Africentric environmental adaptation and students’ cognitive styles

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of environmental adaptation on the cognitive styles of students in African cultures. The paper is motivated by an observed disequilibrium between students’ eco-cultural perceptual styles and the western academic learning models typically sponsored by schools. The paper is illumined by Witkin’s distinction of cognitive styles to Field Dependence (FD) and Field Independence (FI). The paper is backed by an empirical study that was carried out using both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. A total sample of 80 students, 24 parents and 12 teachers both rural and urban settlements of Nso ethnicity of Cameroon were chosen for the study. The qualitative data were analysed using the systematic process of content analysis while descriptive and inferential statistics were used for quantitative data. The qualitative findings of the study showed that the Nso eco-cultural orientation posits a preservationist environmental adaptation, oral mode of communication and collective/interpersonal social pattern. These findings correlated with students’ cognitive styles as the results of the study proved that in both rural and urban settlements, students were more FD (67.0%) than FI, at a significant level of P<0.001 as regards categorization, processing styles and attribution. Furthermore, only 23.9% of the academic learning process strategies were effectively in favour of FD students, thus more of FD students (67.3%) failed in academic subjects than FI students. Nonetheless 59.5% of the students who failed were good in ethno-science skills with a significant level of P<0.00.1. The conclusion, recommendations and significance of the study were based on the fact that if a student displays a cognitive preference that is common and accepted within his/her cultural group, it should be viewed as a “difference” from what the mainstream society promotes in schools; not as a “deficiency” or “failure”. Hence, while taking cognizance of students’ FD cultural perceptual styles, teachers and educational administrators should provide strategies for transfer and acquisition of other FI ways of perception in students.