Cognitive and Cultural Styles

The unique ways in which students learn and teachers teach, or learning and teaching styles, are closely related to cultural values and personality types. Matching preferred styles can prevent school failure, enhance success, and motivate students to stay in school and develop talents to their fullest. Matching students' preferred styles can also make the teaching experience more satisfying for educators and can increase the effectiveness of educational programs. However, as American society becomes more complex and diverse, schools and teachers are finding it more difficult to identify and match the preferred cultural and cognitive styles of students.

Cultural styles reflect virtues and philosophies of life that are emphasized by families, communities, and cultures. As one component of learning styles, they serve as guideposts or markers that children use as they move through life in search of the careers and the life goals they find meaningful and fulfilling.

A second major component of students' unique learning styles and teachers' instructional styles is cognitive styles. These are styles of personality that determine how students like to learn, the ways in which they prefer to relate, the types of rewards that make success in school meaningful, the preferred manner of communication, and leadership style. Cognitive styles are related to cultural styles through the process of socialization and instruction by parents, other authority figures, and cultural experiences in the home and community.

By the time children attend school, they have developed specific cultural and cognitive styles that are related to how they like to learn and how they process and retain information. These cultural and cognitive styles may or may not be compatible with their instructors' teaching styles and the cognitive and cultural styles emphasized by the schools they attend. Some cultures and families emphasize emotional IQ, or the importance of understanding people and relationships, and emphasize being a helpful and spiritual person who is a contributing member of a family and society. Instruction by adults is largely done by modeling and demonstration while simultaneously discouraging deviation from set practices and procedures. Other families and cultures tend to emphasize the value of traditional educational skills such as reading and math, and the importance of the individual is emphasized over that of the group. Instruction in these families is largely transmitted through trial-and-error learning where the child is encouraged to learn and to work independently of adults.

This entry focuses on how teachers, schools, colleges, and universities can become more sensitive to the preferred cultural and cognitive styles of students regardless of familial and cultural background. It is argued that the ultimate goal of education should be to identify the uniqueness of learners, and to individualize instruction in order to match the individuality of expression in learning environments. Specifically, the goal should be to match preferred student styles and worldviews in order to ensure enthusiasm for learning and success, thereby enhancing the adaptability and flexibility necessary to live happily and meaningfully in a diverse society and a global world.