Exploring the Correlation between Thinking Styles and Social and Academic Integration in English Major Students

Year 2021, Volume: 8 Issue: 1, 19 - 35, 30.04.2021

Özkan Kırmızı , Nur Güneş Uçar

https://doi.org/10.33710/sduijes.807970

Abstract

In educational psychology, individual differences have always received remarkable attention, with attention increasing in mental aspects such as thinking styles in recent years and with implications for teaching and learning. The aim of the present study is to investigate the possible connection between thinking styles and academic and social integration. It is well-known that psychological constructs like thinking styles play a role in certain behaviors or preferences and studying them can shed light on the educational process. The present study was conducted with 79 pre-service EFL teachers, all of whom are 4th grade learners. One reason for having 4th grade learners is that they have well-established ideas and attitudes towards academic and social integration. In order to collect data, two questionnaires were used. The first one is the Thinking Styles Inventory (TSI), developed by Sternberg and Wagner (1991). It is a comprehensive tool containing 104 items. There are 13 subscales, with 8 items each. The second tool is the Academic and Social Integration Scale, developed by Pascarella & Terenzini (1980). It contains 5 sub-dimensions, peer-group interaction, interactions with faculty, faculty concern for student development & teaching, academic & intellectual development, and institutional and goal commitments. The findings of the study indicate that the most common thinking styles are oligarchic, executive, and liberal thinking style while the least common thinking styles are conservative and hierarchical thinking style and it was the liberal thinking styles that mostly correlated with academic and social integration.

Keywords

Thinking styles, academic and social integration, higher education, English major students

