CH 11 – Teaching Styles and
Strategies to Meet Learners’ Needs
Direct teaching:
– Most teachers use this
– You explain and demonstrate a skill and everyone
practices the same skill at the same time and they
same way and the teacher gives feedback
– Saves instructional time and is good when the
material can be learned in a strictly sequential,
progressive manner.
– Does NOT help with skills requiring higher-order
thinking & unstructured organization.
Teaching Styles
The following styles are on a continuum
from the command style, for which the
teacher makes all of the decisions to the
self-teaching style where the students
make nearly all of the decisions
 EVERY style has a place depending on the
situation (time and environment),
students, teachers, and content
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1. Command Style
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Teacher makes all the decisions.
Teacher gives step by step instructions
All students perform the same task at the same
time
Often appropriate for the initial learning stages,
especially where safety is a concern
Also appropriate when instructional time is
limited or student behavior dictates a highly
structured class routine
2. Practice Style
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Most commonly used style in PE
Teacher determines what is taught, introduces the skills
and tasks through demonstration or the use of task
cards.
Student determine the number of practice trials and
often the order in which they will practice the skills
Teacher circulates throughout the class giving feedback
and answering questions
Good for initial state of learning and when you don’t
have a lot of instructional time.
Better than command, because students have more time
to practice skills and have more responsibility for their
learning
3. Reciprocal
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Students give each other feedback
Teacher determines the task they practice and identify
crucial features for them
Before this, you check for understanding by providing a
number of demonstrations that include common errors,
asking students to identify the errors and you give
appropriate feedback
Students work in pairs and the observer gives the doer
feedback – a check list or criteria sheet helps
Teacher communicates only with the observer
Helps with social skills
Limit to review of previously learned information
4. Self-check
Teacher determines the task the student
will practice and identify the critical
features.
 The feedback comes from the student
 Should be skills where they can clearly see
results.
 Helps them become more self-reliant, but
does limit interactions with others – not
really appropriate for middle schoolers
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5. Inclusion
Very appropriate for middle schoolers
Teacher determines the task and its critical
features, but you also give the students a choice
of performance levels for the task from which
they may select the level of practice that they
think is right for them.
 May change size and weight of an object; size;
distance, and height of a target; body position,
etc.
 It is the students’ responsibility to determine
when they are ready to move to a more difficult
performance level
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6. Guided Discovery
Teacher determines the task and then arranges a
sequence of problems or questions that, when solved by
the students, leads to the one correct response.
 Students must give a verbal or motor response to each
prompt
 Must give the students enough time to think through
each question or problem
 May need to adjust prompts if all or most of students
respond incorrectly
 Your goal is to logically guide students
 Takes time, BUT students will learn material
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7. Convergent Discovery
Student goes though the discovery
process without any clues from you
 Should master guided discovery first
 Must select activities through which the
students are able to discover the correct
answer.
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8. Divergent Production
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A problem-solving style
You select a task and design a problem that can
be solved in a variety of ways. Then ask
students to find solutions and evaluate the
effectiveness of each.
Improve motor skills by showing students many
different ways to accomplish tasks
Best for learning tasks similar to tasks students
have already mastered.
Great at developing social skills
9. Individual Program-Learner’s
Design
Teacher chooses the general subject
material, but you allow the learner to
choose the specific question and
determine possible solutions.
 We don’t use this much yet – but with
more emphasis on individualized learning,
we will
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10. Learner Initiated
Learner initiates the style for themselves.
The student approaches you and states
their desire to initiate and conduct
learning activities.
 We don’t use this much, yet
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11. Self-teaching
Exact opposite of command style
 Doesn’t exist in the classroom, but it does
in real life.
 Encourages students to pursue their own
educational interests, based on their own
capabilities and needs both outside the
school setting and when possible within
the school setting.
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Instructional Strategies
Teaching styles – address the question of
who is making the decisions about
instruction
 Instructional strategies – refer to the
arrangement of the teacher, learner, and
environment
 Many different types – we will explore only
two
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Station Teaching
Students are in small groups and rotate from
learning center to learning center effectively and
efficiently.
 Provides students with a variety of drills and
tasks
 Works best when equipment or space is limited
 Provides students with opportunities to practice
and apply the same skill to different situations –
crucial to mastering open skills
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Station Teaching (Cont.)
Set up different activities around the
gymnasium
 Divide class into equal number of groups
and assign to a different starting station
 Place a task card describing what you
want them to do
 Make sure each station requires about the
same amount of time to complete.
