Effect of School Location on the Adopted Cognitive Style of Primary School Students in State

Primary education is globally recognized as the foundation laying stage of education.Over the past few decades, researchers have devoted interest to the differences in reasoning, problem-solving, and perception that underlie cognitive style. Numerous researchers have also attributed the differences in cognitive style to various social, cultural, psychological, and demographic factors. However, the purpose of the present study is to examine school location as an environmental factor that could predict childrens cognitive styles. Sixty-four primary school students drawn from primary schools in rural and urban communities in the Kogi state participated in the study. The Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT) was used for data collection. The result of the study revealed that the school location significantly predicted field independent/dependent cognitive style. Thus, the study concluded that the school environment is a positive determinant of adopted cognitive style.


ISSN: 2320-5407
Int. J. Adv. Res. 9 (10), 964-969 965 at the importance of primary education, it is essential to highlight its relevance while assessing the contributory role of school location of the pupil's cognitive pattern Over the years, research has provided empirical evidence suggesting that people have a habitual way of attending to tasks and situations in their environment relating to a particular style in cognitive processes (Arifin et al., 2020; Gamboa Mora et al., 2021; Koć-Januchta et al., 2019; Saha & Sharma, 2020). These cognitive processes include attention, decision-making, problem-solving, and perception (Bendall et al., 2016).Cognitive style is conceptualized as one's usual or customary reasoning, remembering, perceptual pattern, and problem-solving approach. Earlier research in cognitive psychology has shown that individuals parade significant individual differences in the mental processing pattern they adopt in problem-solving (Robertson, 1985).
The construct of cognitive styles describes the many ways people consistently vary in their cognitive dimensions in association with constant inter-individual differences in response to stimulus (Boogert et al., 2018;Carere & Locurto, 2011;Griffin et al., 2015;Sih & Del Giudice, 2012). Accordingly, Brown et al. (2006) defined cognitive styles as a psychological construct relating to personal information processing strategies. More so, Amazue (2007) explained the construct of cognitive style as the characteristics of a self-consistent model of functioning found pervasively throughout an individual's perceptual and intellectual activities. Thus, the Cognitive style represents the stable style by which an individual observes, assesses, and reacts to a situation. Tang (2009) noted that cognitive style is considered an essential component of learning style that has significant contributions to language acquisition. For Marai (2007), the concept of cognitive style represents the heuristics that individuals use to process information about their environment.
Researches on cognitive styles indicate a positive correlation between cognitive styles and teaching (Kykalová & Vasilyeva, 2015). For instance, Son et al. (2020) found an interactional effect between teaching models and students' cognitive styles. Thus, indicating that the variations in cognitive patterns contribute to student learning. Researchers have studied many cognitive styles, including field-independent and field-dependent cognitive style, analytic and global cognitive style, reflective and impulsive cognitive style, and tolerance and intolerance of cognitive ambiguity style ( However, the present study is concerned with field-independent/dependent cognitive style. The concept field dependence-field independence cognitive style theory was first proposed by Herman Witkin (Witkin et al., 1977). The theory contends that the existing perceptual environment significantly shapes an individual's cognitive processes. Thus, the theory classified individuals who perceive situations as embedded in the background as fielddependent. On the other hand, people who observe things as separate from the surrounding environment are fieldindependent. Field-dependence/independence cognitive style is conceptualized as part of a characteristic of individual differences in processing and organization of social or cognitive information. A recent study (Sutama et al., 2021)noted that individuals with a field-dependent cognitive style adopt a pattern as a whole, thus, finding it difficult to elaborate a perceptual outcome. In contrast, field-independent individuals think more diversely and are more independent in perceptual processes.
Field-dependent/independent cognitive style in the context of this study denotes the variation in perceptual processes of primary school students. Research in education has led to considering the influence of fielddependent/independent cognitive style on academic achievement and various learning behaviors ( Research in this path provides insight into the significance of cognitive style on student's learning. Thus, the present study explored cognitive style in association with its reliability in predicting academic achievement. Evidence suggests that the school environment is an essential factor in students' cognitive style (Russo et al., 2001). However, research investigating the relationship between school setting and cognitive style remains scarce in the Nigerian context, hence, the justification for the current study. School location in this study refers to the environmental condition around a school, which could be urban or rural. The school's site is crucial to students` performance, thus, depicting the differences in cognitive patterns. Individual differences in cognitive style emerge earlier in life, and children reared in a creative culture can create their knowledge through experience and cultural tools. Cultural values and beliefs are embedded in children's thought processes, thereby shaping their cognitive 966 styles. Reference groups, family members and relatives, neighbors, friends, and peer mates with whom children compare themselves and serve as models are essential in comparing cognitive style.
The type and quality of education in a community are essential in shaping a learner's pattern of reasoning. A healthy education is determined by the availability of stimulating materials such as libraries, information communication technology, and quality teachers. The limited access of students in rural communities to quality education may limit their cognitive development. Previous studies have implicated rural and urban influence on student's cognitive style (Khanal, 2016;Rawandale et al., 2020). Therefore, the primary purpose of the present study is to investigate school location (urban and rural) as a scarcely explored variable that could contribute to the adopted cognitive style of the primary school pupils in Kogi State, Nigeria.

