Learning attitudes decisive to students´ cognitive and knowledge development

This study gives an account of a teaching situation with 20 student\´s aged 14-15. The students have worked with a problem focussed on the greenhouse effect, based on a problem solving way of working. They have worked in groups and have had access to ICT, books, articles and a special resource page on the Internet. The purpose has been to account for the ways in which the students\´ knowledge develops during the problem solving process and what the factors are that influence learning. In order to explain the causes I have constructed five different "learning attitudes". These are: creators of meaning, constructors of knowledge, ethical evaluators, reproducers and maintainers of relationships. When these learning attitudes are related to the students\´ knowledge development it becomes evident that the creators of meaning, constructors of knowledge and ethical evaluators have a predominantly stronger cognitive and knowledge development than the reproducers and maintainers of relationships.