Essay: Teaching styles

Abstract
Students’ learning style is the most important factor in determining how well he might learn the second language. Success depends largely on this factor and on teacher’s teaching style. However, mismatches happen a lot between the students’ learning styles and the teachers’ teaching style and therefore language learners do not learn effectively. To learn a language effectively, students must be actively engaged in using language. The teacher of English must create opportunities within the classroom situation to enable learners to think through language. In this paper the following questions will be answered to outline the impact of the teachers’ styles on the students’ language learning: How can we identify the elements of teaching style? What impact do teaching styles have on English Education? What are the classifications of teachers according to their styles? Why should we have to consider the learners’ learning styles? Why should we have to understand / know our learners’ styles? And how can we match between the learners’ learning styles and teachers’ teaching styles?.
Key words: teachers’ styles, learners’ learning styles, English Education
Introduction
Data about teaching styles is just a single portion of teacher-student association. Similarly as instructors have favored methods for educating, understudies have comparable inclinations for how they wish to learn. These manners are marked learning styles of which allude to those individual characteristics that impacts learners’ capacity to get data, to connect with companions and teachers, and take an interest in learning encounters. As a result, the teaching-learning association is even more a teacher-student exchange. The two are associated with endeavors to shape each other into commonly advantageous types of relating. teachers and students embrace specific styles of instructing, learning and conveying keeping in mind the end goal to be effective. Such things are created through changes in the teacher and student view of each other, their activities towards each other, and their new parts in instructing/learning forms. “A variety of cognitive, social factors, motives, emotional, problem solving abilities, memory and perceptual processes, and information processing capabilities were used to identify the learning styles of students” (Garden, 1993).
Identifying the Elements of teaching styles
While numerous individuals have contended that the learning style is vital in educating, distinguishing the components of the teachers’ styles has became troublesome. One reason is that customarily, the idea of style has been seen in a disparaging way as outlined by ” (Eble, 1980). Thus, to give style a good definition and to use it effectively require moving beyond negative trend in which it is sometimes understood. Style in teaching as in art, music, athletics, managing people, and other areas of endeavor is not something that is put on for the occasion. Style, Eble argued, was “What one is” (p. 95). Teaching style represents teacher’s continual manners and personal qualities that show how he mange and lead his classroom. Thus, it defines teacher and directs his pedagogical processes of which effects both the students and their ability to learn.
Although observations may enlighten the common components of teachers’ styles, still they are insufficient. If style represents what a teacher is so, there will be many different styles as there are teachers which make it difficult to use observations as a technique to help in enlighten the nature of the teachers’ styles. To study specific types of teaching styles in a systematic manner, it would be beneficial to categories the personal qualities and behaviors that shared by all the teachers.
Which make it easy to examine how particular characteristics affect students and their subsequent ability to learn.
Understanding our teaching styles would be enhanced if we had a list of the elements of style that we use a basis for examining ourselves. There is, however, no clear consensus about the common components of style, it largely depends upon whom you ask – or at least what you read. Several approaches to understand teachers’ styles appear in literature. Various authors emphasize different aspects of how people teach, and thus there is little agreement about the elements of style. Instead, various aspects of our thoughts and behaviors are highlighted by those attempting to describe teaching style.
The impact of teaching styles on English Education
The shift in the language teaching paradigm in the twentieth century lead to the changing in the teaching styles. This helps in changing the lesson from traditional styles such as a translation based-instruction or grammar-based instruction to a communicative approach. Consequently, the roles of the teachers and of the learners have been changed to met the new education purposes. Breen and Candline (1980) describe teacher roles in the following terms:
“The teacher has two main roles: the first role is to facilitate the communication process between all the participations in the classroom. And between these participants and the various activities and texts. The second role is to act as an independent participant within the learning-teaching group. The latter role is closely related to the objectives of the first role and arises from it. These roles imply a set of secondary roles for the teacher; first, as an organizer for resources and as a recourse himself, second as a guide within the classroom procedures and activities…. A third role for the teacher is that of researcher and learner, with much of contribute in terms of appropriate knowledge and abilities actual and observed experience of the nature of learning and organizational capacities”.(p.99)
Lessons now are student-centered in classrooms, they are designed according to the general principles of the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). The philosophy of this approach based upon varied teaching practices which increase the students’ interaction in order to acquire communicative skills or even for keeping students’ attention. Besides, these practices within the lessons focus on meaning rather than in the form of at the early stage and on both in the advanced one. Moreover, the atmosphere of classroom in this type is relaxed and encouraging for students’ participation.