Hypothesis
Based on the study's objective, it is hypothesized that school location (urban/rural) will significantly predict the cognitive style of primary school pupils in Kogi State.

Method:-
The design of the study is correlational. The study population constitutes primary school students drawn from public and private primary schools within the urban and rural communities of Kogi State of Nigeria.

Instruments
The Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT) initially developed by Witkin et al. (1971) was used in data collection. The instrument was subjected to a pilot study for validation, and a Cronbach alpha 0.78 was obtained.

Procedure
The researchers sought permission from the heads of the selected primary schools. The study was conducted during the break period. A simple random sampling technique was used to draw the participant to allow full and equal participation of students. The students were exposed to the GEFT following the ethical enlightenment. They were given instructions in vernacular to benefit the students who may not understand the instructions before the instrument was administered to them by the research assistants. In all, seventy-two primary school pupils were selected for the study. However, sixty-four instruments were adequately filled and used for the analysis.

Result:-
To test the study's hypothesis, which states that school location will significantly predict the adopted cognitive style of the participants. The result of the simple linear regression conducted on the data indicates that the study's assumption was found to be confirmed at β = .944, p< .05, withR 2 of .891. The result demonstrates that school location contributes significantly to the variations in the adopted cognitive styles between the rural and the urban pupils in Kogi State.

Discussion:-
The current study aimed to examine the variations in the adopted cognitive styles of primary school pupils based on their school location (rural/urban). A simple linear regression was conducted on the data to test the assumption that school location would significantly account for the variance in the adopted cognitive styles of the pupils at β = .944, p< .05, with the adjusted R 2 indicating that the independent variable contributed 89.1 % of the variance in the adopted cognitive styles of the pupils. Thus, the assumption of the study is affirmed. The research result supports the 967 findings of previous studies (Khanal, 2016;Rawandale et al., 2020), which suggests that the pupils' fielddependent/independent cognitive styles are contingent upon the socio-cultural environment of the pupils. In other words, the physical environment might stimulate particular habitual approaches to information processing. Thus, the variation in cognition that underlies cognitive styles is likely to be altered when the physical or socio-cultural environment itself changes in fundamental ways. The result of the study corroborates the previous study by Amazue (2007), which found that the socio-cultural environment significantly shapes an individual's fielddependent/independent cognitive style. Similarly, de Frias and Schaie (2001) contended that perceived work environment predicted cognitive style. Hence, school location underlies the social environment, which significantly affects cognitive style.

Conclusion:-
The study was conducted to ascertain the role of school location on cognitive style. As expected, the result of the study demonstrated that school location (i.e., urban/rural location) predicted the respondent's cognitive style. Because of the outcome, it is concluded that the school location significantly determines the cognitive pattern. Despite this revelation, the study is challenged with some limitations; firstly, caution should be applied in generalizing the result due to the sampling method and the study's inability to establish cause-effect. However, future researchers should continue exploring factors capable of influencing cognitive style and expanding the scope to understand cognitive styles fully.