Levels of cognitive development among first year college students in relation to some intellective and non-intellective factors

• Main Author: Agapito, Fe Constancia Canete
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1992
• Subjects: Cognition—Testing; College freshmen—Ability testing; Ability—Testing; Curriculum and Instruction; Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/1419; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=8257&context=etd_masteral
• Institution: De La Salle University

Eighty-three (83) freshmen college students from the Asingan-Urdaneta complex of the Pangasinan State University were given a test on cognitive skills based on the Piagetian Theory. The result of this test was correlated with intellective and non-intellective variables. The significance of the correlations was computed. Through a statistical technique known as stepwise regression, the best predictors of cognitive levels were also determined. The scores of the subjects in the cognitive level test showed that only 10 are in the formal stage of cognitive development, 36 percent in the early formal stage and the rest are either early concrete or concrete thinkers. The results also revealed that sex, high school grade in Physics and NCEE general scholastic aptitude have the highest correlation with cognitive levels of development, while the three best predictors of cognitive development are age, sex and high school Physics grade. The study has implications in the nature and level of courses that should be offered to college freshmen students, and also has implications in the type of curriculum that should be developed for first year college students. It is recommended that this study be replicated and expanded to involve a more heterogeneous group of students as far as age is concerned and to include other intellectual as well as non-intellective student variables.