‘A different color on an artistic palette’: teaching styles and beliefs

Abstract

This descriptive study attempted to explore teaching styles by eliciting beliefs of a group of English language teachers through Peacock’s (Int J Appl Linguist 11:1–20, 2001) Perceptual Teaching Style Preference Questionnaire and interviews based on Reid’s hypotheses (TESOL Q 21:87–111, 1987; Learning styles in the ESL/EFL classroom. Boston: Heinle & Heinle, 1995) on learning styles and Doyle and Rutherford’s (Theory Pract 23:20–25, 1984) suggestions on matched instructional designs. The mixed methods research design was adopted in the current study, and concurrent triangulation was used to corroborate the findings. Study findings indicated that the participants reportedly applied the group teaching style more frequently than the other styles and favored a repertoire of the visual and auditory perceptual teaching styles. Although participants were mostly positive about the importance of learning styles, effects of perceptual teaching styles on learning, and the matched instructional design, they did not believe that their students were aware of their own learning styles and noted various curricular and administrative constraints in relation to implementation of the matched instruction. Consequently, the current study suggested that the language teachers and their line managers should consider effective planning and implementation of the entire teaching operation in relation to the matched instructional design in their classrooms. Also, it is recommended that as part of their professional development, the classroom practitioners are encouraged to explore their students’ “voices” and raise their learners’ awareness regarding their learning styles for more effective teaching–learning processes.