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This paper aims to review the literature on the utility of employing the construct of cognitive style in understanding behaviour in web‐based learning environments.

The paper initially examines whether the web architecture may be matched to an individual's cognitive style in order to facilitate learning, before progressing to assess whether different architectures influence a web users' internal representations of web‐based learning systems, as measured by concept map drawings. Other issues explored are users' web navigation and users' sense of learning community when receiving instruction via web‐based learning environments.

The studies reviewed indicate that cognitive style is a pertinent factor for consideration when assessing the success with which users engage with web‐based learning systems.

Some of the studies reviewed here are small‐scale and caution is urged in generalising the findings.

In terms of the practical implications, however, it is suggested that web‐based systems should be designed with consideration to individual differences in user characteristics, as this is related to the success with which users learn, navigate and interact socially in an online environment. However, it is concluded that more research is required in order to produce general rules relating cognitive style to the use of web‐based learning systems.

The findings from the numerous studies on the implications of considering the function of individual differences in using web‐based learning are notable and useful in the context of web‐based instruction.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the cognitive styles of trainee teachers with their notions of differentiation and perceptions of its place/location within their teaching and learning during a PGCE programme of ITE.

A total of 80 trainee teachers completed the Cognitive Style Index (CSI) at the beginning and at the end of their course. After completing the CSI measure trainees received instruction on cognitive styles. To assess their initial understanding and prior knowledge of differentiation, all trainees completed a questionnaire at the beginning and at the end of their course.

At the outset rudimentary understandings of differentiation were found to be held by the trainees, as well as stylistic differences between the four style groupings. Gains in understanding of differentiation and the use of cognitive style in school were evident in all trainees. Moderate changes in style were evident, with all trainees becoming more intuitive over the course of the programme.

The sample size may be seen as a limitation in terms of generalisability.

The predominant direction of cognitive style movement was from analytic to intuitive. The suggestion that cognitive style, while relatively fixed, is also something that can be developed is a feature which should offer encouragement to those developing university courses through interventions such as this.

Teaching sessions on how cognitive styles can be used in the classroom were used to enhance trainee understandings of individual learning differences and increase awareness of one's own style to facilitate understanding of differentiation.

This paper aims to describe a method of teaching that is based on Novak's concept‐mapping technique.

The paper shows how concept mapping can be used to measure prior knowledge and how simple mapping exercises can promote the integration of teachers' and students' understandings in ways that are meaningful.

The concept‐mapping method facilitates quick and easy measures of student knowledge‐change so that teachers can identify the parts of the curriculum that are being understood and those that are not. This is possible even among very large student groups in the 50‐minute slots that are allocated to so much teaching in higher education.

Concept mapping is discussed in the wider context of student learning style. The styles literature has been criticised because it tends to encourage undue labelling of people or behaviours. The approach described here also uses “labels” to typify learning (using the terms non‐learning and rote or meaningful learning to identify different qualities of change).

The difference in this approach is that terms are attached to empirical measures of learning outcome, not to personal or psychological styles. Concept mapping makes learning visible so that the actual quality of the learning that has occurred can be seen and explored. Using concept mapping in the course of teaching means that learning is no longer a complex and intractable process, measurable only by proxy, but an observable phenomenon.

The purpose of this paper is to compare the emotional competence of first year undergraduates enrolled on a high or low drop‐out rate (HDR and LDR, respectively) course, at a newly established university within the UK.

A mixed methods approach using both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods was used. The Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue) established participants' emotional competence, and semi‐structured interviews were used to probe the findings from the TEIQue.

The results indicate that typical HDR course participants have high self‐esteem and a good level of interpersonal skills, but are controlled by their emotions and exhibit an external locus of control. This manifests itself in a distrust of peers as a source of support and a reactive attitude to self‐improvement. Typical LDR course participants have low self‐esteem and a good level of intrapersonal skills, but have developed the ability to control their emotions and exhibit an internal locus of control. This manifests itself in a high level of confidence in peers as a source of support and a proactive attitude to self‐improvement.

The paper contributes to the learning styles literature by investigating the impact of students' characteristic affective behaviours on their vulnerability to drop‐out.

This paper seeks to present research findings on the relationship between culture and learning styles, as defined by Honey and Mumford in a Higher Education setting.

The research was conducted with first semester students studying in an International Institute of Higher Education. A questionnaire administered to students (n=113) of Indonesian, Chinese and French origin was analysed in order to compare their learning style preferences. This was followed by a detailed item‐by‐item analysis of their responses to the same questionnaire.

In the first instance, the data support a relationship between learning styles preferences and cultural background at the outset of a programme of Higher Education. Subsequent analysis provides insight into the nature of these differences.

The generalizability of the research findings is limited owing to the nature of the sample.

Educators in both Higher Education and business settings can draw on these research findings. It is suggested that allowing incoming students to explore learning style differences will enhance their understanding of how they go about learning as well as possibly influence their learning outcomes. Parallels have been drawn with incoming international employees.

These findings have relevance for educators, both in Higher Education and in industry, concerned with how to best develop international graduates and managers.

The purpose of this paper is to present, try out, and evaluate a strategy for implementation of learning and teaching styles at the teacher level.

The study takes a qualitative approach to evaluating the short‐term and long‐term effects of a workshop on teaching and learning styles with regard to changing teachers' implicit beliefs and teaching practice.

Fourteen months after a two‐day workshop on learning and teaching styles, teachers' implicit beliefs about learning and teaching remain explicit and their teaching practice has changed towards a higher degree of differentiation as a result of the workshop.

The paper demonstrates that it is possible to change experienced teachers' teaching practice to a higher degree of differentiation with a two‐day workshop.

The paper provides knowledge on how to change in‐service teachers' implicit beliefs and how to affect their teaching practice to making use of of learning and teaching styles in their teaching practice.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute further insights into how cognitive styles influence managerial behaviour, using a qualitative approach.

Written testimonies were gathered from people with different cognitive styles, and content analysed (n=100).

Qualitative evidence was found for managerial style preferences in accordance with cognitive styles, leading to various ways of decision making, conflict handling, and giving feedback.

Future research should explore how these results can be linked to contextual elements and to managerial performance.

This study contributes to increased managerial style awareness, which is important for intrapersonal development and interpersonal cooperation.

This is one of a few studies that have sought to qualitatively grasp the implications of having a particular cognitive style. It provides relevant insights into task‐ and people‐oriented managerial practices beyond previous, mainly quantitative studies.

The purpose of this paper is to examine which stakeholder values are created by a well-performing network-structured university-industry collaboration (UIC). These results should provide initial conclusions for the design of UICs with the aim to overcome critical barriers to effective technology transfer.

The research is designed as a comprehensive single case study and follows a qualitative approach in order to obtain a deep understanding of the various stakeholder values created by Austrian Center of Competence in Mechatronics (ACCM), a unique, well-performing UIC-network.

The results show that on the one hand ACCM provides stakeholder values that are largely common for UICs or networks (access to resources and industry problems, funding, know-how dialogue, solution of practical problems, etc.). On the other hand ACCM offers very special values which are often realized in UICs to a low degree only. The study indicates that by the special construct of ACCM, with its deep value added chain, the common problem of converting basic research results into industrial solutions can be managed.

The research shows that the ACCM construct of a network-structured UIC has many benefits for the stakeholders and offers a new way to overcome critical barriers to effective technology transfer.

Given the absence of fundamental work in this area, the study is significant both academically as well as practically in terms of effective technology transfer in network-structured UICs and their values for various stakeholders.