Thinking styles in student learning and development

For the past seven decades, scholars have been investigating the roles of intellectual styles in human learning and development (Morgan, 1997). Intellectual styles, a general term for different constructs with or without the root word “style”, such as cognitive style, learning style, conceptual tempo, and thinking style, refer to people’s preferred ways of processing information (Zhang and Sternberg, 2006). Although various intellectual styles are conceptually different (Sternberg and Zhang, 2001b), they are similar in a fundamental way: all of them are different from abilities. An ability refers to what one can do, whereas a style refers to how one prefers to use the abilities that one has. Major theorization and research on styles has been summarized in several recent publications (e.g. Jonassen and Grabowski, 1993; Riding and Cheema, 1991; Sternberg and Zhang, 2001a; Zhang and Sternberg, 2006, 2009a). This chapter examines the role of thinking styles as defined in Sternberg’s theory of mental self-government

in student learning and development. It is divided into four parts. First, the theory and the research tools used to operationalize the theory are introduced. Second, research evidence supporting the importance of thinking styles in learning is presented. The third part introduces research evidence demonstrating the value of thinking styles in student development. Finally, some conclusions are drawn and implications of findings on the role of thinking styles in student learning and development for education are discussed.