In this respect what collectively termed learner’s learning style, the different ways he acquires, retains and retrieves information. Therefore, teachers have to acknowledge of the different learning styles among their students which are nowadays differ from the ones that have been used in the past, so they can consciously adjust, adapt, organize or modify their teaching approach to much students’ learning preferences in order to increase their communicative learning ability.
Students’ own views of their schooling are important are important as they have impact on their lives (Krueger,1997). Their views can also give teachers and teachers educators a better understanding of preferred teachers’ characteristic, teaching styles and schooling experiences “Teacher’s behaviors have significant bearing on students’ motivation, goal setting, selections of learning strategies or interest in the course” (Wang, Gibson & State, 2007. P. 3). Effects on students resulting from teacher’s behavior can be positive or negative. According to the previous researchers, students can blossom or wither because of the affects, behaviors, and methods of a particular teacher. In addition, teacher’s behaviors can affect students motivation and interest in a subject or a course and their approach to learning (Wang, Gibson & State, 2007).
The Classification of Teaching Styles:
Just as people have individual learning styles, teachers have teaching styles that works best for them. There are a number of factors that have their influence on teachers in selecting a certain teaching approach or style to address of various types of learners. According to Grasha (1996), the students’ capabilities to handle a course demands, and the teacher’s response to students’ learning preferences are important elements in demanding what teaching style would be more appropriate to adopt. Two models are used her to classify teachers according to their teaching styles. The first one is Grasha’s Model (1996) of which includes five the following styles: expert, formal authority, personal model, facilitator, and delegator. They can be illustrated in the following way:
Expert
Teacher who has expert teaching style possesses knowledge and expertise that students need. He strives to maintain statues as an expert among students by displaying details knowledge and by challenging students to enhance their competence.
Formal Authority
Teachers as the transmitter of information who tend to focus on content and have a formal authority teaching style. This style can be characterized as a teacher-centered, where the teacher is the source of knowledge and the students are the recipients. Teachers with this teaching style are not concerned with building relationship with their students nor is it as important that their students from relationship with other students.
Demonstrator or Personal Model
Demonstrator are the teachers whose their classes are teacher- centered ones. They tended to model the skills and knowledge. Moreover, they keen on empowering understudies cooperation and adjusting their introduction to incorporate different learning styles. learners are required to assume some liability for realizing what they have to know and for requesting enable when to comprehend something.
Facilitator
Teachers who have a facilitator display showing style tend to center around exercises. This showing style underlines learner focused learning and there is considerably more duty put on the learners to step up with regards to taking care of the requests of different learning tasks. This style works best for learners who have the cooperation spirits and can effectively engage in collaborate with other learners.
Teachers with this style regularly configuration amass exercises which require dynamic learning, cooperation and critical thinking. They will regularly endeavor to configuration learning circumstance and exercises that require understudy handling and use obviously content in innovative and unique ways. Moreover, the teacher with this type controls and coordinates by asking the students questions, investigating their choices and their recommending options
Delegator
teachers who have a delegator style tend to put much control regarding learning on learners whether individuals or groups. They will frequently give learners a decision outlining and actualizing their own unpredictable learning projects and will act in a consultative way. Moreover, he builds up the learners’ capacity to work independently. Learners are frequently requested to work autonomously or in groups and must have the capacity to keep up inspiration and center for complex tasks, they working in this kind of setting take in more than simply course particular points as they additionally should have the capacity to viably work in amass circumstances and oversee different relational parts.
According to Grasha, everyone who teaches, possesses each of the four teaching styles but to varying degrees. The second model is Teach with Style Model which was designed by (Teeters, 2001) who classified teachers into the following four styles:
The Systematic type: Systematic-type teachers, as described by Teeters, view teaching as a partnership between learners and teachers. They collaborate with learners, assess students’ needs and set clear and meaningful goals to reach and fulfill their needs.
The stimulating type: Stimulating teachers motivate their students through active learning such as presenting information in interesting ways and in encouraging students’ participation.
The spontaneous type: This type of teachers gives learners the opportunity and permission to try out new ways of viewing thing. It breaks away from old types of traditional teaching and learning. Also teachers who adopt this style function as facilitators to make learning as enjoyable as possible through the use of arts, imagination and stories, in addition to encouraging risk-taking.
