Abstract
We investigated the relationship between the change of students' roles and field-independent and field-dependent cognitive styles of students with variations in the make-up of groups. First, we categorized the students as field-independent or field-dependent learners by observing their behaviour in small groups carrying out scientific experiments in science classes. Next, we organized students into new small groups for students with similar cognitive styles. We asked them to perform scientific experiments in science classes. We recorded their behaviour when carrying out the experiments. We analyzed students' roles, and cognitive styles (field-independent or field-dependent), and compared their behaviour in the new groups with their behaviour in the old groups. It was found that field-independent type learners were more likely to change their role than field-dependent type learners. Therefore the following could be determined: when organizing small groups for scientific experiments in science classes, the roles of students with field-dependent cognitive style do not tend to change.
