Matching Preschool Children's and Teachers' Cognitive Styles

Abstract

The study examined the significance of matching the cognitive styles of 3-, 4-, and 5-yr.-old preschool children and their teachers. 150 female teachers and their children were administered several instruments to measure cognitive style, intelligence, and the teachers' assessment of their classroom children. They included the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Articulation of the Body-concept Scale, and Teachers' Ranking Form. Analysis indicated that teachers assessed their matched and mismatched children's relative standing on a standardized test differently by age. For 3-yr.-olds, field-dependent teachers underestimated their mismatched children more than their other children, while field-independent teachers underestimated their matched children more. Teachers of 4-yr.-old children overestimated all children. For 5-yr.-olds, field-dependent teachers assessed their mismatched children more negatively than their matched children, while field-independent teachers assessed their mismatched children more positively than the field-dependent teachers.