The Effects of Cognitive Styles on the Use of Hints in Academic English: A Learning Analytics Approach

Various hints have been proposed to scaffold students. Such hints can be broadly divided into direct hints and indirect hints. On the other hand, individual differences existed among learners. In particular, cognitive styles greatly affect student learning. However, there is a lack of studies to investigate how cognitive styles affect students’ reactions to the use of hints in the context of academic English. To address this issue, this study aimed to examine the effects of cognitive styles on the use of hints in such a context. To obtain deep understandings, a learning-analytics approach was applied in this study, including quantitative measurement, qualitative evaluation and lag sequential analyses. The results from the quantitative measurement indicated that the frequencies of using Chinese hints and synonym hints were significantly associated with Serialists’ task scores while such significant correlations were not found for Holists. The results from the qualitative evaluation showed that Holists favored to use synonym hints while Serialists preferred to use Chinese hints. The results from the lag sequential analyses suggested that Holists demonstrated iterative behavior while Serialists showed sequential behavior. In summary, cognitive styles have considerable influences on students’ learning patterns in the context of Academic English.