Developing an Effective Teaching Style

Being a teacher means a lot. The job of a teacher is important because it plays a vital role in the overall development of a student. A teacher is responsible to develop the good principles, values, creativity, constructivism, confidence, skills as well as critical thinking in a child. Teaching style of a teacher means a lot in the lives of students as it keeps the ability to influence the learning capacity. A child‘s mind is like a blank sheet where a teacher can leave an impression through her effective teaching style.  A teacher should constantly reflect on her teaching style and should incorporate new changes as per the needs of learning. Teacher should be able to find the strength as well as weaknesses of her teaching style. There are different types of teaching style adopted by different teachers. Deciding on what type of teaching style to be adopted is complex for teachers. They need to understand how a particular teaching style can influence the learning of students and what are the merits and demerits of a teaching style. Teacher are not just to teach instead they have the primary job of teaching effectively where the output is maximum in form of students’ creativity, inventions, positivity, critical thinking and application of what has been learnt. Teaching is not just a job, it is an adventure, something to constantly reflect on.

A teacher should adopt a teaching style that can promote some important characteristics among students. These important characteristics are sense of responsibility, cooperation, courage, self-esteem, creativity, constructivism, positivism and critical thinking skill.

A teacher’s role is that of a leader especially democrat leader, while the students plays the role of a learner. The more effective the leader will be, the more will be his learner.

Teaching Styles

There are generally three different kinds of teaching style that most of the teachers adopt. These are: Authoritarian style, Permissive style and Democratic style.

Authoritarian Teaching Style:

In this type of teaching style, a teacher acts as a dictator and students are considered as subordinates, where the order comes from the teacher and students lack freedom. Here a teacher asks vigorous discipline, expects swift obedience, discourages verbal exchange, and gives few praises to students. A teacher who exhibit authoritarian style, creates a boundary for students where they can think only what they have been asked by the teacher. It is just a one-way process where the job of teacher is to give lecture and the students have to listen it without being having an inquiry. Paulo Freire in his famous book ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ have explained this kind of teaching style and termed it as the ‘Banking concept of education’.

Authoritarian teaching style results in unhealthy competitions, fear and anxiety among students. This makes the system rigid and strict. Students lack freedom of expression, critical thinking skill, creativity and develop pressure and anxiety.

Permissive Teaching Style:

It is another type of teaching style where the teacher acts as lenient and apathetic. They do not keep themselves as very much involved in the teaching-learning process. They place very few demands from students and do not care much of what and how students are doing. They just teach in their own style and do not find whether the students had learned or not.

Permissive teaching style creates atmosphere of insecurity, chaos with little respect of order and routine.

Democratic Teaching Style:

Democratic teaching style, as the name suggests, is based on democratic principles and is best among the three. Teachers who follow the principles of democracy in their classroom give an adequate opportunity to their students to have maximum learning in form of creativity and critical thinking. Students learn from their own mistakes. Teacher gives freedom to students to express their thinking and to question every aspect of learning. It encourages children to have an inquiring mind. Teacher do not create boundary of learning instead leaves lot of options for students to maximize their learning. It encourages independence among students. Here a teacher acts as a guide and not as a dictator. A teacher who has democratic teaching style acts politely with students but at the same time maintains discipline in a positive manner. Teacher nurtures the students’ thinking. Students are open for verbal interaction and are expected to create something new by applying their body of knowledge.

Democratic teaching style creates an atmosphere of acceptance and high expectation. It creates an environment of order and routine.

If the teachers would adopt a democratic style for classroom management, the students would learn more, effectively and learning will last forever. They will develop self-reliance and learn socially competent behaviour. They will own and solve their problems and will learn from mistakes. They will enjoy the authority of their own work and are likely to achieve and be motivated.

Teaching styles – Self evaluation – Powerpoint

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