The effectiveness of teaching styleof teachers in the students academic performance

Learning is the process of acquiring new, or modifying existing, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or
preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machines. Some learning is
immediate, induced by a single event, but much skill and knowledge accumulates from repeated
experiences.

Human learning begins before birth and continues until death as a consequence of ongoing interactions
between person and environment. The nature and processes involved in learning are studied in many
fields, including educational psychology, neuropsychology, experimental psychology, and pedagogy.
Research in such fields has led to the identification of various sorts of learning. Learning may occur
consciously or without conscious awareness. Learning that an aversive event can't be avoided nor
escaped may result in a condition called learned helplessness.

For years teachers and students have had to struggle with how to teach and how to learn. Each teacher
has their particular style but then so do most students. The different problems develop when teachers
and students don’t match.

Knowing the best and easiest way student learns is perhaps one of the most important tasks a teacher
must do. Also, learning how to provide opportunities for learning through the use of these identified
learning preferences.

Teachers often use their preferred learning style as their main mode of teaching and if students do not
share those same preferences then learning can be very difficult and frustrating.

Understanding the differences in students skills and attitude can be a help in order to maximize the
students’ learning potential. Listening to opinions and interests and it will bring teachers to have a closer
understanding about students special capabilities and will reveal the more effective ways to teach
students using their preferred learning styles.

No student is exclusively for one style or another and most utilize a variety of modalities when learning.
It is important to expand their abilities to use as many learning styles as possible, helping them to
succeed in a world where how one learns often means nothing and only the ability to learn has value.

Each of us processes and distinguishes information differently based on our personality patterns, how
we interact socially and a general like or dislike for the subject matter or interest. We all like to learn
about subjects we are interested in and often struggle in areas that hold no interest.

How a child thinks and the way they sense and perceive their surroundings often affects the way they
learn. The connections to memory are also associated with our senses and perceptions creating a
complex and often individualized process of learning and memory. Personality patterns focus on
attention, emotion, and values. Understanding these differences allows techers to predict the way the
students might react and feel about different situations.
Social interactions look at likely attitudes, habits, and strategies learners might take toward their work
and how they engage with others when they learn. Learners can be independent, dependent,
collaborative, competitive, participant or avoidant.

Interest plays a critical role in learning. When a student is interested in the topics or subjects they
naturally learn and retain information at a higher rate. Helping the students develop a variety of
interests will naturally increase their level of learning overall.

Teachers may want to start with understanding your individual patterns of learning and how those
mentioned above affect how you learn. From teachers perspective, they can try to understand the
patterns of the student. The differences between teacher and the student or student are not necessarily
wrong or right and teachers will most likely find their patterns are different. It’s important, however, to
capitalize on what works for the student and to help them to utilize those patterns and learning styles
toward a greater capacity to learn and remember.

Every teacher has her or his own style of teaching. And as traditional teaching styles evolve with the
advent of differentiated instruction, more and more teachers are adjusting their approach depending on
their students’ learning needs.

The Authority, or lecture style

The authority model is teacher-centered and frequently entails lengthy lecture sessions or one-way
presentations. Students are expected to take notes or absorb information.

Pros: This style is acceptable for certain higher-education disciplines and auditorium settings with large
groups of students. The pure lecture style is most suitable for subjects like history, which necessitate
memorization of key facts, dates, names, etc.

The Facilitator, or activity style

Facilitators promote self-learning and help students develop critical thinking skills and retain knowledge
that leads to self-actualization.

Pros: This style trains students to ask questions and helps develop skills to find answers and solutions
through exploration; it is ideal for teaching science and similar subjects.

The Hybrid, or blended style

Hybrid, or blended style, follows an integrated approach to teaching that blends the teacher’s
personality and interests with students’ needs and curriculum-appropriate methods.

Pros: It enables teachers to tailor their styles to student needs and appropriate subject matter.

Because teachers have styles that reflect their distinct personalities and curriculum, it’s crucial that they
remain focused on their teaching objectives and avoid trying to be all things to all students.

The strict teachers are usually the ones that set high standards of achievement and are inflexible about
the grading. Some students thrive in such a structured and predictable environment. Other students
rebel against the authoritarian nature of”strict” teachers. It also depends on how the strict teacher
enforces their standards. For instance, one teacher might be very heavy handed about their
enforcement of achievement levels and use punishments and harsh words to get the results from the
students. Another teacher may set and enforce equally high standards, but lead the students to achieve
by encouragement and by doing all they can to entice the students through the material.

