Cognitive style, gender and conduct behaviour in secondary school pupils
The tutor group/form teachers of a total of 341 pupils from two schools, A (Year 10, age 14-15 years) and B (Year 11, age 15-16 years), were asked to rate the classroom conduct behaviour of their pupils on a five-point scale from very poor to very good. The cognitive styles of the pupils were assessed by means of the Cognitive Styles Analysis, which indicated their positions on each of two style dimensions, Wholist-Analytic and Verbal-Imagery. There was a significant interaction between gender and the Wholist-Analytic style in their effect on behaviour, with the females behaving better than the males, and the male Wholists being the worst behaved. The findings are discussed in terms of the practical implications for schooling.
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