Need for cognitive closure among vocational technical student teachers in some Nigerian universities

Abstract

This article presents survey results on the dispositional need for cognitive closure among student teachers in some Nigerian universities. The study used a cross-sectional descriptive design to collect data from 123 purposively random sampled students from three universities in Northern Nigeria who enrolled vocational technical teacher training programs. The Need for Closure Scale (NFC) was used to assess the student teachers’ need for cognitive closure and its five factors (preference for order and structure, emotional discomfort associated with ambiguity, impatience and impulsivity with regard to decision making, desire for security and predictability and closed-mindedness). Results of data analyses indicated that, the need for cognitive closure score of participants in this study ranged from a low of 83 to a high of 180 with an overall mean of 129.01, and a standard deviation of 21.085. The student teachers who responded in this study also scored highly on the NFCC sub-scales. The implications of these findings are also discussed.   Key words: Need for closure, information seeking behaviour, student teachers.