Thinking Styles of Student in Faculty of Education: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the most prevalent thinking profiles and styles of the students of education faculty and to reveal the differences between of them in thinking styles according to (Harrison, Pramson, parlett and associates, 1980) scale, which includes Synthetic, Idealistic, Pragmatic, Analytic, Realistic styles according to gender of the study discipline and the academic level. The study also aimed to identify the predictable value of identifying the students thinking styles in predicting their academic achievement. The sample consisted of 376 students of faculty of Education at Damascus University. The results indicated that the most preferred thinking profile were the one dimension, thinking, the orderly, the flat, the two dimensions and the three dimensions thinking profiles. The synthetic style was the most resistant thinking style for all subjects. The research found significant differences on analytic style according to gender, academic level, and specialization. No independent variable was able to predict academic achievement. Inaddition the most preferred thinking styles for males were the analytic followed by the pragmatic, while for females the most preferred thinking styles were the pragmatic followed by the analytic.