Why Schools Should Care About Intellectual Styles

Abstract

Traditionally, many educators and psychologists believed that successes and failures within the school context are attributable mainly to individual differences in such classic variables as ability, personality, and learning motivation. This article presents research evidence demonstrating that intellectual styles, that is, people’s preferred ways of processing information and dealing with tasks, also play critical roles in students’ learning and development and in teachers’ practices. It further demonstrates that some styles are more valued than are others and that styles are malleable.

The article is divided into four parts. The first part briefly introduces the background of the research to be presented. The second reviews the key literature, supporting the position that intellectual styles are value laden, with creativity-generating styles (also known as Type I styles) being more adaptive than are norm-favoring styles (also known as Type II styles). The third part highlights some research findings indicating that styles can be modified. The final and fourth part of the article discusses the implications of the research evidence for various parties of educational institutions at all levels—generally referred to as “schools” in this article.