Teaching Style: A Conceptual Overview

Abstract

The notion of style refers to a person's preferred way of using his/her abilities. Style, Ebel argued, was " what one is ". Teaching is a performing art. Excellent teachers use their voices, gestures and movements to elicit and maintain attention and to stimulate student's emotions. Like other performers, teachers must convey a strong sense of practice, of highly focused energy. Our teaching style represents those enduring personal qualities and behaviors that appear in how we conduct our classes. While many people have argued that style is important in teaching, identifying the elements of our styles as teachers has proved to be difficult. According to Trowbridge and Bybee (1996), the assumption underlying teaching style is that it is the most effective and efficient means of presenting the material as long as the style is appropriate for the subject and the students. Teaching styles develop understanding, skills, and values relative to the subject. This paper has two aims. The first is to make familiar with the concept teaching style as an important construct in intellectual styles. The second is to differentiate between teaching styles and learning styles, thinking styles, and cognitive styles,and to identify the unique features of teaching style .

Full text

Teaching Style: A Conceptual Overview
K. Abdul Gafoor
Reader, Department of Education,
University of Calicut.
&
Haskar Babu U.
Research Scholar,
Department of Education,
University of Calicut.
Abdul Gafoor, K. & Haskar Babu U. (2012). Teaching Style: A Conceptual
Overview In S. Sabu, Teacher Education In The New Millennium, New Delhi:
APH. pp 55-69

55
Teaching Style: A Conceptual Overview
Abdul Gafoor. K., & Haskar Babu U.,
Abstract
The notion of style refers to a person’s preferred way of using
his/her abilities. Style, Ebel argued, was “what one is”.
Teaching is a performing art. Excellent teachers use their
voices, gestures and movements to elicit and maintain attention
and to stimulate student’s emotions. Like other performers,
teachers must convey a strong sense of practice, of highly
focused energy. Our teaching style represents those enduring
personal qualities and behaviors that appear in how we conduct
our classes. While many people have argued that style is
important in teaching, identifying the elements of our styles as
teachers has proved to be difficult. According to Trowbridge
and Bybee (1996), the assumption underlying teaching style is
that it is the most effective and efficient means of presenting the
material as long as the style is appropriate for the subject and
the students. Teaching styles develop understanding, skills, and
values relative to the subject. This paper has two aims. The first
is to make familiar with the concept teaching style as an
important construct in intellectual styles. The second is to
differentiate between teaching styles and learning styles,
thinking styles, and cognitive styles,and to identify the unique
features of teaching style .
Introduction
The notion of style refers to a person’s preferred way of using his/her
abilities (and in this way differs from ability), and is a very important factor in
trying to account for the marked individual differences in performance shown
by people as they think, learn, teach, or carry out various tasks (Messick, 1984;
Riding & Cheema, 1991; Sternberg & Grigorenko, 1997; Tennant, 1988;

56
Witkin, Oltman, Raskin, & Karp, 1971). Since the 1950s, psychologists have
been investigating the nature of various types of styles, such as cognitive,
thinking, teaching and learning styles, and their effects on performance in both
academic and non-academic settings (Goldstein& Blackman, 1978; Kogan &
Saarni, 1990; Rayner & Riding, 1997; Sternberg &Grigorenko, 1997; Witkin &
Goodenough, 1981). The term teaching styles appeared around the 1970s
(Biggs, 2001) when interest began to focus on the role of styles in teaching and
learning.
Definitions
1. Teaching styles refer to “a teacher’s preferred way of solving
problems, carrying out tasks, and making decisions in the process
of teaching, and, besides differing from individual to individual,
may sometimes differ between different groups, for example
schools” (Sternberg, 1997).
2. “Teaching styles are supposed to define the behaviors that teachers
exhibit as they interact with learners” (Fischer & Fischer,
1979).
3. A teaching style is an identifiable set of classroom behaviors
associated with and carried out by the instructor. The chosen
teaching style "is the operational behavior of the teacher's
educational philosophy" (Conti & Welborn, 1986, p. 20).
4. Teaching style is defined as “an identifiable set of classroom
behaviors associated with and carried out by the instructor”
(Galbraith & Sanders,1987 p.169)
5. “Teaching style is “a teacher’s personal behaviors” (Gregorc,
1979)
6. A teaching style is defined as “a mode of expression in which the
teacher achieves the balance between developing a guiding vision
that informs our teaching and responding flexibility to different
content”. (Brookfield,1990 p.4)
7. Teaching style “includes the implementation of philosophy; it
contains evidence of beliefs about, values related to, and attitudes

