Teaching style

Draft

Typologies of teaching style

Anthony Grasha (1996) identified five potential approaches for classroom teachers:

• Expert
• Formal Authority,
• Personal Model
• Facilitator
• Delegator

Behar-Horenstein (2006) and many other studies distinguish between:

• teacher-centered
• student-centered

From a cognitive point of view

In teacher training, teachers may be exposed to more formal learning designs, pedagogical scenarios, lesson planning methodology etc. Teachers then have personality and beliefs are expost to pre-service and in-service trining. There is a huge literature on this which we don't cover much in this wiki ([Category:Teacher development Teacher development]).

The combination of these (training, personality and beliefs) with experience (i.e. concrete exposure to classroom context and policies) will then lead to a given teaching style.

Teaching style most often is not explicitly perceived or formulated by teacher. Daniel K. Schneider believes that it's a siutated, emergent phenomenon.

From an instructional design point of view

There exist a lot of instructional design models that are prescriptive models made for classroom teachings, have a look at our long list of instructional design models. Teachers that apply these may be characterized that way along the combinations of models/strategies/methods they use. Here we just mention a few examples of such models.

Behaviorist/cognitivist examples

• Nine events of instruction
• Direct instruction, e.g. the Madeline Hunter model

Constructivist

Usually constructivist models are not used as sole teaching methods, but there exist institutions that do so. In higher education, for example, project-oriented learning can be dominant, e.g. some engineering schools use project-based teaching, medical schools use problem-based methods, management and law schools use cased-based

• Moursund project-based learning model
• Laurillard conversational framework

Based on learning styles

• Felder design model

Method

Teaching Behavior Preferences Survey (TBPS)

In a the Behar-Horenstein (2006) study, Teaching styles' beliefs were measured across two domains:

• teacher-centered (TC) and student-centered (SC)

and four subdomains:

• methods of instruction (MI), classroom milieu (CM), use of questioning (UQ), and use of assessment (UA).

A representative set of questionnaire items in Behar-Horenstein (2006:852) was:

Subscale	TC/SC Items
Methods of Instruction	* My teaching is guided by instructional strategies. My teaching is guided by instructional strategies that help learners make meaning. I adjust my teaching techniques based on learners�$(B!G�(B behaviors.
Classroom Milieu	My learning environment is efficient and highly structured. My learning environment encourages learners to work quietly and stay on task. My learning environment is supportive and cooperative.
Assessment	I use the same assessment techniques for each objective of the lesson. I change assessment technique according to the lesson objectives. My assessment techniques are not influenced by the material I teach.
Questioning	I ask learners questions frequently to determine what they understand. When I ask learners questions, their answers typically require them to provide justification. I ask learners questions infrequently because I believe they can synthesize material.

Links

• Teaching styles, University of Texas at Austin, retrieved 14:09, 11 August 2007 (MEST)

• Instructional Design and Teaching Styles. Center for Teaching and Learning, Indiana State University

References

• Grasha, Anthony F. Teaching with Style: A Practical Guide to Enhancing Learning by Understanding Teaching and Learning Styles. Pittsburgh: Alliance Publishers, (1996).

• Huberman, M. (1989). La vie des enseignants, evolution et bilan d'une profession. Paris Neuch�.A�Nbtel: Delachaux et Niestl�Ni.

• Behar-Horenstein, Linda S. ; Gail S. Mitchell; Netta Notzer; Randy Penfield, Ilana Eli (2006). Teaching Style Beliefs Among U.S. and Israeli Faculty, Journal of Dental Education ([http:www.jdentaled.org/cgi/reprint/70/8/851.pdf PDF Reprint]

• Pajares MF. Teachers�$B!G�(B beliefs and educational research: cleaning up a messy construct. Rev Educ Res 1992;62(3):307-32.

• Olson JR, Singer M. Examining teacher beliefs, reflective change, and the teaching of reading. Reading Res Instruction

1994;34(2):97-110.

• Cushing KS, Sabers DS, Berliner DC. Investigations of expertise in teaching. Educ Horizons 1992;70(3):108-14.

• Evertson CM. Classroom management for secondary teachers. 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1993.

• Rosenshine B. Explicit teaching and teacher training. J Teacher Educ 1987;38(3):34-6.

• Ghaith G, Yaghi H. Relationships among experience, teacher efficacy, and attitudes toward the implementation of instructional innovation. Teaching and Teacher Educ 1997;13(4):451-8.