The Association Of Intellectual Styles Personality Traits And Learning Environment With Academic Achievement And Career Satisfaction Among Adult Learners

This dissertation, "The Association of Intellectual Styles, Personality Traits, and Learning Environment With Academic Achievement and Career Satisfaction Among Adult Learners" by Man, Penny, Ng, 吳敏, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: The purpose of the present research was to determine the association of intellectual styles, personality traits, and learning environment with academic achievement and career satisfaction among Chinese adult learners. The two main objectives of the research were 1) to determine the predictive relationships of intellectual styles, personality traits, and learning environment to academic achievement and career satisfaction, and 2) to investigate the mediating effects of intellectual styles in the predictive relationships of learning environment and personality traits to academic achievement and career satisfaction. To achieve the above objectives, two studies were carried out. A pilot study was conducted to test the instruments and explore various relationships. The study was conducted among 304 part-time adult learners taking evening continuing education courses in a Hong Kong institution. Acceptable reliability and validity data were obtained for most of the instruments. Most of the demographic variables were found to be significantly related to intellectual styles and career satisfaction. Personality traits were stronger in predicting career satisfaction than were intellectual styles. It was also found that personality traits had statistically significant predictive power with respect to different types of intellectual styles. The main study was a longitudinal experimental study in which a revised questionnaire, based on the results of the pilot study, was administered to a sample of 459 part-time adult learners in both control and experimental groups in the first (pre-test) and the last (post-test) lessons. A student-centered teaching style, which has been shown to facilitate creativity-generating learning styles, was adopted in the experimental group as an intervention. Data analyses focused on comparing the differences and associations between the afore-mentioned variables in the pre-test and the post-test, the differences between the control group and the experimental group, and the mediating function of styles in the predictive relationships of personality traits and perceived teaching styles to career satisfaction and academic achievement. Follow-up interviews with 15 students who showed greatest changes in intellectual styles provided qualitative data. Results of the present research generally supported the research hypotheses. First, intellectual styles (thinking styles and career personality types) were malleable and were shaped by both personality traits and environmental factors to various degrees. Second, all three types of intellectual styles (particularly Type I styles) were positively associated with higher Type I academic achievement scores and greater career satisfaction. Third, the two style constructs, thinking styles and career personality types, overlapped to some extent, although each possessed its own unique features. Fourth, both thinking styles and career personality types mediated the relationships between personality traits and career satisfaction, and between perceived teaching styles and career satisfaction. In other words, personality traits and perceived teaching styles influenced learners'' career satisfaction, mainly through the influence of learners'' Type I and Type III styles. This is the first research to measure perceived teaching styles and to investigate the in

Intellectual styles are individuals' preferred ways of using their abilities. This book provides the first comprehensive and systematic review of existing research on the value and desirability of different intellectual styles. By critically analyzing findings from hundreds of international studies undertaken over eight decades, Li-fang Zhang demonstrates that the creativity-generating Type I styles are generally superior to the norm-conforming Type II styles in relation to a wide range of learning processes and developmental outcomes, work performance, physical and mental health, and many other domains of people's lives. She further demonstrates that people explicitly and implicitly express their preference for Type I styles over Type II styles. Professor Zhang elucidates the practical value of cultivating diverse intellectual styles, especially Type I styles, in both academic and nonacademic settings, and lays the groundwork for future research to advance the field of intellectual styles and to inform scholarly work in other academic disciplines.

This book is the first on the implications of intellectual styles for higher education of students with hearing impairment. It provides a systematic delineation for intellectual styles of students with hearing impairment in comparison with students without hearing impairment. It takes an initial step to present the analysis concerning the mediating role of intellectual styles in the relationships between personal factors and student developmental outcomes.

[B]ecause of the thoroughness of the literature reviews and the comprehensive coverage of the chapter topics, [this book] should be required reading for any scholar working in related areas of personality or intelligence."--PsycCRITIQUES "This book is a masterly attempt to bring order and cohesion to a field that for many years has been riven with claims and counterclaims. The editors and authors are to be congratulated for addressing a very complex task so helpfully." John Biggs, PhD Honorary Professor of Psychology University of Hong Kong "If you are interested in intellectual stylesópeople's preferred ways of processing informationóthen this book belongs on your bookshelf." Richard E. Mayer, PhD Professor of Psychology University of California, Santa Barbara "For more than half a century, the construct of styleówhether designated as cognitive, thinking or learningóhas been in or out of fashion in the history of psychology and education. The editors of the present Handbook have invigorated the style construct in the form of intellectual styles, and have brought together a distinguished international panel of chapter authors who offer up-to-date surveys of the assessment, development, correlates, and educational and organizational applications of intellectual styles. For those seeking to familiarize themselves with current theory and research in an intellectually exciting field, the present Handbook is essential." Nathan Kogan, PhD Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology New School for Social Research, New York, NY The concept of intellectual styles has had a controversial history based on diverse philosophical and theoretical foundations. Most recently, the idea of intellectual stylesóan umbrella term that covers such closely related constructs as "cognitive styles," "learning styles," "teaching styles," and "thinking styles"óhas gained momentum as an explanation for why different people succeed in different professional and organizational settings. Previously, it was thought that high-achievers simply had more innate abilities than their less successful peers, but research has shown that individuals have different intellectual styles that are better suited for varying types of contexts and problems. Based on the most current and expansive research, this handbook is the first to provide a comprehensive review of research on the construct of intellectual style, from its foundations and development, to its relations to allied constructs, its roles in school and job performance, its applications in various populations, and its future.. This understanding of intellectual styles as a valid concept for both individuals and groups has far-reaching implications for researchers in cross-cultural psychology, multicultural education, organizational behavior and work performance, and many other academic disciplines, as well as practitioners in education and beyond. Key Features: Provides a comprehensive review of intellectual styles from multiple perspectives Written for students and scholars in diverse academic arenas, as well as practitioners in education and other fields Includes contributions from researchers from diverse disciplines, such as psychology, business, education, and health sciences

This book presents a panoramic, current picture of the field of intellectual styles through portraying, analyzing, and integrating major theoretical and research works on the topics. The audience is researchers and students in the fields of education, ps

Intellectual styles are an individual's preferred ways of using the cognitive abilities that they possess. This book presents the first comprehensive and systematic review of existing research on style malleability. Analyzing research findings derived from both cross-sectional and longitudinal investigations, Professor Li-fang Zhang demonstrates that intellectual styles can be modified, through both socialization and purposeful training.