Chapter 4 : Organization and Leadership in Education

Teaching Styles 

Leadership in education refers to how well do you handle a classroom. This includes teacher's style of teaching her students. There are fairly few types of teaching style that has different purposes. Teaching style helps teachers to connect with their students in order to deliver knowledge in a more effective, collective and collaborative way. They are delivered in certain ways such as :

                                                     i) Autocratic       iii) Laissez-Faire
                                                     ii) Democratic    iv) Contingency

These styles are further discussed according to the image provided above.

Autocratic method is more on a one way communication between the Teacher and the students. It does not give much choice, and are close ended lesson. This method sounds harsh, However, it may be suitable you certain occasions, based on situations. For example, a teacher in a kindergarten will give such instructions like "We need to wash our hands after going outside, now everyone wash their hands!"
It is because it is logical, and unarguable that it is a need. You dont hear a teacher asking their students to either wash their hands, or wipe them on their pants, right ?

Democratic style is where the Teacher takes into account of their student's choices in attaining or deciding some things. This shows a two-way communication, but it is still relatively Teacher Centered. For example, a physical education teacher might ask on whether would they rather play football, or basketball for the session. He/She is still encouraging students to play on the class period, but necessarily giving them a choice on what to play.

Laissez-Faire is a french word meaning laid-back. This is related with the teacher's laid-back teaching style where she is more open and takes into account suggestions from the students. This can be seen in a playschool setting where a Teacher might ask, "What do we want to do today?". This means that the children gets to choose, and the teacher will follow suit. This method is student centered, because the teacher tends to not lead, but follow through.

Contingency however is not present in the picture provided. This is because, it is related with the The Law Of The Situation by Mary Parker Follett. Readable here. It is concluded as where the teacher acts or teaches according to the situation. It could be an Autocratic method, or a Democratic method or even Laissez-Faire method, according to the present situation. For instance, in a science lab, a sudden flame outbursts, and the teacher directs all students to exit the lab, and have their class outside. Or in a Kindergarten setting, an animal that was picked by the children to be pet of the month, died and the teacher had to replace to a new pet by not asking for suggestions, but continued to teach about the TLC of having a pet.



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