The Most Preferred Teaching Styles

It is often claimed that despite the developments and improvements in other sectors the education sector has remained the same and yet be balanced and developed. Some people say that the only thing that has been changed in our classrooms are the green boards to smart boards, whereas, others contradict this statement and explain their reasons by referring to the advancements in teaching styles and methodology. In this essay, I will determine and depict the three most common and used teaching styles in our sector.

This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ali J## Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course!. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT.

Teachers change their teaching styles according to their nature, subject, section, part, language, and other factors. Their main aim by doing so is to make students get involved in the lesson and learn in a better way.

Teaching style has been segregated into three types, however, it depends upon the institution and the teachers to amend and make any changes in this list.

The first method or style of teaching is named and called directing. In this method, the lesson is generally based on listening and giving directions. In this method, the teacher’s role is more of a director and instructor and gives direction on how to do, what to do, and where to do. Teachers talking time (TTT) is longer and students are supposed to listen and understand the directions given by the teacher. This method is considered to be more effective while teaching young learners and teenagers.

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Tips for Direction method:

• Teachers are supposed to start their lesson with Pictures or visual resources to get the students involved in the lesson.
• Being clear, concise, and easy to be understood would be considered a benefit.
• Giving details about the lesson and explaining it in depth would also be appreciated and liked by the learners. The second method is called interactive or discussing method which includes more conversational activities, spoken exercises, and discussions. In this method, students are encouraged to think and express their thoughts and ideas and they are given more opportunities to explain and talk about their topics. The main aim of this method is to make students speak and have their ideas on different topics.

Tips for discussing method:

• Conversational and discussion questions must be prepared in advance to save time and make the process smooth. Bear in mind that in most cultures and countries learners would not be interested to discuss some issues such as their history or religion.
• All students should be involved in the discussion and conversation.
• Random questions should be asked and even students should be allowed to give their opinions and ask questions. The third method or style of teaching is named Empowerment or delegation which is all about giving and assigning projects, tasks to the students and act as an observer. The main purpose of this type is to give more courage to the students and make them ready for their future tasks in their workplace or university lives.

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Tips and suggestions:

• Teachers should assign research assignments to students in advance and make them do research.
• Group assignments can be advantageous.
• Ask them to use more visuals. All in all, I believe and understand that there is no perfect teaching style and it depends upon the subject, age group, culture of the learners, teacher’s teaching style, and the result.

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