57
towards all the elements of teaching –learning
exchange”(Hiemlich,1990
8. “Teaching styles depends on teachers own needs, professional
goals and personal convictions” ( Gayle,1994)
According to Trowbridge and Bybee (1996), the assumption underlying
teaching style is that it is the most effective and efficient means of presenting
the material as long as the style is appropriate for the subject and the students.
Teaching styles develop understanding, skills, and values relative to the subject.
In other words, teaching style describes the manner in which a teacher manages
instruction and the classroom environment.
Teaching Style: A Comparison with other ‘Styles’
Teaching is a performing art. Excellent teachers use their voices, gestures
and movements to elicit and maintain attention and to stimulate student’s
emotions. Like other performers, teachers must convey a strong sense of
presence, of highly focused energy. The teaching style represents those
enduring personal qualities and behaviors that appear in how conduct the
classes. Teaching style, even though an important construct in the educational
system, its commonness and differences with other constructs such as cognitive
style, learning style, and thinking style have to be examined to make clear the
unique features of teaching style.
Teaching Style and Learning Style
Learning and teaching are the two sides of the same coin; one side
involving the learner, the other side involving the teacher. The most effective
teachers are those who used their students preferred learning styles as the basis
for instruction. A learning style is an individual's preferred way of learning.
When an instructor's style matches with a student's learning style, that student
typically experiences greater satisfaction and a more positive attitude toward
the course. The similarities between teaching style and learning style are : both
considers preferred attitudes and behaviors, both involves application of
cognitive styles, both are measurable variable and both are styles rather than

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abilities.i.e. an ability refers to what we can do and a style refers to our preferred
ways of using the abilities that we have. The main difference between learning
style and teaching styles are given in Table 1.
Table 1. Differences between Teaching Style & Learning Style
Learning Style
Teaching Style
1. Learning style consider how
learner learns.i.e the learning bahaviour
2. Learning style describes the
manner in which the learner manages the
learning
3. Learning style consists of an
internalized cognitive process.
4. Learning style is a general
tendency to adopt similar set of learning
strategies
5. Learning style is the way each
individual collects, organizes and
collects, organizes, and transforms
informations into useful knowledge
1. Teaching style consider how
teacher teaches.i.e the teaching
behavior.
2. Teaching style describes the
manner in which a teacher manages
instruction and classroom
environment.
3. The learning style and cognitive
style affects one’s teaching style.
4. A teaching style is an
identifiable set of classroom behaviors.
5. Teaching style is the preferred
way of solving problems, carrying out
tasks, and making decisions in the
process of teaching.
Teaching Style and Cognitive Style
Cognitive styles are broad, systematic characteristics that influence
peoples’ responses in different situations. Cognitive style was described by
Messick (1984) as characteristic modes of perceiving, remembering and
problem solving, reflective of information-processing regularities that develop
in congenial ways around underlying personality trends. Witkin et al. (1977)
describe cognitive style as individual differences in the way people perceive,
think, solve problems, learn and relate to others. According to Riding (2002) a
teacher’s natural teaching style will be the reflection of his/her own cognitive
style. The similarities between teaching style and cognitive style are: both styles

