An analysis of the effect of problem solving strategies on field dependent - field independent students

The purpose of the study is to identify the level of the effect of problem solving strategies on academic achievement levels of the field dependent- field independent students in Mathematics lessons. The study was carried on two equivalent classes chosen from Afyonkarahisar Gazi Technical and Industrial Vocational High school 9th grades in 2012-2013 academic year. Students' cognitive styles were identified applying the scale, Group Embebded Figure Test (GEFT) on experimental and control groups.A pretest-posttest control group experimental design was used in the study. In the experimental group, to the students having cognitive style dimensions of filed dependent- field independent, teaching activities prepared according to problem solving strategies were applied; and in the control group, teaching activities required by the curriculum were used. The significance level was taken as 0.05. For the analyses of the data, frequency and percentages, mean, standard deviation, independent samples t test and Kruskall Wallis H tests were used.As the results of the study, the academic success levels of the field independent students whom were applied problem solving strategies were found to be high and the difference is statistically significant [t(29)=1.70, p < 0,05]. Field independent students whom were applied problem solving strategies were found to be more successful than the field dependent students [t(23)=1.81, p < 0,05]. Keywords: Cognitive Styles, Field dependent ? independent,Problem Solving Strategies.