The safe type: the safe type of teachers is based on building confidence with learning through openness and in making learners relaxed to share their experiences. Besides, it helps learners get acquainted with each other (Teeters, 2001).
To get an indication of what any teacher’s main teaching style is, teaching style quiz can inform him / her. See (Appendix, A),( cited in Stein, Steeves, Mitsuhashi, 2002)
Enhancing our teaching Style
Gilakjani and Ahmadi ( 2011) study is an analysis of learning styles for Iranian EFL students. The reason for this investigation is to expand faculty awareness and understanding of the impact of learning styles on the instructing procedure. Previous studies alongside with analyzed data decide how learning styles influence the instructing procedure. The conclusion of this study shows that teachers should endeavor concentrated to educate in a multi style form that both achieves the best degree of learners in a given class and difficulties all learners encounter to grow as learners.
Teachers’ growing, changing, and progressing largely depend on the reflection they receive from their students. “As teachers, we need to see ourselves accurately through the eyes of our students and colleagues” (Teeters 2001, p. XV).
Research on student perceptions of teachers has revealed a range of preferred teachers’ qualities. “Effective teachers have been to be human, professional, and subject centered as well as students centered” (McCabe, 1995, p125). Another study of pre service teachers’ perceptions of teacher effectiveness by Minor, Onwuegbuzie, Witcher and James (2002) found seven emergent themes: student-centered approaches, effective classroom and behavior management, competence as an instructor, ethical, enthusiastic about their teaching, knowledgeable and professional. Characteristics such as knowledge, enthusiasm, approachability, consistency, fairness, respect of students and making learning relevant to their lives are identified as important to students in (Groves & Welsh, 2007).
Dahin (1994) also argues that internal debates and analyses about our instructional processes “mark teachers as problem solvers and negate the concept of teachers as technicians, waiting for researchers or legislators to tell them what they need to do in their classrooms” (p.60). He adds that teachers need to justify what they are doing, and the insights that gained from self-reflection help them communicate the mode of inquiry in which they operate to others. It also can help in managing personal change in teaching.
Garcia (1986) indicates the importance of having concerned teachers in the classrooms those who provide a solid base of understanding students’ needs, abilities, and differences, most likely do so because they are able to relate to classroom as a whole, and also to students as individuals. She believes that the excitement and enthusiasm that a teacher is able to create in the classroom play a major role in assisting students in learning the subject not only with more positive energy, but also help them be interested in topics that they would normally not interested in. So obtaining new perspectives on our teaching styles is an important part of enhancing our teaching style. This process involves exploring underlying attitudes, values, and assumptions about teaching and learning. It also entails challenging long-held beliefs about ourselves, our students, and the complex processes of teaching and learning. This will initiate processes for personal growth and development.
Self-reflection plays an important role in examining the new perspective about our styles as teachers. This reflection can occur during our private moments, in discussions with colleagues and students, in a journal or as statements about our teaching that appear in teaching portfolios. The ultimate goal of self-reflection is to learn from our experiences in order to produce better teachers.
Learners’ Learning Styles
learning style can be characterized in different ways, yet the most illustrative definitions allude to two basic viewpoints: a) the learning style speaks to a person’s favored methods for reacting (psychologically or behaviorally) to learning undertakings which change contingent upon the earth or setting (Peterson, et al., 2009), and b) the learning style alludes to the possibility that people contrast as to what sort of guideline is best for them (Pashler, et al., 2008). Along these lines, the learning style demonstrates a general inclination for learning and incorporates intellectual, affective, psychomotor, and physiological dimensions from the students’ perspective (Knowles, et al., 2005). Then again, the learners have diverse styles in their learning which considers challenges , in light of the fact that the ideal direction assumes diagnosing people’s learning styles and fitting guideline in like manner and this from the educators’ point of view, (Pashler et al., 2008).
learners learn in varied ways, by observing and hearing; reflecting and acting; thinking sensibly and naturally; retaining and picturing. Showing strategies additionally differ. A few teachers address, others exhibit or talk about, some attention on guidelines and others on cases, some accentuate memory and others understanding. How much a given learner learns in a class is administered to some degree by that learner’s native ability and prior preparation but also the compatibility of his or her characteristic approach to learning and the and the teacher’s approach to teaching (Felder, Henriques, 1995, p.1).