Demonstrating and collaboration are the most effective teaching methods. The side benefit is the
development of communication skills and teamwork. However, the experience with all main teaching
methods, including explanation, demonstration, learning by teaching, as well as some unorthodox
methods.

When preparing lesson plans, teachers must always think carefully about it and try to apply the most
suitable methods in each lesson. They must try to mix it up, so the students experience the unknown,
and the lessons are not routine, or boring.

Each method has certain benefits and should be applied in some situations. In one class teachers may
prefer explaining, especially if pupils struggled with discipline. Then in some other classes, students are
more creative, so teachers may prefer collaborating. Trying to apply various methods and observe about
the reaction of the students, measuring both their progress and interest. After a few lessons I typically
know which method works with them, and which does not.

Group work can be an effective method to motivate students, encourage active learning, and develop
key critical-thinking, communication, and decision-making skills. But without careful planning and
facilitation, group work can frustrate students and instructors and feel like a waste of time.

The activity should relate closely to the course objectives and class content and must be designed to
help students learn, not simply to occupy their time. Roberson and Franchini (2014) emphasize that for
group learning to be effective, students need a clear sense that group work is "serving the stated
learning goals and disciplinary thinking goals" of the course. Make the task challenging. Consider giving a
relatively easy task early in the term to arouse students’ interest in group work and encourage their
progress. In most cases collaborative exercises should be stimulating and challenging.

Assign group tasks that encourage involvement, interdependence, and a fair division of labour. All group
members should feel a sense of personal responsibility for the success of their teammates and realize
that their individual success depends on the group’s success. Johnson, Johnson, and Smith (2014) refer
to this as positive interdependence and argue that this type of cooperative learning tends to result in
learners promoting each other's success. Knowing that peers are relying on you is a powerful motivator
for group work.

Allocate essential resources across the group so that group members are required to share information .
Or, to come up with a consensus, randomly select one person to speak for the group, or assign different
roles to group members so that they are all involved in the process.

The main problem here is that the instructional design has not changed because the actual online
methodology has not been understood. In professional development for teachers, more time should be
spent on methodology training than on technology training. Usually, the reverse is true, and teachers
can know how the technology works but remain confused about what the benefits are to instruction or
why the change is necessary in the first place.

The Challenge to Methods

The combination of both effective classroom delivery and online delivery into a hybrid design can be a
successful tool. Teachers focus throughout was to look at how the design of instruction and how the use
of technology could heighten the engagement of the students in their learning process. As stated, many
educational institutions (schools, colleges, and universities) are moving toward hybrid programming and
hybrid course delivery intentionally to provide more flexibility for on ground students and to increase
the overall marketability of programs of study to potential students. However, the main benefit to
hybrid from a teaching and learning viewpoint is that it provides an opportunity for the learning process
to become much more engaging for students, and for students to drive the learning process more
directly. It is also an effective way to increase students' learning autonomy (Reynard, presentation at
Middle Tennessee instructional technology conference, 2006). In other words, with the integration of
the Internet both to deliver and to mediate the learning process in combination with face to face
contact with other students and with the instructor, hybrid provides a meaningful opportunity to bring
together the best of both worlds, so to speak.

Although most courses of study require students to interact with the content of the course and with the
instructor, when the course design is linear and conventional, there are pre-set expectations about
content, interaction, learning products and evaluation.

Educational author and former teacher, Dr. Michael Schmoker shares in his book, Results Now, a study
that found of 1,500 classrooms visited, 85 percent of them had engaged less than 50 percent of the
students. In other words, only 15 percent of the classrooms had more than half of the class at least
paying attention to the lesson.

Paying attention (alert, tracking with their eyes)

Taking notes (particularly Cornell)

Listening (as opposed to chatting, or sleeping)

Asking questions (content related, or in a game, like 21 questions or I-Spy)

Responding to questions (whole group, small group, four corners, Socratic Seminar)

Following requests (participating, Total Physical Response (TPR), storytelling, Simon Says)

Reacting (laughing, crying, shouting, etc.)

