Challenges in Teaching and Learning at the Postsecondary Level: What Style Works for You and Why?

Abstract

Two pilot studies were designed to investigate the preferred learning styles of postsecondary students at a midsize Historically Black College/University (HBCU), and the types of teaching methods used by the diverse faculty. In one study, student candidates from the department of curriculum and instruction were utilized as data collectors to discover what university students believed were the teaching strategies that helped them learn difficult material. The data collected from a small group of students represented was diverse with respect to gender, ethnicity/origin, discipline of study and classification. The other study surveyed the preferred teaching styles of the faculty in the College of Education. The first study revealed that students preferred a variety of teaching styles, including teaching styles that were more challenging such as case studies. The second study noted that the diverse faculty used an average of ten teaching methods. The results initially indicated the diverse faculty used multiple methods of teaching, that appeared to match the learning needs of the students.