Slick (2000) visualizes learning theories as a set of glasses that provide lenses to focus on the educational experience. In such context, he believes that one prescription may not be enough. Therefore, she thinks it may take bifocals to focus and combine theories to produce the desired outcome. In defending her point, she claims that each eye sees slightly differently, and that some adjustments in educational plans may be necessary.
Methods of teaching, ways of presenting information, and personality characteristics of teachers all affect learning and affect different learners differently (McKeachie, 1995). We learn differently simply because we are all different from each other in many aspect. Likewise, a learning method that may be appropriate for many students may be ineffective for other students who could learn more easily with a different approach. Entwistle (cited in Pilkington and Groat, 2003) has shown that person’s preferred learning style can have far-reaching effects, often influencing subject choice in tertiary education. In an analysis of students’ approaches to problem-solving tasks, Laurillard & Ramsden (cited in Pikington, and Groat, 2003) found that all students varied their approach to different tasks depending on the nature of the task and the context in which learning takes place is important. Ramsdan, found that students were more likely to develop a deep-level approach when they were interested in a subject for its own sake, but adopted a surface one when attempting to meet externally imposed criteria.
Everyone has away or style of learning which works best for them. There are a variety of ways to identify students’ learning styles. Two of these models are presented here. The first one is the learning style questionnaire developed by Kolb (1984) who categorizes learners as Diverger. Assimilator, Converger, or Accommodator. This learning style model shows Diverger learns from concrete experience, Assimilators learns from reflective observation, Converger learns from abstract conceptualization, and Accommodators learns from active experimentation. Violand-Sanchez (1995) identified Diverger as learning from feeling, Assimilators as learning from watching and listening, Converger as learning from thinking, and Accommodators as learners from doing. The need for being aware of learning preferences seems important especially in a teacher centered classroom; otherwise, the activity might not keep the attention of many of the students.
The second model is the perceptual Learning Style by Reid, it includes six groups of learning styles: Visual, Auditory, Tactile, Kinesthetic, Group, and individual. Learners use these styles as major learning styles, minor learning styles, or negligible learning styles (Reid, 1984). They can be illustrated in the following way:
Visual
Individuals who have a visual learning style learn best if a noteworthy segment of the material or lesson is something they can see or watch. This student works best with composed materials and guidelines, outlines, blurbs, and exhibits. The data which the visual student takes in is converted into and put away as pictures or pictures in their brains. These students are normally perfect and efficient. This learning style will function admirably for anybody needing to do course work by means of separation instruction which enables the students to control their learning condition making it more helpful for their learning.
Auditory
Individuals who have an auditory learning style learn best if there is an oral segment to the material being found out. Verbal directions, taped addresses and eye to eye guideline work best. These students channel the data they hear and store the important information however don’t really shape pictures around it. When utilizing critical thinking, auditory students like to “talk it out”. While talking they may utilize phrases which identify with how they learn, for example, “I hear you”.
Unnecessary noise can be a distraction for the auditory learner.
Tactile
The tactile learning style is quite often joined with the kinesthetic learning. The two styles include substantial development, and are fundamentally the same as, however the tactile style is more direct. It includes the feeling of touch, and fine motor developments, as opposed to the huge, entire body developments found in the kinesthetic learning style. The tactile Learning Style learns through the feeling of touch and has a great eye-hand coordination. At the point when in a store, people with a tactile learning style may feel like they need to touch, and investigate numerous items to ‘comprehend’ the qualities of these objects. Hand-on learning is the essential technique for instructing tactile students. tactile students appreciate manipulative, utilizing diverse media, for example, finger-paints, craftsmanship materials, building ventures, pieces or questions for math, hands-on science tests, making models, dioramas, and so forth.
Kinesthetic
Individuals who have a sensation or tactile learning style learn best when they can touch or feel what they are learning about. The utilization of body and sentiments are vital to those students so active ventures work best for them. Sensation students don’t generally have a decent time sense or feeling of precision or tidiness. They regularly live for the minute and don’t have a dream without bounds. Sensation students will frequently discuss their learning regarding sentiments, introducing explanations with “I feel”. Individuals who have this learning style will tend to move around while endeavoring to tackle an issue. These students will have the most trouble with the “run of the mill’ composed separation instruction course. They have to search for courses which are more task arranged where course substance can be learned by doing it or utilizing it.
