Cognitive style and developing scientific attitudes in the SCIS classroom

Cognitive style refers to an individual's way of perceiving and processing information. Field-dependence-independence is one dimension of cognitive style. Field-dependence and field-independence respectively refer to a global in contrast to an analytical way of perceiving. Global versus analytical cognitive styles have been studied with respect to their differential influence on attitude development in ESS by Walters and Sieben (1974). The present investigator sought to examine whether a relationship existed between field-dependence-independence and scientific attitudes of sixth-grade students in SCIS. Findings indicate that such a relationship is not statistically significant.