How can you alter your styles of teaching to meet the demands of different practice and competitive situations

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How can you alter your styles of teaching to meet the demands of different practice and competitive situations for individual, racket and team activities?

A Teaching style can be defined as ‘the general pattern of learning, created by using a particular set of strategies’ (D. Siedentop, 1991). Teachers adopt different styles depending on certain lesson factors. The most comprehensive study of teaching styles originated from the research by Muska Mosston in 1966. Mosston developed a teaching spectrum, establishing a framework of possible options in the relationship between teacher and learner, and was based on the central importance of decision-making. The scale ranged from A-J, A being a style that gives the teacher complete control over the lesson, J a style that gives the student responsibility for the learning process. This assignment aims to investigate the relative strengths and weaknesses of teaching styles in certain sporting situations.

The command style (A) is the most ‘direct, teacher-centered style’ (Mosston and Ashworth 1994). The teacher is the exclusive decision maker. Decisions on what to do, how to do it, and the level of achievement expected, are all determined by the teacher. The reciprocal style (C) allows more decision making by the learner. The teacher develops a task and indicates key skills that must be performed ensuring the observer can verify that the learner is executing the task correctly. The discovery/problem solving style (H-J) is ‘learner centered’ (Mosston and Ashworth 1994). It involves a lot of cognitive activity and allows the students to display their individualism through the movement responses. The teacher sets a problem and the learner creates their own solution, consequently working at a comprehendible pace. 

When considering the coaching of a team, ‘the significance and value of making a team feel part of a coherent unit rather than a set of individuals, is very great,’ (Pinloff 1993). Therefore, command style is an appropriate style to utilize when trying to promote team ethos. The team can feel as if they are developing as a group and aspiring to common goals. It is also effective to use command style when completing a mass warm up of a football team for example. As a result, the physiological effects on the team - increased cardiac output, respiratory rate, temperature etc, are similar so the teacher can be confident that no injuries will occur during the training session. However, this style of teaching has many drawbacks. It is not appropriate when there is a large variation in the skill level of a team, because individual needs would not be met. It also fails to teach the team to think strategically because they are being instructed what to do constantly, which could impact on the team’s performance in a competitive situation. Haynes states 'this style is thought to inhibit cognitive learning as thinking and questioning are not encouraged by the teacher' (Haynes 1997).

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Reciprocal style teaching is appropriate when the team is completing a skill that requires individualism and feedback about the performance quality, such as a ‘reverse lay-up’ in basket ball. The learner and observer must understand the concept of the skill to be able to analyze it; consequently this contributes to their understanding and comprehension of the task, making it easier to reproduce in a competitive situation. It is also appropriate to use this style when teaching interactive skills. When the skill required is based on the performance of the opponent, only the challenger can decide the movement required to ...

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