Teachers are one of the most underappreciated people in our society. They spend much of their lives passing on knowledge to future generations, and often they have to deal with going unrecognized. Yet these people are actively working for a better future by ensuring that the children of today have the knowledge they need to survive and thrive in the world.
However, not all teachers do the job the same way. Throughout the years, there have been a myriad of teaching styles developed, tried, and tested, each one with its own pros and cons. While an EdD higher education online, or other teaching qualification, is a worthy and highly beneficial pursuit, it works best if a teacher is able to back up their knowledge with delivery that engages their students and gets them excited about learning.
To that end, the following are some of the most effective teaching styles and techniques developed through the ages of human education.
Lecturer
A lecturer is a high-authority position, able to deliver massive amounts of information and answer questions quickly and directly. This teaching style is based on teaching large numbers of students and having a thoroughly structured, planned-out presentation before the actual class. It is a time-effective method, allowing teachers to condense content to the relevant facts, answer questions, and retain class control.
The drawback to this method of teaching, however, is that it allows for minimal class engagement. Students are forced to sit still and listen. While this may sound effective, it is important to remember that hypodermic needles are efficient at delivering medicine, but the injection never feels good. Students, particularly those with ADHD, may struggle to regulate attention during classes, resulting in lessons going over their heads. This method of teaching also fails to address diverse learning styles and students with specialized needs.
Demonstrator
Let’s get one thing straight – all lessons require some level of lecturing. The difference is whether or not the lesson focuses on the lecture or the lesson. To highlight the difference, let’s take a look at the demonstrator teaching style.
Demonstrators air the lecturing portion of the lesson with tools, aids, and (you guessed it) demonstration! They may deliver the content verbally, but they enhance it with slide presentations, practical exercises and experiments, or other multimedia tools.
This has several benefits. It allows the course content to be delivered, but the use of additional materials to assist with the lesson means that the student’s focus is broken up between the teacher and the activity. Students will be more engaged when they get to do something rather than being forced to listen to someone. It also simplifies complicated topics, opens discussions, and creates a sensory learning environment.
Drawbacks come from class times restricting realistic demonstrations, increased preparation time for teachers, misunderstanding, and a lack of back-and-forth interaction.
Hybrid
While the demonstrator style leans a little closer to student-based learning, it is still fairly teacher-based. That is, it relies fully on the teacher to teach, rather than on the students to learn. The hybrid teaching style takes the middle path between the extreme teacher-based and student-based teaching styles.
These teachers employ a wide variety of methods to get their lessons across. They may open up a web forum for their students to discuss class topics. They may integrate demonstrations and experiments for some lessons, while others are delivered verbally. They may make use of more unorthodox teaching methods to help students remain engaged and retain lessons, or assign readings before and after classes.
While this carries the benefits of catering to diverse student needs and blends tradition with modernity, it can be difficult to use this method in information-heavy classes. It also requires a lot of coordination and organization, and can be overly dependent on resources and tech.
Facilitator
Now we cross the border into student-based teaching styles. The facilitator doesn’t deliver a lecture that follows a traditional beginning-to-end structure, but rather works by posing questions and problems to the class, and encouraging and assisting the class in arriving at the correct conclusion themselves.
Facilitator lessons are wonderful for encouraging critical thinking, deep analysis techniques, and improving problem-solving. Not only that, but because the lesson relies on the presence and interaction of the students, they tend to remain more engaged and interested in the topics presented. It also allows students a platform to share unique ideas, beliefs, or opinions.
However, it is difficult to use the facilitator style in heavily theory-based or technical classes. It also calls for some heavy diplomatic skills from the teacher to avoid destructive arguments and to guide discussions effectively.
Delegator
Now we cross over fully into student-based teaching with the delegator. This teacher focuses on projects related to the course content. The delegator usually splits their class up into smaller groups, then provides the materials and resources for students to plan, execute, and present the results of their respective projects.
This keeps students fully engaged, as their education is left almost entirely up to them, and the creative element allows students with unique outlooks to thrive.
The main problems come from its lack of applicability in typical classrooms. Not every lesson can be left up to students to learn, and some shyer students may feel overwhelmed by social pressure. Additionally, the onus on students to find their own answers makes this style inefficient for time-strict classes.