Group
learners learn best when they are effectively associated with the learning process. Moreover, they learn more if they working in small groups as researchers reported. Learners who work in cooperative groups additionally seem more happy with their classes. Different names have been given to this type of instructing, and there are a few qualifications among these: agreeable learning, communitarian learning, aggregate getting the hang of, learning groups, peer educating, peer learning, proportional learning, group learning, contemplate circles, consider gatherings, and work gatherings. However, with everything taken into account, there are three general sorts of group work: casual learning groups, formal learning groups, and study teams.
Individual learning
It is the ability of individuals to experience personal growth in their interactions with the outside world. Through a process of assessment, reflection, and taking action, every individual will be responsible of his own learning and development It is also taking personal responsibility for one’s own learning and development.
The more learning styles learners use as their major learning style, the more flexible and successful the learners are. If students use limited learning styles as their preference, it is more challenging for them to “adjust” to teachers’ teaching styles. Recognizing the weaknesses of their own styles and the strengths of other learning styles is important for students in order to be effective learners. Learning styles quiz can be used to get an indication of what any learner’s main learning style is. See (Appendix, B),(cited in Stein, Steeves, Mitsuhashi, 2002).
The importance of understanding/knowing our learners’ styles
Recognition of students’ styles and understand them help teachers to explore ways to accommodate variations in their styles in their teaching. Some teachers sometimes recognize differences in the personal qualities of students but fail to act upon this knowledge.
Others acknowledge variations in learning styles and take actions to modify their styles as teachers accordingly. Some teachers try to teach the basic-classes differently than advanced ones. Others recognize that gender differences exist among students.Thus, they present appropriate tasks of male and female. When teachers are aware of the diversity of learning styles, they will begin to consider various activities. A variety of activities will enhance learning, and students will expand their learning styles through different tasks. teachers should have enough knowledge about their individual students’ style preferences, to be able to provide the needed instructional variety. For example, Some learners might need instruction presented more visually, while others might require more auditory, kinesthetic, or tactile types of instruction.
Many educational research approved that knowledge of student learning preferences has a lot of benefits, for example, Diaz and Cartnal (1999) compared two learning styles of two online health education classes. They found significantly differences in learning preferences for both groups of students and concluded that knowledge of student learning preferences influences learning performance. Felder and Silverman (1988) and Felder and Dietz (2002) found that knowledge of students’ learning preferences were a determinant of student success.
Teacher’s understanding of his students ‘physical, social, emotional, moral, and cognitive development might influence learning and help him/her to decide the instructions to be used depending on these factors. In addition, his awareness of expected developmental progressions and ranges of individual variation within each domain (physical, social, emotional, moral, and cognitive), can identify levels of readiness in learning, and understanding how development in any one of these domains may affect performance in others. Furthermore, he could help them to develop self-confidence and competence.
Bridging the Gap Between Students’ Learning Styles and Teachers’Teaching Styles
The gap between students’ learning styles and teachers’ teaching styles and the lack of instruction on learning strategies might hinder students’ language learning. According to Rao ( 2002 ), “Bridging the gap between teaching and learning styles can be only achieved when teachers are first of all, aware of their learners’ needs, capacities, potentials, and learning style preferences in meeting these needs” (p.7).
Felder (1995) proposed that when mismatches often occur, it might have bad effects on students’ learning and attitudes to class and to the English learning itself. Felder added that students may get bored and may quit the course. Educational researchers claimed that matching teaching and learning styles can improve learners’ performance. Felder(1995) and Reid (1996) added that all learners can have an equal chance in the classroom, and build self-awareness if there is a matching between teaching styles and learning styles.
A study conducted by Yazici (2005) in the University of Winconsin, USA, however, reported that learning styles influence individual’s motivation in learning, especially when the learners’ preferences do not match with the teaching style of the teachers which may then lead to the change in behavior and affect the students’ level of motivation as well as their interest in learning English. This might then result in bad performance in the subject. The study confirmed that the situation is resulted from the mismatch between learners’ learning preferences and the activities or techniques used in their learning processes. Yazici, proceeded that, when learners and teachers do not choose the appropriate activities and techniques that match their learning styles and preferences, this will then affect their performance in the subject. In addition, the students learn better when they work out on activities meet their preferences.
Students, who are allowed to choose among learning activities that they prefer based on their preferences, will learn better (Lewis and Hayward, 2003). Therefore, teachers should play their role in ensuring that their teaching approaches and techniques match with the learner’s preference and style of learning to ensure effective learning, if not this might negatively affect students’ learning and performance (Wallace and Oxford, 1992). On the other hand, when learners’ learning styles are matched with appropriate approaches in teaching, their motivation, performances, and achievements would increase and be enhanced(Brown, 1994 ).
