| 1. PurposeThe development of modern information society demands people to master methods and capabilities of obtaining high-density information. To meet the needs of surroundings, people are needed to develop all kinds of skills and improve capabilities of studying, receiving and processing information. It has very important theory and operation significances in the improvement of teaching quality to research into teachers' instructional strategies and methods starting from analyzing students' cognitive styles, and to reveal the basic characteristics of students' cognitive styles and the correlations between the classroom instructional strategies and the students' cognitive styles. Previous studies mainly focused on the comparisons of cognitive styles of students of different grades, different nationalities and different sex, and less studies were made on classroom instructional strategies that are in accordance with students' cognitive styles. Liang jianning, Yin Fang and so on made studies on the relations between the cognitive styles of students in the second grade of junior high school and the teachers' instructional strategies. However, few studies were made oncomparative study about cognitive styles of students of different major in teachers' school, relations between cognitive style and study style as well as the interrelationship between the cognitive style and the teacher's instructional strategies. By adopting the Embedded Figure Test (EFT) which was worked out by the Psychology Department of Beijing Normal University in 1998, on the basis of the category theory of field independent style and field dependent style of Herman A.witkin, and at the same time by combining the category theory of study style and "Investigation Table of Knowledge Obtaining Methods" for checking study styles which were put forward by Dr. Richard Rancourt, a professor from Ottawa University of Canada, this study was made on relations between cognitive methods and study styles of students majored in music, art, sport, liberal art and science, in order to find out the differences in cognitive style of students of different major, and thus provide a theoretical basis for teaching students in accordance of their aptitudes and a guidance for specific teaching.2. Methods 2.1 ObjectsThe objects were 292 students of different major from the second grade of Honghe Prefecture Nationality Teachers' School of Yunnan Province. Among them, 77 majored in music, 74 in art, 57 in sport, 44 in liberal art and 40 in science. The number of male students was 124 and the number offemale students was 168. These students were aged from 16 to 18 years old. The average age was 17.47 years old. The standard deviation was 0.53.2.2 Research ToolThe Embedded Figure Test (EFT) which was worked out by Beijing Normal University in 1998 was adopted to measure the scores obtained by students of different major in cognitive style."Investigation Table of Knowledge Obtaining Methods" worked out by Dr. Richard Rancourt, a professor from Ottawa University of Canada, was adopted to measure students' study style and type and investigations on students' interests in studying liberal art and science were attached as well.2.3 Data ProcessingA database was set up for all original data. All data was processed by adopting spss 11.0 statistic software kit and tested by combining relevant theories of educational statistics.3. Results3.1 There were differences in cognitive style between male and female students. The average score of male students in EFT: m=15.1411, S=6.12092; the average score of female students in EFT: m=12.2939,S=5.48037. Compared with the entirety, Z=4.117, above the level of a =0.01. The difference was very notable.3.2 There were differences in male and female students' preference for liberal art and science. In the EFT test, male students who like liberal art, their m= 14.3041; those who like science, their m=16.38. Female students who like liberal art, their m= 11.9589; those who like science, their m=13.359. Through Z test, z=2.94, above the level of a =0.01. The difference was very notable.3.3 The score in cognitive style, obtained by students of different major through EFT test, got a F value of 16.96. The overall difference was notable. The difference was obvious when inter-comparison was made.3.4 The cognitive style correlates the study style (knowledge obtaining methods). r=0.943. The T value was 5.667, above the level of a = 0.01. The difference was very remarkable.4. Conclusions4.1 There are differences in cognitive style of students of different major. Inrespect of sex, male students tend to the field independent style, while female students tend to the field dependent style. The conclusions accord with findings of a kind.4.2 There are differences in preference of students of different major anddifferent sex for liberal art and science. Male students tend to science,while female students tend to liberal art. Students of the field independent style tend to science, while students of the field dependent style tend to liberal art.4.3 There are remarkable differences in cognitive style of students of different major. Students majored in music, art, sport, liberal art and science are variant in cognitive style and knowledge obtaining. Students majored in music and liberal art are mostly the field dependent style. Students majored in art, sport and science are the field independent style. Students majored in liberal art and science is quite different in this aspect.4.4 Knowledge obtaining methods i.e. study style has very close relation with cognitive style. However, each major has distinct characteristics of it's own.5. Suggestions5.1 For students majored in music, teaching strategies should pay attentionto emotional experience. Importance should be attached to relations between teachers and students. Students' subject consciousness should be stressed. Let students have a sense of participation. Be against the spoon-feeding rationalistic sermon.5.2 For students majored in art, great attention should be paid to demonstration and advice-giving. Let students have more practiceswith their own hands. Self-studying and tutoring in groups or individuals are suitable for them. When lecturing, avoid teaching too much and too complicated.5.3 For students majored in sport, a refined lecturing and practicing and a field teaching should be carried on. Be against letting students memorize fussy theories and dogmas. Teaching should be concrete, vivid and interesting.5.4 For students majored in liberal art, teaching should be carried on in the way of discussion, argument and communication. Affect students with emotion and give the rein to students' imagination. Collectivized teaching should be the main form of teaching organization.5.5 For students majored in science, great attention should be paid to enlightenment, guidance and explore. Self-studying and tutoring should be the main teaching method, and teaching should be compact in logic and refined in content. Leave enough time for students to think and explore.
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