Students' Cognitive Style and Mathematical Word Problem Solving

Students approach mathematical problem solving in fundamentally different ways, particularly problems requiring conceptual understanding and complicated strategies such as mathematical word problems. The main objective of this study is to compare students' performance with different cognitive styles (Field-dependent vs. Field-independent) on mathematics problem solving, particularly, in word problems. A sample of 180 school girls (13-years-old) were tested on the Witkin's cognitive style (Group Embedded Figures Test) and two mathematics exams. Results obtained support the hypothesis that students with field-independent cognitive style achieved much better results than Field-dependent ones in word problems. The implications of these results on teaching and setting problems emphasizes that word problems and cognitive predictor variables (Field-dependent/Field- independent) could be challenging and rather distinctive factors on the part of school learners.