A research carried out by Cassidy & Eachus (2000) investigated the relationship between students’ evaluation of their own academic proficiency, learning style and academic achievement. The study has proved that learners’ proficiency is positively correlated with a strategic learning approach, and negatively correlated with an apathetic learning approach. Teacher needs to take into consideration the learners’ learning styles while choosing the teaching and learning approaches as well as the techniques to be implemented in the teaching and learning process. If teachers accept and consider the suitable students’ learning styles in the teaching approaches implemented, this would somehow help in increasing the students’ attitudes toward learning, productivity, academic performance and creativity (Griggs, 1985).
Reid ( 1996 ) concludes that when teaching style matches with learning style, learners will have an equal chance in the classroom, and builds student self-awareness. He outlined that using a balanced teaching style will overcome the mismatch with the learning style; which means that teachers should try to accommodate all learning styles.
Peacock ( 2001 ) is one of the researchers who investigated matching the teaching style and learning style in the real setting. He concluded that serious mismatches exist among the learning styles of the students and teaching styles of the teachers. To match teaching and learning in the classroom means that teachers should try to accommodate different learning styles of the students.
Felder and Henriques (1995 ) concluded that teachers who wish to address a wide variety of learning styles need not make drastic changes in their instructional approach. The way they normally teach addresses the needs of at least five of the specified learning categories: regular use of at least some of the instructional techniques which illustrated below should suffice to cover the remaining five and these are:
*Motivate learning as much as possible, teach new material (vocabulary, rules of grammar) in the context of situations to which the students can relate in terms of their personal and career experiences..etc.
*Balance concrete data (word definitions, rules for verb conjugation and descriptor thing assention) (detecting) and calculated data (grammatical and semantic examples, correlations and diverges from the understudies’ local language)(intuition) in each course at each level. The adjust does not need to be equivalent, and in rudimentary courses it might be moved intensely toward the detecting side, yet there ought to intermittently be a comment the initiators’ advantage
*Balance organized instructing approaches that stress formal preparing (deductive, consecutive) with more open-finished unstructured exercises that underscore discussion and social settings of the objective dialect (inductive, worldwide).
*Make liberal utilization of visuals. Utilize photos, illustrations, draws, and kid’s shows to represent and strengthen the implications of vocabulary words. Show films, video tapes and live performances to represent lessons in writings (visual, worldwide).
* Do not fill each moment of class time addressing and composing on the board. Give interims however short to students to consider what they have been told; dole out brief composition works out (intelligent). Bring up issues and issues to be dealt with by students in little groups; order exchanges and small dramatizations; hold group rivalries (dynamic).
*Give students the alternative of collaborating on at any rate some homework assignments (dynamic). Dynamic students by and large learn best when they cooperate with others; on the off chance that they are denied the chance to do as such, they would be denied of their best learning device.
*Balance inductive and deductive presentation of course material. Instruct some or all of the class in the language being taught, to facilitate language acquisition and develop skill in oral communication (inductive). In parallel, provide explicit instruction in syntax and semantics to facilitate formal language learning and develop skill in written communication and interpretation (deductive).
All things considered, showing teaching styles and learning styles are interrelated; we can’t have one without the other. In this way, crossing over any barrier between students’ learning styles and teachers’ teaching styles will be an effective intends to direct the students toward fruitful learning.
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Conclusion
Teaching and learning are active processes and go hand in hand with each other where teachers and students are interdependent on each other. I will quote Felder and Henriques’s( 1995) advice to teachers who wish to address new teaching:
The idea, however, is not to adopt all the techniques at once but rather to pick several that look feasible and try them on an occasional basis; keep the ones that work; drop the others; and try one or two more later in the course or in the next course. In this way a teaching style that is both effective for students and comfortable for the teacher will evolve naturally, with a potentially dramatic effect on the quality of learning that subsequently occurs ( p. 29).
Furthermore, understanding our teaching styles would be enhanced if we had a list of elements of style that we use as a basis for examining ourselves. Teachers should consider students’ learning styles and enhance their learning strategies for their successful learning. One of the teachers describes learning a foreign language without good guidance as similar to sailing without a good map. When teachers are aware of the importance of their teaching styles and the students learning styles and learning strategies, they can provide a good map to their students so they can find their ways without obstacles (sail in open seas).
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