AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENT PERFORMANCE BASED UPON THE DEGREE OF MATCH BETWEEN THE EDUCATIONAL COGNITIVE STYLE OF THE TEACHER AND THE EDUCATIONAL COGNITIVE STYLE OF THE STUDENTS

Statement of the Problem. The purpose of the study was to determine if the degree of match between the Educational Cognitive Style of the teacher and the Educational Cognitive Style of the students in their classes resulted in any difference in achievement as measured by grades the students received. The assessment of the teachers\u27 and the students\u27 learning style was accomplished by administering the Test for Cognitive Style Mapping developed by Dr. Joseph Hill. Achievement was determined by the grade each student was assigned for that quarter at the end of a nine week period. Procedures. Data were collected from all the teachers, and all sophomore and junior students at the Kearney High School. The Cognitive Style Profile of the teacher was compared to the Cognitive Style Profile of each student that teacher had in a class. This resulted in 1,689 teacher-student paired comparisons. The students were placed in four groups based on the per cent of match of elements on their profile with that of their teachers. Group I represented 75 per cent or more majors in the same elements as their teacher, Group II had 50 to 75 per cent, Group III matched 25 to 50 per cent and Group IV had less than 25 per cent of the same elements identified as majors in their Cognitive Style Profile. Mean Grade Point Averages were then computed for each of the four groups and subjected to an Analysis of Variance to test the null hypotheses of no significant difference between the groups. The hypotheses were tested at the .05 and at the .01 alpha levels for statistical significance. Findings. The overall results of the findings showed that the greater the degree of match between the teacher\u27s Cognitive Style and the students\u27 Cognitive Styles the higher the Grade Point Average for that group of students. Using the sets of Symbolic Orientations, Cultural Determinants and Modalities of Inference as the basis for matching, the students in Group I had the highest overall Grade Point Average. As the degree of match became less in Groups II, III and IV Grade Point Average also declined. The set of Symbolic Orientations as the basis for determining the match between the teacher and the students resulted in the greater the degree of match the higher the Grade Point Average being significant at the .01 alpha level. The teachers\u27 scores in the sets of Cultural Determinants and Modalities of Inference were such that no mismatches would occur between them and their students, therefore it could not be determined whether a mismatch in these sets would show any significant difference in Grade Point Average. Further Analysis of Variance between those students whose majors were F, A or I in the set of Cultural Determinants and those students whose majors were M, D, R or L in the set of Modalities of Inference resulted in no significant difference in Grade Point Averages. Conclusion. The results of this study showed that as the Cognitive Style of the student more nearly mathces the Cognitive Style of the teacher the student receives higher grades. The Analysis of Variance resulted in a significant difference at the .01 alpha level of significance between Group I, Group II, Group III and Group IV. Further analysis showed significance at well above the alpha level of significance between Group I (matched) and Group IV (unmatched). In applying the Analysis of Variance between any two adjacent groups it showed that there was a significant difference at the .05 alpha level of significance as the group\u27s Cognitive Style more nearly matched the teacher\u27s Cognitive Style. The students in each group receive higher grades, progressively, as the match between their Cognitive Style and the teacher\u27s Cognitive Style is greater