STUDENT-DIRECTED LEARNING

You see students individually or in small groups...

Reading critically (with pen in hand)

Writing to learn, creating, planning, problem solving, discussing, debating, and asking questions)

Performing/presenting, inquiring, exploring, explaining, evaluating, and experimenting)

Interacting with other students, gesturing and moving

To boil the descriptions above down and get at the essence of student engagement, whether for
teacher-directed learning or student-directed learning, engaged means students are active. Is that
surprising? I shouldn't think so. If true learning is to occur, then students have to be at the very least
participants in the process, and not merely products.

I believe that the majority of teachers pick up on the audience cues as they direct-teach and can tell if a
student is not interested or not engaged. Most teachers act on what they see and adjust their
instruction to try to engage all of their students. However, no matter how hard teachers work at making
it interesting, a lecture is still a lecture, and having students simply listen is still a passive action. The
solution is simple: If a teacher wants to increase student engagement, then the teacher needs to
increase student activity -- ask the students to do something with the knowledge and skills they have
learned. Break up the lecture with learning activities. Let them practice. Get them moving. Get them
talking. Make it so engaging that it will be difficult for students not to participate.

The ultimate engagement is to put the learner in charge of learning. Create a rich learning environment
and a motivation to learn, and the students do all the hard work of learning, while the teacher merely
facilitates.

Do not minimize the hard work involved in creating those rich learning scenarios, custom-made
motivators and engaging learning content. And it is a bit risky. Sometimes it works like a charm, and
other times it would have been better to assign seat work. But we keep trying, improving, and
enhancing until we get it right.

Every school-going child has something to say about their experience. Some students love school
especially if it has activities that interest them and good friends to play with. If a child’s academic
performance, relationships with administration and friends, and their health are doing well, they will tell
you that they enjoy school.

However others have a different story. School is the last place they want to be. If they are not bullying
other children and escaping from school, they are the children who are labelled as weird, teased and
taunted by the rest.

So what can be done to help such children get a different view of school?

Fun activities
One of the ways students can be encouraged to enjoy school is to get them to have an experience that
makes them feel like they are growing socially, emotional and physically and this can only be achieved if
we make school interesting.

According to Margaret Akwango, a parent, students should join clubs and other such things based on
their interests. In fact, Akwango says, students can start their own clubs if they find none in the school
that interests them, as long as they talk to the authorities about it.

If for example, your child enjoys knitting or dancing, you can encourage them to start such a club at the
school. They do not have to start big. It can begin with two or three people who are interested in the
activity and eventually grow with time.

Make school feel a little like home

Some children do not like school at all because it makes them miss the comfort of home. Having been
used to a loving and caring environment at home, they find it hard to cope with a different set of rules
and atmosphere.

One way they can be made to feel more comfortable is by being allowed to hang pictures of family or
close friends on their walls or personal space so that they feel at home. Germina Yvonne a parent, says
that students develop attachment to things or places, so they should be at liberty to decorate their
rooms or dorms if they can.

“No one likes to stay in an uncomfortable environment, therefore students should be allowed to have
personal items to make their place homely,” she says.

Work other than academics

Another thing children can do is work on development projects that demand their time, creativity and
skill but that is different from books. These include projects like manufacturing things such as soap and
candles or coming up with innovations. And these should not stop at school.

Hajat Lukia Namuli Mayanja, the deputy headmistress of Mariam High School says, “These skills
shouldn’t only be used at school but parents should encourage their children to do these when at
home.”

Encourage socialising

Mayanja also encourages parents to take their children to schools that have outings because these will
help them get to know other people outside their school, as well learn the art of socialising.

In order for students not to think that school is only about reading and studying, Lucia Esingu a parent
says, “Students should try to schedule their time so that they can have free time for socialising or
entertainment.” Entertainment can include watching movies the school shows or personal time for
reading novels.

Talk to them

As a parent, it is easy to assume your child is just being lazy and not paying attention to school work. But
you may find that in many cases, there is a serious cause for the poor academic performance. It could be
that the child is being bullied by classmates or even by teachers. It is important as a parent that you get
to the bottom of the problem before judging your child and “giving up on them.”

Ruth Matoya a counsellor at Healing Talk centre on Akamwesi complex in Nakawa says that counsellors
can help a parent make their child talk. “These will help the student open up especially on things that
will make school interesting for them,” she says.