59
emphasizes cognitive processes, both are measurable variables and both
involves cognitive tasks such as problem solving and thinking. The main
difference between cognitive style and teaching styles are given in Table 2.
Table 2. Differences between Teaching Style & Cognitive Style
Cognitive Style
Teaching Style
1. Cognitive style is
largely based on cognitive
aspects of the individual.
2. Cognitive style is a
consistent pattern of behavior
within a range of individual
variability
3. It is the way individuals
organize information and
experiences.
4. Cognitive style is an
aspect of overall personality
and cognitive processes.
5. Cognitive style is “a
hypothetical construct that has
been developed to explain the
process of mediation between
stimuli and responses.
1. A teaching style
emphasizes cognitive, affective
and conative aspects of the
teacher.
2. A teaching style is an
identifiable set of classroom
behaviors.
3. Teaching style describes
the manner in which a teacher
manages instruction and
classroom environment.
4. Teaching style is a
component of class room
interaction.
5. The focus of teaching
style is primarily on the
configuration teacher behavior
carried out in the classroom,
including all aspects of self-
expression.
Teaching Style & Thinking Style
In current cognitive psychology, research mainly focuses on cognitive
differences such as thinking styles. In recent years, increasing attention has been
given to thinking styles. Researchers have found that thinking styles have
implications for teaching and learning (Grigorenko & Sternberg, 1997;
Sternberg, 1997; Zhang & Sternberg, 2001).
Sternberg (1997) proposed his theory of “mental self-government” to
introduce the concept of thinking style. Using government as a metaphor,

60
Sternberg (1988, 1997) contended that just as there are many ways of governing
a society, there are many ways of governing or managing one’s activities,
including teaching and learning. These different ways of managing our
activities can be understood as our thinking styles. The similarities between
teaching style and thinking style are : both are styles rather than abilities, both
are measurable variable and both styles are value-free. One of the important
features of thinking styles, according to Sternberg, is that they are at least
partially socialized, suggesting that thinking styles can be cultivated and
modified. Sternberg suggests that thinking styles vary inter-culturally, across
times, and across situations. The main difference between cognitive style and
teaching styles are given in Table 3
Table 3. Differences between Teaching Style & Thinking Style
Thinking Style
Teaching Style
1. Thinking styles are defined
as preferred ways of using the
abilities that we have.
2. The theoretical background
of thinking style is based on
Sternberg’s Theory of Mental Self-
government.
3. Sternberg (1994) defines
thinking style as “a personality
attribute (although not a fixed one)
for the utilization of abilities”.
4. Culture,gender,age,parenting
style and, schooling and occupation
are some of the variables which are
likely to affect the development of
thinking styles.
1. Teaching styles refer to a
teacher’s preferred way of solving
problems, carrying out tasks, and
making decisions in the process of
teaching
2. In the teaching style there is
no single acceptable theory to
define the concept.
3. Teaching style is teachers’
classroom as well as personal
behavior.
4. Teaching style is a
composite measure of teachers’
style of teaching including
instructional planning, teaching
methods teaching characteristics,
and teaching environments.
By analyzing different constructs in the style literature such as learning style,
cognitive style , thinking style and teaching style, it is very helpful to understand

61
the unique features of teaching style or how it differ from other styles. The
unique features of teaching style are listed in Table 4.
Table 4. Unique Features of Teaching Style
Unique Features of Teaching Style
1. Teachers preferred way of solving problems.
2. Teachers’ classroom behavior.
3. Teachers’ personal behavior.
4. Teachers’ mode of expression.
5. Management of instruction and classroom environment.
6. Teaching styles differ from individual to individual, differ
between groups.
7. Teaching styles depends on teachers’ own needs, professional
goals and personal convictions.
8. Teaching styles are related to instructional methods.
Types of Teaching Styles
Grasha (1996) argued that there are five main teaching styles that are
linked to different outcomes in childhood. They are Expert, Formal Authority,
Personal Model, Facilitator, and Delegator. The expert possesses the
information, knowledge and skills that students need; however, if this
knowledge is over-used in the classroom, it may lead to students becoming
intimidated by the teacher’s fruitful base of knowledge (Grasha, 1996). The
formal authority teacher focuses on a clear and methodical way of conducting
class paired with firm expectations (Grasha, 1996). However, an over-
investment in this style can lead to rigid, standardized and less flexible way of
managing students and student concerns (Grasha, 1996).
A teacher who teaches by personal example and who encourages
students to observe and emulate the teacher’s approach is said to utilize a
personal model (Grasha, 1996). In this model, emphasis is placed on
observation and following the teacher as a role model (Grasha, 1996). Teachers
who utilize this approach tend to feel that their approach is the most effective
as a means for instruction. Grasha (1996) reports that this may lead to feelings
of inadequacy if the students cannot live up to such expectations and standards.

