Teaching Styles - Essay Example

Analyzing teaching styles and incorporating teaching practice Claudette le Roux Undergraduate This paper deals with exploring a teaching situation within a classroom. It will discuss the role of a coordinating teacher, the style that he or she uses and in which way cooperating learning is encouraged. I used articles to help analyze these factors and to guide the outcome of this paper. Analyzing teaching styles and incorporating teaching practice Students were given workbooks containing a mathematical problem; to create a mosaic using certain criteria.

Students were asked to work individually on the project and had to complete two worksheets in the workbook: the “What do you know” and “What do you think” worksheets. Afterwards the class was divided into groups: each group consisted of only boys or only girls. These groups were mixed with strong and weak members and were asked to discuss and fully understand a point before continuing to the next and the teacher visited each team to ensure that each team understood what was required of them.

Time was spent on a draft before commencing to the completed copy. Changes were to be made in another color or with a pen. This scenario is seen as a cooperative learning situation. Students work together in teams to complete a task; only their communication and teamwork skills will determine if their outcome will be successful. Johnson (1988) defines the word “cooperating” as “students working together in a group”. Students doing group work achieve better, as the members support and motivate each other.

Learners also learn from other members’ ideas and perspectives and are more positive about school, teachers and projects. (Johnson, 1988) When working in teams learners are also more positive and that boosts their self-esteem, regardless of their abilities or background. They build on their communicative and interaction skills. Discussion From a cooperating teacher’s perspective these teams need to be managed and monitored, to ensure that all the team members give equal participation in order to prevent individuality.

When creating a lesson plan for a situation as above: a cooperation starting point needs to be put in place. Johnson (1988) suggests that research has shown that students doing group work achieve better where problem-solving and conflicting thinking is involved, as learners exchange ideas and work harder to achieve the desired outcome. Johnson (1988) suggests that when considering the size of the groups the following factors need to be considered: the time limit, the cooperative skills level of the members of a group and the type of task chosen.

The scenario mentioned above had homogeneous groups, but I believe that heterogeneous groups are better as boys and girls can learn to interact with each other. Arrange the groups in the classroom; they do not have to be close to each other but there needs to be easy communication with a teacher and between students. Provide as much materials as possible; jumble the material so that each group member has equal responsibility. In this situation the teacher’s role was that of a facilitator or delegator.

“Teachers provide complex tasks that require student initiative, and often group work, to complete.” (Indiana State University, 2011).Communication is key in “cooperating” teaching styles. From my teaching experience I have found using facial expressions and gestures capture the attention of the students when communicating the cooperative goal to students. My opinion is to converse guidelines step-by-step and then continue by establishing that everyone understands what is required, before proceeding to the next step.

Learners need to be observed in order to establish the education level of the students. I have experienced that some students have lesser capabilities than others and may need more attention and motivation. Lacking skills need to be established and dealt with appropriately. I like to use this teaching style in my classroom, especially with foreign students, as it builds their vocabulary and helps them to practice their personality. It may be time consuming but more attention can be focused on problem areas that arise.

If learners are able to work cooperatively in a group, it may have a positive impact on future relationships in their lives such as in the corporate world, marriage, friendships and in the community. References Johnson, Roger .T and David. W (1988). Cooperative learning: two heads learn better than one. Transforming education Page 34. Retrieved from http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC18/Johnson.htm Indiana State University: Center for instruction, research and technology, 2011. Teaching styles and Instructional uses of the World Wide Web.

Retrieved from http://www.indstate.edu/cirt/id/pedagogies/styles/tstyle.html