Challenge them positively

Some students may need a school that challenges them academically. Habib Ssenyonga, a teacher at
Nabisunsa Girls SS says that although the social skills may be interesting, some students need to be
challenged in areas like competition in speeches, poetry writing, tutoring other students or
student/teacher debates.

“Students with a high IQ need a school which has their intellectual level,” he says.

Change schools

Sometimes, the school is just not the right one for your child. If they are constantly being bullied and no
authority is looking into it, or if they are just uncomfortable with many things in the school which you
cannot change, you might be better off putting them in a school where they are comfortable and can
concentrate.

Matoya says: “Every child needs someone who doesn’t give up on them. It makes them happy to know
that they have someone to lean on and having one will make school interesting for the student.”

But, she says, if the child doesn’t respond to anything, then the parent should transfer him/her to
another school.editorial@ug.nationmedia.com

The Effect of the Teacher's Teaching Style on Students' Motivation Action Research

SUBMITTED BY: MARIA THERESA BARBEROS, ARNOLD GOZALO, EUBERTA PADAYOGDOG SUBMITTED
TO: LEE TZONGJIN, Ed.D. CHAPTER I THE EFFECT OF TEACHERS' TEACHING STYLE ON STUDENTS'
MOTIVATION
Introduction

The teachers, being the focal figure in education, must be competent and knowledgeable in order to
impart the knowledge they could give to their students. Good teaching is a very personal manner.
Effective teaching is concerned with the student as a person and with his general development. The
teacher must recognize individual differences among his/her students and adjust instructions that best
suit to the learners. It is always a fact that as educators, we play varied and vital roles in the classroom.
Teachers are considered the light in the classroom. We are entrusted with so many responsibilities that
range from the very simple to most complex and very challenging jobs. Everyday we encounter them as
part of the work or mission that we are in. It is very necessary that we need to understand the need to
be motivated in doing our work well, so as to have motivated learners in the classroom. When students
are motivated, then learning will easily take place. However, motivating students to learn requires a very
challenging role on the part of the teacher. It requires a variety of teaching styles or techniques just to
capture students' interests. Above all, the teacher must himself come into possession of adequate
knowledge of the objectives and standards of the curriculum, skills in teaching, interests, appreciation
and ideals. He needs to exert effort to lead children or students into a life that is large, full, stimulating
and satisfying. Some students seem naturally enthusiastic about learning, but many need or expect their
instructors or teachers to inspire, challenge or stimulate them. "Effective learning in the classroom
depends on the teacher's ability to maintain the interest that brought students to the course in the first
place (Erickson, 1978). Not all students are motivated by the same values, needs, desires and wants.
Some students are motivated by the approval of others or by overcoming challenges.

Teachers must recognize the diversity and complexity in the classroom, be it the ethnicity, gender,
culture, language abilities and interests. Getting students to work and learn in class is largely influenced
in all these areas. Classroom diversity exists not only among students and their peers but may be also
exacerbated by language and cultural differences between teachers and students.

Since 2003, many foreign professional teachers, particularly from the Philippines, came to New York City
to teach with little knowledge of American school settings. Filipino teachers have distinct styles and
expressions of teaching. They expect that: education is interactive and spontaneous; teachers and
students work together in the teaching-learning process; students learn through participation and
interaction; homework is only part of the process; teaching is an active process; students are not passive
learners; factual information is readily available; problem solving, creativity and critical thinking are
more important; teachers should facilitate and model problem solving; students learn by being actively
engaged in the process; and teachers need to be questioned and challenged. However, many Filipino
teachers encountered many difficulties in teaching in NYC public schools. Some of these problems may
be attributed to: students' behavior such as attention deficiency, hyperactivity disorder, and disrespect
among others; and language barriers such as accent and poor understanding of languages other than
English (e.g. Spanish).

As has been said, what happens in the classroom depends on the teacher's ability to maintain students'
interests. Thus, teachers play a vital role in effecting classroom changes.

As stressed in the Educator's Diary published in 1995, "teaching takes place only when learning does."
Considering one's teaching style and how it affects students' motivation greatly concerns the
researchers. Although we might think of other factors, however, emphasis has been geared towards the
effect of teacher's teaching style and student motivation.