The Motivated School

Quiz - Motivating Your Class

Teaching Styles cover a lot of facets including teachers'

• attitude to pupils
• personality
• characteristic behaviour, actions and emotional expression
• interactions and relationships with pupils
• affective presence, the behaviour and feelings they elicit in pupils

Most significantly, the teaching styles mediate a teacher's authority and communicate how much pupil autonomy they will support.

What is your Teaching Style?

It is important to complete the questionnaire before reading about the different styles.

I am the kind of teacher who...

is conciliatory, gives lots of second chances

downplays any pupil problems

enthuses about pupils' personal stories

prioritises getting through the work

harnesses humour and banter

priorities creating a warm climate

encourages pupils to talk about their problems

sets demanding expectations for everyone

publicly apologises when appropriate

gives a lot of choice

uses open questioning and self disclosure to promote discussion

glosses over mistakes

responds to personal comments pupils make, catches the 'me' in pupils

creates a 'prove yourself' climate

sets tight rules

focuses their praise on pupil effort

asks for feedback on how pupils find the class

monopolises the discussion

takes a fast pace through the work

apologises for any uninteresting tasks

treats mistakes as pointers to improvement

puts pupils on the spot to perform

compares pupils openly

tactfully acknowledges pupils' negative feelings

allows off topic discussions

uses back and forth exchanges to deepen pupil understanding

praises pupils who conform

asks really hard questions

uses rewards to control behaviour

sets outcomes and supports pupils to achieve them in own way

Get Score

The three styles

1. The Soothing style is caring, protective of pupils, relaxed and easygoing. It carries the danger of being too soft or permissive with pupils
2. The Pushing style is challenging and demanding and sets high expectations. It carries the danger of being too authoritarian and boxing pupils in.
3. The trick is to get the balance right, to be flexible rather than too loose or too tight. The fundamental goal for the teacher is to communicate to pupils that they are on the pupils' side, and open to compromise and negotiation. The more they are able to do this the more Attuning will their style will be.

The soothing and pushing styles can slip into defensive teaching reactions. An over-soothing teacher may be popular with pupils but will fail to provide support and challenge. Similarly an over-pushy teacher may be respected and feared but will have casualties in their classes.

Motivating teaching involves using the full range of teaching styles flexibly through attunement. It is not a question of your own discrete style, implying that you have only one. It is more a case of a fluid movement between the styles. It is how one moves between the styles that makes each teacher's style unique.