Teaching style is determined by the way a learning experience is conducted. The style is built from the behaviour and actions the teacher takes.

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 995159 B.A (HONS) P.E. Q.T.S. Secondary

Teaching Styles

Teaching style is determined by the way a learning experience is conducted. The style is built from the behaviour and actions the teacher takes. The strategy chosen by the teacher can ensure that the appropriate method is used for effective learning to take place.  The teacher’s behaviour can dictate the pupils and their relationships with them to be distant, friendly or show enthusiasm for the subject. The teacher’s can adopt particular forms of behaviour to facilitate certain types of learning. The behaviour of the teacher may have to change as the teacher may sense boredom creeping in, therefore the enthusiasm from the teacher may be needed to keep the pupils on task, to sustain motivation.

Teaching strategies are the range of different methods to accommodate certain situations. In a single lesson the teacher may use more than just one strategy depending on the situations that arise. During the lesson different strategies may need to be used as at the start of the lesson a very strict and command strategy may be used to give instructions. Pupils can then experiment with the task, strategy changed again, at the end of the lesson the pupils may be asked to self check the work as the teacher adapts a further change in strategy.

Witnessing and precisely defining a teaching style can be very difficult, as the boundries can be very blurred. Some terms often used to describe ways of teaching are: experimental, didactic, chalk and talk, teacher-directed, pupil-centred, practical, theoretical, traditional, progressive, transmission, content-based, process-based, whole-class-based. These are general self-explanatory descriptions to indicate how teachers may conduct a lesson, as suggested by Capel, Leask & Turner (1999).

Mosston’s continuum of teaching styles state that there are ten different styles that can be adopted when carrying out a lesson, each of them depend on the situation, attitude and behaviour of the pupils.

The Command style is a style that is known and described as teacher-centred. The command style is when a teacher would stand in front of a class of pupils and just give instructions not asking any questions just giving commands. The command style is suitable when teaching safety of equipment or giving rules to a game. There is only the need for the teacher to talk, giving important instructions and pupils listening to understand the commands. The command style has advantages and disadvantages. The learning outcome from pupils when being taught how to use dangerous equipment, by a teacher using command style is very effective the pupils understand and take on-board the information given. During my school experience it appeared that the command style was very commonly not only the physical education (P.E) staff, but all subject areas. The command style was most frequently used at the beginning of most lessons. The evidenced witnessed during the school experience seemed that the P.E staff used command style more frequent than areas such as Mathematics, English, Science, French etc. During a French lesson that I observed, it was clear that the teacher used command style to start the class “Sit down, open text book on page 52” once class had sat down he then began asking many questions to different pupils related to the task. This use of common style occurred frequently.

The practice style is similar to the command style but it allows more scope for the teacher to visit different pupils while the rest of the class to continue concentrating on the task in hand. The practice style is very good at accommodating differentiation as it allows the pupils to work at there own pace. In an English lesson that I attended the teacher explained the task and allowed the pupils to work at their own pace as they were doing small comprehension’s, the teacher then travelled around the class helping individuals who had difficulty in the task. The practice style worked very well in a P.E lesson, pupils were doing curcuit training at there own pace. The objective was to complete all ten tasks, while the teacher went around the room answering any questions and given advice. The learning outcome is that the pupils are able to work independently, but the disadvantage is that the practice maybe carried out completely wrong which doesn’t allow the pupils to learn the task correctly. This style of teaching may only encounter if the pupils are controlled and disciplined. If the situation was to change and the pupils were enable to concentrate the practice style would not work, as the class would gradually slide out of control. Therefore a different style of teaching maybe adopted.

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The reciprocal style is when the teacher gets the pupils into pairs to evaluate each other’s performance. The reciprocal style is where one of the pupils carries out the task and the partner evaluates the performance by observing. The teacher then will help the partner to observe the performance and advise the feedback that should be given back both a good and critical extrinsic feedback, to give ways to improve the task they next perform. This is important, as feedback is an individual skill, the reciprocal style is the best way to involve this aspect and give them ...

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