The goal of teaching is to make sure students understand the concepts taught well enough to apply or teach them to others. Different teachers employ different styles to reach this goal. Below are some of the various types of teachers and their teaching styles.
Teacher Type #1 – The Authority
Teachers who use the authority or lecture style model engage in one-way presentations. As the teacher delivers a lecture, students dutifully take notes or listen. In this class, the teacher is the final authority. He or she takes the central role and all a student needs to do is listen and take notes, if they so wish. For these types of teachers, they can often teach a large number of students packed in an auditorium or huge lecture halls.
While demonstrative subjects such as the sciences do not lend themselves to this style of teaching, others such as history, which require students to memorize names, dates, and key facts, can be taught using this approach. The downside, however, is that a teacher using this teaching model rarely interacts directly with the students. It may work for more mature students, but not with children.
Teacher Type #2 – The Demonstrator
This type of teacher is also a coach. They use the coaching style to demonstrate to students what they ought to know. Like the lecturer, they retain the formal authority, but they employ demonstrations, multimedia presentations, and other activities aimed at enriching the learning experience. Some of the subjects that can be taught using this approach include music, science, and math.
For these types of teachers, their teaching approach incorporates multimedia presentations and lectures, which enrich the learning experience. However, this approach is ideal for subjects such as arts, crafts, music, and mathematics. It does not work well in larger classrooms and hence, does not factor each student’s individual needs.
Teacher Type #3 – The Facilitator
The facilitator uses the activity style, which involves encouraging self-learning among the students. This approach enables the students to hone their critical thinking skills and knowledge retention, which in turn helps them attain self-actualization. The advantage of this teaching approach is that it provides students with an opportunity to ask questions. It, therefore, encourages them to seek solutions to problems through exploration.
Science and related subjects lend themselves to this style of teaching. This approach challenges the teacher to engage with the students and guide them towards discovery, as opposed to lecturing and testing their retention by encouraging memorization.
Teacher Type #4 – The Delegator
The delegator is an expert at leveraging the group style of teaching. Subjects that should be taught using the group style include those that involve laboratory activities such as biology, chemistry, or those that require peer response such as creative writing and debate. The advantage of this approach to teaching is that the teacher takes an observer role as he or she guides students towards an inquiry-based and discovery learning process.
This approach dramatically inspires students since they see themselves as working alongside the teacher to achieve common goals. The downside to this approach, however, is that it is seen as a compromised modern teaching style that is at times faulted for eroding the authority of the teacher. In contrast to the authority teacher, the delegator teacher acts more or less as a consultant.
Teacher Type #5 – The Hybrid Teacher
These types of teachers are the experts at blending. He or she blends different curriculum-appropriate teaching styles that integrate a teacher’s interest and personality with that of the students. Since it is inclusive, this approach is highly effective. It helps the teachers to align their teaching styles with the requirement of the subject matter and the needs of the students.
The only setback with this approach to learning is that the teacher could end up spreading themselves too thin by trying to implement an over-arching teaching method that seeks to be everything to every student. The end, of course, is confusion and a lack of focus on the critical components of a subject.
Teacher Type #6 – The Tech Savvy Teacher
This type of teacher takes advantage of the advancements in technology to engage with the students. This high tech approach uses various technological applications to facilitate classroom learning. Among devices used by these tech-savvy teachers are tablets, computers, and online resources such as the internet.
The internet has especially proven a critical component of modern-day learning. This is because it features a vast array of learning resources, mostly free, that tech-savvy teachers use to broaden the minds of their students by opening them up to unlimited online resources.
Every teacher should use a teaching style that best explains concepts to enhance knowledge retention. While there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to teaching styles, some subjects lend themselves to certain styles and a certain type of teacher than others. Whatever your style, it is critical that you stay focused on the teaching objectives and desist from being and doing everything for your students.