The relationship between pre-service science teachers’ cognitive styles and their cognitive structures about technology

Abstract

Background:Today, for most of us, technology is a vital and inevitable part of our lives. Due to its widespread use, a great emphasis is being given to educating generations about technology. And, every individual has his/her own style of organizing and collecting information.Purpose:The purpose of the present study is to identify the relationship between pre-service science teachers’ cognitive styles and their cognitive structures about technology.Sample:The study was conducted with the participation of first and third grade pre-service science teachers majoring in Science Education in the Faculty of Education at Abant İzzet Baysal University in the spring semester of 2012–2013.Design and methods:The study was designed as a case study and a qualitative research method was used. Students were administered two instruments: Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) and a Word Association Test (WAT).Results:Results clearly suggested that the first grade participants with a field-dependent cognitive style were better at associating concepts when compared to those with a field-independent cognitive style. And, participants with a field-dependent style, could form more connections between the technology-related concepts. A comparison of the findings on the field-dependent participants by their grade demonstrated that the first and third grade participants with a field-dependent cognitive style got similar scores in terms of the total number of words generated for each key concept.Conclusions:Considering that education is for individuals, it is impossible to ignore individual differences during the process. The most interesting finding of the present study is that field-dependent individuals have a higher cognitive structure, unlike that which has been asserted so far in the literature.