References

• Apaydin, B.B. & Cenberci, S. (2018). Correlation Between Thinking Styles and Teaching Styles of Prospective Mathematics Teachers, World Journal of Education 8(4), 36-46.
• Aypay, A., Sever, M. ve Demirhan, G. (2012). Üniversite öğrencilerinin sosyal ve akademik entegrasyonu: Boylamsal bir araştırma. Gaziantep Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 11(2), 407–422.
• Bean, J. P. (1983). The application of a model of turnover in work organizations to the student attrition process. The Review of Higher Education, 6(2): 129-148.
• Bean, J.P. (1980). Dropouts and turnover: The synthesis and test of a causalmodel of student attrition. Research in Higher Education, 12(2), 155-187.
• Bernardo, A. B. I., Zhang, L. F., & Callueng, C. M. (2002). Thinking styles and academic achievement among Filipino students. Journal of Genetic Psychology, 163(2), 149–164.
• Betoret, F. D. (2007). The influence of students’ and teachers’ thinking styles on student course satisfaction and on their learning process. Educational Psychology, 27(2), 219-234
• Braxton, J. M. (Ed.) (2000). Reworking the student departure puzzle, Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
• British Council (2014). Integration of international students—a UK perspective. London: British Council Available at https://www.britishcouncil.org/education/ihe/knowledge-centre/student-mobility/reportintegration international-students
• Buluş, M. (2016). Predictive Analysis Among Thinking Styles, Goal Orientations and Academic Achievement of Student Teachers, Journal of Higher Education, 6(2), 62–71.
• Cabrera, A. F., Castaneda, M.B., Nora, A., & Hengstler, D. (1992). The convergence between two theories of college persistence. The Journal of Higher Education, 63(2), 143-164.
• Cano-Garcia, F., & Hughes, E. H. (2000). Learning and thinking styles: An analysis of their interrelationship and influence on academic achievement. Educational Psychology, 20(4), 413–430
• Celik, D. (2016). Sinif ogrencilerinin Dusunme stilleri, ogrenme stratejileri ve dusunme stilleri ile ogrenme stratejileri arasindaki ilişki, M.Sc Thesis, Pamukkale University Educational Science Institute, Denizli, Turkey
• Dincer, B. (2009). Ögretmen adaylarının düşünme stilleri profillerinin çesitli değiskenler açısından degerlendirilmesi, M.Sc. Thesis, Adnan Menderes University Social Science Institute, Aydin.
• Emamipour, S. & Shams-Esfandabad, H. (2013). Developmental study of thinking styles in Iranian university students. Procedia – Social and Behavioural Sciences, 84, 1736-1739.
• Fan, W., Zhang, L. F., & Watkins, D. (2010). Incremental validity of thinking styles in predicting academic achievements: An experimental study in hypermedia learning environments. Educational Psychology, 30(5), 605–623.
• Grigorenko, E. L., & Sternberg, R. J. (1995). Thinking styles. In D. H. Saklofske & M. Zeidner (Eds.), Perspectives on individual differences. International handbook of personality and intelligence (p. 205–229). Plenum Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-5571-8_11
• Glass, C. R., & Westmont, C. M. (2014). Comparative effects of belongingness on the academic success and cross-cultural interactions of domestic and international students. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 38, 106–119.
• Kember, D., & Leung, D. Y. P. (2005). The influence of active learning experiences on the development of graduate capabilities. Studies in Higher Education, 30(3), 155–170.
• Khosravi, A. A. (2010). The relationship between thinking styles and cognitive style, conceptual style and learning style of students. Iranain Journal of Medical Education, 2(5), 78-94.
• Kuh, G. D., Kinzie, J., Buckley, J. A., Bridges, B. K., & Hayek, J. C. (2006, July). What matters to student success: A review of the literature, Commissioned Report for the National Symposium on Postsecondary Student Success: Spearheading a Dialog on Student Success.
• Kuh, G.D. (2001-2002). Organizational culture and student persistence: Prospects and puzzles. Journal of College Student Retention, 3(1), 23-39.
• Lang, M. (2001). Student retention in higher education: Some conceptual and programmatic perspectives. Journal of College Student Retention, 3(3), 217-229.
• Lee, C. I., & Tsai, F. Y. (2004). Internet project-based learning environment: The effects of thinking styles on learning transfer. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 20(1): 31– 39.
• Mannan. M. A. (2007), Student attrition and academic and social integration: Application of Tinto’s model at the University of Papua New Guinea, Higher Education, 53, 147–165.
• Nazarifar, F., Abolghasemi Najafabadi, M., Kamali, F. & Hosseini, T. (2011). Examination of relationship between thinking styles performance and academic success among scholars of technical and engineering academy of Tehran University. Iranian Journal of Engineering Education, 12(47), 49-62.
• Öztürk, M. (2017). A Comparative Analysis of Language Teachers’ and Learners’ Preferences for Thinking Styles in EFL Classrooms, The Journal of Language Teaching and Learning, 2017(1), pp. 69-78.
• Pascarella, E .T., & Terenzini, P. T. (2005). How college affects students: A third decade of research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Pascarella, E.T., & Terenzini, P.T. (1991). How college affects students: Findings and insights from twenty years of research. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Pascarella, E.T., & Terenzini, P.T., (1980). Predicting freshman persistence and voluntary dropout decisions from a theoretical model. Journal of Higher Education, 51(1), 60-75.
• Paulsen, M. B., & St. John, E. P. (1997). The financial nexus between college choice and persistence. In R. A. Vorhees (ed.), Researching student aid: Creating an action agenda, pp. 65-82. New Directions for Institutional Research, no. 95. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Press.
• Severiens, S. E., & Schmidt, H.G. (2009). Academic and social integration and study progress in problem-based learning, Higher Education, 58, 59–69.
• Severiens, S. E., & Wolff, R. (2008). A comparison of ethnic minority and majority students: Social and academic integration, and quality of learning. Studies in Higher Education, 33(3), 253–266. Severiens, S. E., ten Dam, G. T. M., & Blom, S. (2006). Comparison of Dutch ethnic minority and majority engineering students: Social and academic integration. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 10(1), 75–89.
• Spady, W.G. (1971). Dropouts from higher education: Toward an empirical model. Interchange, 2(3), 38-62.
• Spencer-Oatey, H. Dauber, D. & Jing, J. & Lifei, W. (2016). Chinese students’ social integration into the university community: hearing the students’ voices, High Educ, 74(5), 739–756, DOI 10.1007/s10734-016-0074-0.
• St. John, E. P., Paulsen, M. B., & Carter, D. F. (2005). Diversity, college costs, and postsecondary opportunity: An examination of the financial nexus between college choice and persistence for African Americans and whites. Journal of Higher Education, 76(5), 545-569.
• Sternberg, R. J., & Wagner, R. K. (1991). MSG Thinking Styles Inventory. Unpublished manual.
• Sternberg, R.J. (1993) Intellectual styles: theory and classroom implications, in: B.Z. Pressesen et al., Learning and Thinking Styles: classroom interaction, pp. 8± 42 (Washington, DC, National Education Association of the United States Research for Better Schools).
• Sternberg, R.J. (1997) Thinking Styles, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
• Tinto, V. (1975). Dropout from higher education: A theoretical synthesis of recent research. Review of Educational Research, 45(1), 89-125.
• Tinto, V. (1988). Stages of student departure: Reflections on the longitudinal character of student leaving. Journal of Higher Education, 59(4), 438-455.
• Tinto, V. (1993). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition (2nd ed.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
• Tinto, V. (1998). Colleges as communities: Taking research on student persistence seriously. The Review of Higher Education, 21(2), 167–177.
• Turki, J. (2012). Thinking styles in light of Sternberg’s theory prevailing among the students of Tafila Technical University and its relationship with some variables. American International Journal of Contemporary Research, 2(3), 140-152.
• Tuzer, L. (2016). Sınıf ögretmenlerinin düşünme stillerinin çeşitli değişkenler açısından incelenmesi, M.Sc. Thesis, Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Workman, M. (2004). Performance and perceived effectiveness in computer-based and computer-aided education: Do cognitive styles make a difference? Computers in Human Behavior, 20, 517–534.
• Yong, B.C.S. (2012). Comparison Between the Thinking Styles of Students in a Science School and a Mainstream School, Journal of Science and Mathematics, 35(1), 60 – 83.
• Yorke, M., & Longden, B. (2004). Retention and student success in higher education. London: Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press.
• Zepke, N., & Leach, L. (2005). Integration and adaptation. Active Learning in Higher Education, 6(1), 46-59.
• Zhang, L. F. (2000). University students’ learning approaches in three cultures: An investigation of Biggs’ 3P model. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 134(1), 37–55.
• Zhang, L.F. (2002). Thinking Styles and Cognitive Development, The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 2002, 163(2), 179–195.
• Zhang, L. F. (2004). Revisiting the predictive power of thinking styles for academic performance. Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 138(4), 351–370.
• Zhang, L. F., & Sternberg, R. J. (2000). Are learning approaches and thinking styles related? A study in two Chinese populations. Journal of Psychology, 134(5), 469–489.
• Zhou, Y., Jindal-Snape, D., Topping, K., & Todman, J. (2008). Theoretical models of culture shock and adaptation in international students in higher education. Studies in Higher Education, 33(1), 63-75.