Review- Thinking Styles

Thinking Styles by Robert J. Sternberg

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


In this book, Sternberg sets out a schema to categorize styles- ways of thinking, which he distinguishes from abilities. Sternberg's main argument is that people are often wrongly judged as lacking ability, when in fact, their thinking styles are mismatched with the activities they are undertaking.

That is a reasonable observation, although a banal one. It is repeated throughout, making this short book feel like a long one. Given that Sternberg does not profess to know in any detail what causes a person to develop a thinking style, I'm not sure why he needed to write a book, rather than a short article, on this topic.

The schema Sternberg sets out contains several strands that are not mutually exclusive. For example, he states that some people are 'legislative'- creative, others 'executive'- rule following, still others 'judicial'- critical. However, he conceeds that many people share several of these traits, further weakening his argument. I would also suggest that activities cannot be neatly categorized in this way. For example, Sternberg suggests that creative writing is 'legislative'. Of course, poems require creativity, but they also require editing, an understanding of form, and so on. In other words, many poets are also analytical and disciplined, at least to some extent.

Sternberg makes reference on a few occasions throughout the book to a person's 'real self', or similar formulations. It isn't clear what this means- I wonder whether he is suggesting that self-hood comprises something beyond what a person does and thinks. This somewhat mysterious suggestion goes unexplained.

In short, the book is useful as a reminder that teaching should be flexible enough to accommodate children who learn in a variety of different ways, but I didn't take much else from it.



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