62
The facilitator style is characterized by a focus on the personal nature of the
student–teacher interaction (Grasha, 1996). Teachers who exhibit this style
would offer a great deal of flexibility in their teaching and be more prone to a
‘student-centered’ approach, paired with a willingness to explore alternate ways
of completing tasks (Grasha, 1996). However, this approach, if not executed in
a positive and affirming manner, may lead to students feeling uncomfortable in
the classroom due to general uncomfortable feelings in response to the open and
expressive atmosphere (Grasha, 1996).
Finally, Grasha (1996) states that the delegator style does much to
emphasize the student as an independent learner, but the style can be time
consuming and may result in misreading of students’ readiness to take on
independent work. Grasha (1996) cautions that the delegator may contribute to
student anxiety as the student may be given too much autonomy before they are
ready to take it on. Therefore, it would seem from Grasha’s findings that various
teaching styles can either aid or hinder the learning process.
Dressel and Marcus (1982) and Woods (1995), categorized teaching styles
as discipline-centered, teacher-centered, and student-centered. In discipline-
centered model, the course has a fixed structure. In teacher-centered model, the
teacher is considered as an authoritative expert, the main source of knowledge,
and the focal point of all activity. In this teaching model, students are passive
recipients of the information. According to Lackey (1997), lecture obviously
reflects teacher-centered style and requires a passive role for students. In
student-centered model, on the other hand, instruction focuses on the student
and his/her cognitive development. The teacher’s goal is to help students grasp
the development of knowledge as a process rather than a product.
Flanders (1970) used different terminology and named teacher-centered
teaching as direct style, student-centered teaching as indirect style and
discipline-centered teaching as eclectic style. Weinberg (1983) also did some
work on teaching styles and identified the following four teaching styles: direct
teaching, peer teaching, problem solving, and group approach. First, in direct
teaching style, the teacher makes all of the decisions. S/he describes and
demonstrates what is to be learned, evaluates it and gives feedback. This style
needs very little cognitive or affective involvement on the student’s part.

63
Second, peer teaching style pairs two students of differing ability levels with
one another. The teacher describes and demonstrates the desired response. The
students evaluate each other using criteria presented by the teacher. Third, in
problem solving style, the teacher sets a problem and the students respond it in
most appropriate ways for them. Models come from student creativity and other
students’ responses. And last, group approach style is used to foster social skills
as well as promote acceptance among different ability levels.
Briefly, it looks meaningful to summarize that teacher-centered style is
traditional and requires lecture. In discipline-centered style, however, teachers
appear to place subject matter knowledge as the central focus of their beliefs
and actions instead of placing teaching or students at the center. Programmed
learning materials, printed study guides, prepared curricular materials, and
research papers can be used (Lackey, 1997).
Discipline-centered teaching strategies tend to be teacher-centered, but also
include hands on activities, laboratories, demonstrations, group work and
discussion. Therefore, this technique creates students with positive learning
environment to clarify their understanding and present their ideas (Patricia,
et.al., 1999). In short, discipline-centered teaching style has characteristics of
both teacher-centered style and student-centered style. Hence, using discipline-
centered style as transitional style may be acceptable.
In student-centered style, activities such as group discussions and group or
individual reports are used (Lackey, 1997). This style is individualized to
provide accommodation to students’ cognitive, affective, behavioral and
physical needs during the teaching and learning process (Shreves, 1998). It
seems from these two statements that student-centered style refers to
individualized teaching approach.
Berger (1974), in addition, determined three kind of teaching
behaviors as teacher oriented, student oriented, and student-teacher cooperation
oriented. Lenz (1982) identified two teaching styles: proactive and reactive.
Robinson (1979) categorized teaching styles into five classes ranging from
“highly content centered” to “highly people centered”. Alexlord (1970)
identified five teaching styles a) drill master b) content-centered c) instructor-
centered d) intellect centered and e) person centered.

