Teaching Styles

Teaching Styles

Teaching Styles

A Question:

Why different teaching styles?

Types of teaching styles:

1-The directing style

Suggestions for using the directing style:

• Start with the big picture.
•  Provide the context before launching into specifics.

• Be clear and concise.
  
• Students need to know exactly what they must do to succeed and by what criteria their work will be evaluated. Clear goals, specific deadlines, and concise directions increase student motivation and eliminate confusion. Wordy, sloppily written, and poorly organized instructional materials confuse, overwhelm, and discourage students.

• Provide sufficient detail.
  
• Communication breakdowns occur when important details are omitted or instructions are ambiguous. For example, when I once neglected to specify the font size students should use, the papers they turned in had font sizes ranging from 8 to 14!

• Don’t sugar-coat the message. There are times when teachers need to be very direct and candid to get through to students.

2-The discussing style

Suggestions for using the discussing style:

• Prepare questions in advance. Great discussions don’t just happen. Ask one question at a time. Be open, curious, and interested in learning what each student thinks.

• Don’t allow one or two students to dominate the discussion. Solicit everyone’s ideas and opinions. Gently draw out students who seem insecure and reticent to participate. I sometimes start my classes by saying, “I want to give each of you one minute to discuss your views on this topic. Let’s go around the room and hear from everyone.” Get closure by reviewing the key points you want to make.

• Have students create questions. I like to have my students read a case study and formulate three questions to ask their classmates. We then discuss their answers in class.

• Utilize clickers. Clickers are an easy way to get students involved during class. Pose a multiple-choice question and their responses are tabulated on the screen. You can then open it up for discussion as students share why they selected a certain answer.

3-The delegating style

promotes learning through empowerment. With this style, the teacher assigns tasks that students work on independently, either individually or in groups.

Suggestions for using the delegating style:

• Assign research projects.
•  In my management course I require students to interview a manager of a local business to get answers to questions like the following:
• 
  
• 
  
  • What are the main performance measures your company uses to evaluate each employee’s performance?
    
  • What are the key lessons you, as a manager, have learned about conducting effective performance appraisals?

• Assign team projects.

•  Have each team select a team leader, define roles and responsibilities, and hold each other accountable for completing the project on time. In my management class, I have teams of students analyze the management and leadership behaviors on movies like Remember the Titans and Crimson Tide.

• Assign a capstone project. Let students show you what they can do when working independently on a topic that’s important to them.

4-Mix of each teaching style.

I typically structure each of my classes to include some amount of each teaching style. However, during the first part of a semester I use more of the directing style.

In the middle part of a semester I typically rely more on the discussing style. And in the latter part of a semester I generally lean more heavily on the delegating style.

Using an appropriate mix of teaching styles helps students learn, grow, and become more independent. Too much reliance on one style causes students to lose interest and become overly dependent on the teacher.

5-The Authority Style

The authority style is primarily used in a lecture or auditorium setting, whereby the teacher will give a lengthy, one-way discussion on a pre-assigned topic whilst students take notes and memorize key pieces of information.

Though popular in higher-education when there is a large group of students present, the authority or lecture style is less common in the standard classroom setting. This is because the strategy offers little to no student participation, making it impossible to meet the needs of each individual pupil.

6-The Delegator Style

For subjects that necessitate group work, peer feedback or lab-based learning, a delegator or group style of tutoring is often adopted. As a delegator, the teacher may take an observer role to promote collaboration and encourage peer-to-peer learning.

Despite becoming increasingly popular, some critics consider the delegation or group style to be a poor teaching strategy given that it removes the teacher from a position of authority.

7-The Facilitator Style

Teachers who adopt a facilitator or activity-based style encourage self-learning in the classroom through increased peer to teacher learning. Unlike the lecture style, teachers ask students to question rather than simply have the answer given to them.

In this style, activities are used to promote self-discovery and develop problem-solving skills, which can often lead to the student developing a much deeper understanding of the topic.

There are however, downsides to this technique: as the facilitator, teachers must actively interact with individual pupils, which can be difficult in a large classroom setting.

8-The Demonstrator Style

Like the lecture or authority style of teaching, the demonstrator retains authority in the classroom. However, instead of relying solely on a verbal lecture, the demonstrator style combines lectures with other teaching forms, including multimedia presentations, demonstrations and class activities.

This style is particularly well suited to music, art and physical education subjects, where demonstrations are required to fully understand a topic. In other areas of study however, the demonstrator style may not be suitable. Like the authority style, there is little direct teacher to pupil interaction, so it can be difficult to accommodate the needs of all students.

9-The Hybrid Style

10-Student-Centered Approach

In a student-centered approach to learning, teachers and students share the focus and interact equally while the teacher still maintains authority. This can be beneficial to students because group work is encouraged; thus, communication and collaboration are used and encouraged. However, due to the fact that students are talking, classrooms may be noisier and may be more difficult to manage.

One method to use is inquiry-based learning which makes the teacher more of a supportive figure (rather than completely authoritative) who can provide support and guidance throughout the learning process. By being an inquiry-based learning facilitator, the teacher and student undergo the learning process together with student learning lightly guided by the teacher.

By being the personal model, comparable to the personal model in the direct instruction, the teacher acts as the guide and mentor to help enable students to learn by observation and copying the teacher’s actions.

By using the delegator method, teachers act as a support for students, are able to answer questions and most importantly are there to provide a sense of freedom and independence for the student.

11- Teacher-Centered Approach

In the teaching styles, specifically the teacher-centered approach to learning, the students put their attention on the teacher, students work alone, and collaboration is prevented. This is great because students are, in theory, quiet and paying full attention to the teacher while being able to make individual decisions.

However, a student may suffer in their communication skills  and feel unable to ask questions due to the fact they normally work alone and quietly. Plus, this classic method is sometimes thought of as dull and uninteresting.

12-High-Tech Approach

Inquiry-based learning can involve technology by asking the students a question about the world and they have to do some research. The findings could be presented in the forms of a website, self-made videos, or PowerPoints.

Another high-tech learning option is game-based learning which encourages students to develop a “maery” mindset rather than focus too much on grades.

Students develop problem-solving skills by working on accomplishing a specific goal (also known as a learning objective) by choosing actions and different activities and then experimenting with them to achieve the goal

13-Low-Tech Approach