Thinking Styles: their relationships with modes of thinking and academic performance

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the nature of thinking styles as described in the theory of mental self-government. Two-hundred-and-twelve US university students responded to the Thinking Styles Inventory and the Styles of Learning and Thinking. Results from convergent statistical analysis procedures indicated that thinking styles and modes of thinking share certain common variance in the data. It was evident that the more creativity-generating and more complex thinking styles are significantly related to a holistic mode of thinking, and that the more norm-conforming and more simplistic thinking styles are significantly related to an analytic mode of thinking. Furthermore, multiple-regression analyses showed that both thinking styles and modes of thinking statistically contributed to students' self-reported grade point averages beyond what was explained by their self-rated ability scores. These findings are discussed in terms of practical implications for educators.