- Published: January 3, 2022
- Updated: January 4, 2022
- University / College: Monash University
- Language: English
- Downloads: 4
This indispensable tool of human endeavor has sustained humans through communication, culture and various stages of its evolution over the ages. Its tools constitute the ‘ give-and-take’ mechanism, that is, teaching and learning. In essence, education is the flow of information from the teacher to the learner.
Teaching is intrinsic to communication and education; it is the pattern by which information derived, discovered made and innovations encountered are passed through systematic way to the learner. It is not as easy as it seems. There are styles of teaching that have been studied and proven useful. Some are evaluated in this article.
Teaching styles can be defined as a set of teaching tactics [Galton, 1980]. It can be categorized in such a way that the teacher is one of the following: formal authority, facilitator, delegator and demonstrator. Besides, such styles define a wide spectrum with teacher deciding everything at one end, and the student doing the same at the other end. These include [Mosston, 1986]:
Command – in this case, the teacher makes all the decisions and the learners are not involved in any of decision-making processes. Practice – learners practice the tasks assigned by the teacher; by this, they become actively involved in the education they receive Reciprocal – Students are encouraged in work in pairs: one of them performs the task and the other reports.
This improves human relations and encourages teamwork. Self-check – Here, learners can assess their own performance against specified criteria within the scheme of work or assessment guidelines. Guided Discovery – learners solve problems assigned to them with assistance of the teacher; here, the teacher facilitates. Divergent – This is the opposite of guided discovery, where learners attempt problems without any assistance. Individual/Learner Initiated: In this case, the learner is a major part of his education as he plans the programme but the teacher advises. In some other cases, students decide everything.
