning disorder’. Girls generally display misbehaviour more passively in a manner that does not cause disruption; see, for instance, Schwartzman, Varlaan, Peters and Serbin (1995: 362–5). Passive misbehaviour, such as inattention and not completing work, was not likely to be counted since it was not disruptive. Conduct behaviour may be assessed by teachers using the conduct behaviour items on the Emotional and Behavioural Development Scale (QCA 2000).

Learning Behaviour

Learning behaviour will include the extent to which an individual is attentive, has interest in learning, is well organised, shows perseverance, communicates effectively, works with others and seeks help as necessary. Learning behaviour may also be assessed using the learning behaviour items on the Emotional and Behavioural Development Scale (QCA 2000)

Attainment

Attainment will follow from the learning behaviour and will be the degree of learning that is usually manifested in terms of tests and examinations, but also in class exchanges and group work.

The Factors Affecting School Performance

There are some things that are under the control of a class teacher and others that are not. It is useful to consider the overall picture and to recognise what teachers can change and what is largely beyond their control.

It may be noted that in the past there has been the tendency for researchers and practitioners to take a fairly narrow view and for their work to focus on one aspect to the exclusion of others. What is needed is to adopt an integrating approach, and to see the relative effects of the variables both singly and together.

The Operation of the Cycle

The behavioural cycle does not operate in isolation, nor in a completely sequential manner in terms of causation. Several more fundamental characteristics and experiences will also affect emotional, conduct and learning behaviour. Reviews of the possible contributory factors to problem behaviour have suggested a range of variables, including individual characteristics (e.g. impulsivity, intelligence), home background (family, socio-economic level) and peer influences (see, for instance, Charlton and George 1993), as summarised in Figure 1.2, which groups variables under the headings of the home background, the quality of schooling and the attitudes and values of the peers, and individual characteristics.

Figure 1.2 Factors affecting school performance

The variables that contribute to performance on the behavioural cycle will be examined in more detail. The characteristics will be considered from top to bottom and from left to right of Figure 1.2, and for each their individual effect on the observable behaviours will be noted. However, home, school, peers and the individual will all interact with one another in affecting the behavioural cycle.

Home Background

Pupils will be influenced by their home background. There are three aspects of the home that are likely to impact on the child, and these are shown in Figure 1.3.

Figure 1.3 Features of the home background

The features of an ideal home would include (1) a loving care and concern by the parents for the child and recognition for its achievement, (2) sensibly and lovingly applied control and discipline, and (3) the parents being of sufficient educational level and ability and having the willingness to provide an interesting and stimulating environment and to provide learning resources in the home/family.

The opposite characteristics to the ideal would be parental neglect giving a feeling in the child of rejection, lack of control or repressive control, and educational impoverishment.

Home Background and Emotional Behaviour

It may be assumed that love and recognition by the parents for the child are essential for the child’s well-being. At the most basic level such care will result in the child’s being adequately fed and clothed. Just as important for the child’s happiness is the higher level of the love and recognition that is necessary to produce a feeling of security and self-worth in the child which will lead to self-assurance.

There is evidence that lack of love and recognition in childhood result in a feeling of insecurity, low self-worth and potentially of a difficulty in interpersonal relationships (e.g. Bowlby 1988). Research on the importance of attachment (e.g. Collins and Read 1990; Levy and Davis 1988; Pistole 1989) emphasises the importance of secure attachment for the development of the capacity for intimacy and relationship satisfaction that predisposes the ability to make and keep friends. Avoidant attachment is associated with lower levels of intimacy and emotional intensity, as well as lower levels of commitment and satisfaction. Loeber and Stouthamer-Loeber (1986), in considering the results of British, American and Scandinavian studies on family factors and behaviour, concluded that the primary influence was neglect of their children by parents, and the consequent lack of an active interest in them and a relationship with them. In a review, Mruk (1999: 72–4) found evidence that self-esteem is related to parental involvement, warmth, expectation, respect for the child and consistency of parenting.

Home Background and Conduct Behaviour

It may be argued that consistent and reasonable control is important since it is necessary if the child is to internalise values and moral boundaries for behaviour. Without these the child will lack self-control and a view of acceptable behaviour. Control and discipline will need to be lovingly and sensibly applied by the parents. This is in contrast to harsh unfeeling discipline on the one hand, and a lack of control allied with spoiling on the other. The consequence of the levels of love and control are shown in Figure 1.4. Although only the extremes are shown, each will be a continuum.

Figure 1.4 Parental love and control effects

Winkley (1996: 92), for instance, has argued that the main underlying cause of conduct disorder in the majority of instances is the lack of a stable and secure family relationship. A child’s behaviour is likely to be greatly influenced by the quality of love and the stability of the home environment, and the control received Charlton and George (1993: 32–6).

There is probably the need for a clear, consistent system of rules and control to be applied to children as they develop which is based on a loving r...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction and overview
• 1. Starting where you are
• 2. Working memory and processing capacity
• 3. Cognitive style
• 4. Cognitive style and learning
• 5. Style and pupil behaviour
• 6. Long–term memory
• 7. Learning design and behaviour management
• 8. Developing pupil learning strategies
• Resources
• References
• Author index
• Subject index