CONCEPTUALIZATION AND MEASUREMENT OF COGNITIVE HOLDING POWER

The concept of cognitive holding power is synthesized from theories of settings and of cognitive structures and is conceptualized as a chara cteristic of a learning setting that presses students into different k inds of cognitive activity. Settings which press students into using f irst- or second-order cognitive procedures are regarded as having firs t- or second-order cognitive holding power. The development of an inst rument to measure these two dimensions of cognitive holding power is o utlined. The independence of the dimensions, their reliabilities and v alidity, and factor structures are examined. Each dimension was found to have high reliability across vocational education and high school s ettings, and each was correlated as predicted with other classroom var iables. The potential contribution of this research to understanding t he relationship between different approaches to the teaching of proble m solving and the ability to undertake problem-solving transfer tasks is outlined.