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Sternberg’s seven Teaching styles
In light of the theory of Mental Self-Government, Sternberg
(1997) proposed seven teaching styles consisting of only Type I and Type II
styles, and operationalised them through the Thinking Styles in Teaching
Inventory (TSTI; Grigorenko &Sternberg, 1993). This inventory deals with just
three of the five dimensions of thinking styles (function, level, and leaning).
The seven styles in teaching are: (1) the legislative style, whose central
characteristic is creative; (2) the executive style, whose central characteristic is
conforming; (3) the judicial style, whose central characteristic is analytical; (4)
the local style, whose central characteristic is focusing on concrete ideas or
details; (5) the global style, whose central characteristic is focusing on abstract
thinking or general problems; (6) the liberal style, whose central characteristic
is employing new ways to deal with tasks (the liberal style differs from the
legislative style in that the creativity or new ideas used by the liberal person do
not have to be the individual’s own); and (7) the conservative style, whose
central characteristic is employing traditional ways to deal with tasks (unlike
the executive style, an individual with a conservative style may like to come up
with his/her own ideas, but these ideas are based on existing and accepted
customs).

65
Table 4. Classification of different teaching styles
How different “Styles” are interrelated?
The way each of us perceives the world governs how we think, make
judgments, and forms values about experiences and people. Our personal
perspective is our window on the world. This unique aspect of our humanness
is what we call style. Intellectual style is used as a general term that
encompasses the meanings of all major “style” constructs postulated in the past
few decades, such as cognitive style, conceptual tempo, decision making and
problem-solving style, learning style, mind style, perceptual style, and thinking
style. An intellectual style refers to one’s preferred way of processing
Classified by
Different types of teaching styles
Flanders
(1970)
Direct
Teaching
Style
Indirect
Teaching
style
Discipline
Centered
Alexload
(1970)
Intellect
centered
Instructor
centered
Drill
centere
d
Person
centere
d
Content
centered
Berger(1974)
Teacher
oriented
Student
oriented
Student-
teacher
cooperation
oriented
Lenz (1982)
Proactive
Reactiv
Drussel
&Marcus
(1982)
Teacher
centered
Student
centered
Discipline
centered
Weinberg
(1983)
Direct
teaching
style
Peer
Teaching
style
Proble
m
solving
Group
Approach
Jarvis (1985)
Socratic style
Didactic
style
Facilitativ
e style
Robinson
(1986)
Lecturing/Char
ismatic type
Teacher
Centered
type
Child
Centered
type
Grasha (1996)
Expert
Formal
Authority
Facilitato
r
Delega
tor
Persona
l
Sternberg
(1997)
Conservative
style
Global
style
Legislativ
e style
Local
style
Judicial
style
Liberal style
Execut
ive
style

66
information and dealing with tasks. To varying degrees, an intellectual style is
cognitive, affective, physiological, psychological, and sociological. It is
cognitive because whatever styles one uses to process information, one must be
engaged in some kind of cognitive process. It is affective because one’s way of
processing information and of dealing with a task i.e., employing an intellectual
style is partially determined by how one feels about the task. The
interrelationship between different styles can be diagrammatically represent in
figure 1.
Figure 1. Interrelationship between different styles
Conclusion
This paper reveals that how the concept of teaching style differ from other
styles. Furthermore, an attempt has made to organize different types of teaching
styles in a logical manner. Teaching styles are very important for effective
teaching and learning (Sternberg & Grigorenko, 1995, 2001), and a wide range
of styles makes for more effective teaching (Joyce & Hodges, 1966). Also,
different teaching styles have different optimal contexts (Sternberg, 1997), and
a teacher with a more extensive and varied repertoire of style profiles has more
choices in his/her teaching.
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