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Station Teaching (Cont.)
Have students complete a data sheet at
each station.
 It is best to start with only 3-4 stations
and then add more -this will minimize
teacher talk
 Can use this with a variety of teaching
styles – reciprocal, self-check, and
inclusion
 Keep tasks fairly simple
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Cooperative Learning
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Research shows that cooperative learning
results in greater achievement gains,
improved cross-cultural friendships,
increased social skills, enhanced selfesteem, greater interdependence
(teamwork), increased cognitive and
affective abilities, and an improved
classroom climate.
Cooperative Learning (Cont.)
True cooperative learning requires:
1. Formation of heterogeneous teams
2. Establishment of positive interdependence and
individual accountability
3. Opportunity for team members to get
acquainted with one another and establish a
team identity.
4. Use of an established structure
5. Opportunity to debrief the situation
1. Form heterogeneous teams
Teams should have a balance of gender,
ethnicity, ability, etc.
 You can randomly assign and then adjust
for the above or you can rank students by
ability and then assign one from the top
with one from the bottom, etc.
 Group sizes of 4-6 are about right, but
partners can work too.
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2. Establish positive interdependence
and individual accountability
Set up one task to be accomplished by
each group. Make sure it can be
completed ONLY if the students cooperate
 Establish individual accountability making
sure each member has a specific task,
role, or resource ensuring that each must
contribute to the successful completion of
the task
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3. Promote Team Building
Students need time to get to know one
another and develop trust before being
presented with a task
 Groups go through 4 stages:
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– Forming
– Storming
– Norming
– Performing
4. Select a Structure
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1)
There are many – we will limit to four
Think-pair-share:
 Students work with partners. You pose a
question and give students time to think
about their answer.
 After thinking, they share their responses
with their partners.
 Partners question each other to help refine
the answer
Structure for Cooperative Learning
(Cont.)
2. Numbered Heads:
 Students work in partners
 You pose a question and they solve it
together – asking each other questions to
make sure their answer is appropriate
Structure for Cooperative Learning
(Cont.)
3. STAD (student teams achievement
divisions)
 Students assigned to groups of four
 You present the lesson and supply
instructional materials, then students work
to make sure everyone in their group
masters the information
 Reciprocal style helps here
Structure for Cooperative Learning
(Cont.)
4. Jigsaw:
 Students assigned to home teams of 4-6 members
 Each member of the home team selects a different piece
of material to learn.
 Have students from different teams who have similar
pieces of information, forms expert groups to discuss
their information and develop a presentation for their
home teams. No more than 4-6 in expert groups
 Have students return to home groups to share
information
5. Be Sure to Debrief
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Ask students:
– Was the task completed? If not, why?
– How did it feel to have someone accept your
suggestions?
– How did it feel to have someone complement you?
– What can you do next time to make your group work
more successfully?
– What learning can you take from their experience to
use in the future?
– What were some encouraging things you saw or
heard?
Working with Limited-English
Proficient Students
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LEP = limited English Proficient
SDAIE = specially designed academic
instruction in English
Four methods for working with LEP students:
1. create a supportive learning environment
2. Use a variety of instructional strategies, including
cooperative learning
3. Make sure information is comprehensible to
students
4. Include a technique called total physical response
1. Supportive Environment
Ask them to share their experiences
 Incorporate some of their background into
the class
 Establish consistent routines so they know
what is happening next
 Avoid forcing them to speak (takes 6 mo.
To a year at least)
 When they do speak, correct their errors
only through verbal mirroring
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2. Variety of Strategies, Including
Cooperative Learning
All of your students learn in unique ways –
including the LEP students
 Technology is helpful
 Nice to have a bi-lingual student in group
with LEP
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3. Comprehensible Input
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Use simple terms
Reinforce key concepts over and over again
Check often for student understanding
Slow down speech pattern
Pause frequently
Enunciate clearly
Emphasize key words of phrases
Keep information in context
3. Comprehensible Input (Cont.)
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Use visual aids, gestures, organizers, and other real
objects
Demonstrate concepts
Simplify information
Expand on student’s ideas by asking additional questions
Provide definitions
Make comparisons
Provide lots of examples
Avoid idioms
Summarize often
Increase wait time
4. Total Physical Response
There is a definite link between physical
activity and language acquisition.
 TPR = demonstrate something physically
and have the student respond with a
physical movement
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Summary
You will work with 20 – 60 different
learning styles during one instructional
period
 Make sure learning is hands-on, relevant,
and student centered.
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