Methodological Practices in Cognitive Style Research: a 25-year Review

Applying styles research to educational practice

“…Similarly, Cools, Armstrong, and Sadler-Smith (2010) in their recent methodological review of the state of the styles field (see also Cools & Rayner, 2011), encourage researchers to work on three key aspects of methodology: triangulation (i.e., cross-verification and crossexamination), collaboration, and contextualisation to build further on current studies and facilitate replication of styles work across different contexts using robust instrumentation. More specifically, they encourage style researchers to: (1) strive towards more diverse research designs and implement more diverse ways of data collection (triangulation); (2) increase scholar-practitioner cooperation and the number of international collaborative studies (collaboration); and (3) embody the context as well as a time dimension in style research by conducting more multi-sample and longitudinal studies (contextualisation).…”

Changes in BSc Business Administration and Psychology students’ learning styles over one, two and three years of study

“…makes it hard for practitioners (i.e. planners and teachers) to accumulate results and put them into practical use (Cools, Armstrong, Sadler-Smith, 2010;Evans & Sadler-Smith, 2006;Nielsen, 2008Nielsen, , 2009). Accordingly, Nielsen (2009) suggested that future research should be conducted as to give comparable results that could be accumulated within specific theoretical frameworks as to provide practitioners with the knowledge necessary for taken students' styles into account in the planning and execution of higher education teaching.…”

Human resource development of non-commissioned officers in the army; a cognitive style perspective?

“…Style is identified as a focal point in extending understanding of how thinking around decision-making, learning and personal performance, the knowledge of which may enhance the investment made in training and development by individuals and their employing organization. The issue of person-environment fit is also considered in respect to how style might help further enhance personal performance in the workplace setting (Armstrong and Cools 2009;Cools, Armstrong and Sadler-Smith 2010). The potential for the 'style' construct in an HRD context therefore arises from recognition that individual differences in cognition may have considerable impact on the motivation, performance and assessment of a course participant's behaviour, both implicitly and explicitly, and result in outcomes related to progress and achievement.…”