5 Teaching Styles to Try in Your Classroom

The Authority Style

The authority style is when the teacher gives a lengthy, one-way discussion about a specific topic while students memorise key pieces of information and take notes. Due to the nature of this style its most commonly used in a lecture or auditorium setting.

This style allows teachers to deliver a lot of information about a specific topic in great detail with minimal interruption or intervention, which is why it’s so popular in tertiary education settings. This style of teaching is less common in a standard classroom setting because it offers little to no student participation and interaction. This makes it hard to meet the needs of each individual pupil.

The Delegator Style

The delegator style is best suited for classes and subjects that facilitate or require group work, peer review or lab-based learning. The delegator style involves a delegator or group method of teaching, this allows the teacher to take an observer role in order to promote collaboration, encourage peer-to-peer learning and potentially intervene if necessary.

This is becoming an increasingly popular style of teaching in modern classrooms, but there are some criticisms towards it. Some critics consider it to be a less effective teaching strategy as it removes the teacher from a position of authority and places them in a less involved hands-off position. This suggests its effectiveness varies from class to class.

The Facilitator Style

The facilitator style is an activity-based style of teaching that encourages self-learning in the classroom through peer-to-teacher learning. The facilitator style involves teachers asking students to question rather than simply having the answer given to them. This style makes use of activities to promote self-discovery and facilitates the development of problem-solving skills. This way of teaching often leads students to develop a much deeper understanding of the topic being taught to them.

This style is not well suited to large classes as the teacher needs to actively interact and engage with individual students. The design layout of the room also plays an important role in making the most out of this style of teaching.

The Demonstrator Style

The demonstrator style is similar to the authority style as the teacher, or demonstrator, retains authority in the classroom. The difference, however, is that instead of solely relying on a verbal lecture, the demonstrator style combines lecturing with other teaching styles, including multimedia presentations, practical demonstrations, and class activities.

This style is very well suited for creative and artistic classes such as music, art, and even physical education where demonstrations are required to fully understand the topic at hand. There are some areas of study that benefit more from the demonstrator style rather than the authority style. There is little direct teacher to pupil interaction with the demonstrator style meaning it is less difficult to accommodate the needs of all students.

The Hybrid Style

The final major teaching style is the hybrid style. This style is used when teachers adopt an integrated teaching style that incorporates their personality, preferences, and interests. This style is commonly used in subjects like English, Religious Studies, and Science. The hybrid style allows teachers to tailor their tutoring to different pupils and classes and incorporate extra-curricular knowledge to develop a deeper knowledge of a particular topic.

Some critics claim that the hybrid style can weaken the learning process as teachers try to be all things to students which may be overwhelming, distracting or may weaken their authority.

Finding the right teaching style comes down to knowing your own strengths as a teacher and understanding what you need to get across. For a deeper look at the various teaching styles, techniques, and strategies you can use please explore our CPD courses, free to all registered candidates.