Cognitive Styles of Prospective Teachers in Thiruvallur District

Cognitive style refers to an individual’s consistent way of perceiving, organizing, and processing information. For prospective teachers, cognitive styles play a crucial role in shaping learning approaches, teaching strategies, classroom management, and problem-solving abilities. This study aims to explore the cognitive styles of prospective teachers enrolled in teacher education programs, with a focus on identifying dominant orientations such as field-dependent vs. field-independent and analytic vs. holistic. A research study was conducted to know the Cognitive Styles of Prospective Teachers for total population. Descriptive Survey Method was adopted and a sample of 300 teachers drawn from Prospective Teachers was selected following the random sampling technique. Cognitive Style Inventory (CSI) was used. The findings revealed that prospective teachers exhibit a wide range of cognitive styles, with significant proportions showing field-independent/analytic orientations conducive to self-directed learning and problem-solving, while others demonstrated field-dependent/holistic orientations supportive of collaborative and contextual learning. The investigator used appropriate statistical techniques like ’t’ test and F test (ANOVA).