A typology of teaching style among chemistry secondary school teachers

Abstract

Teacher is a prominent person in classroom. Teaching styles will determine how teachers set their direction and focus in teaching. This article investigates teaching styles among Malaysian chemistry secondary school teachers via verbal interaction. Characteristics of these teaching styles were determined in order to make comparison among different teaching styles. Twenty three of chemistry secondary school teachers and their students in Kuala Lumpur were involved in this study. Nonparticipant observation was applied. Ninety two classroom observations were audio and video recorded. Besides that, semi-structured interview with the teachers were carried out. Data were analysed using cluster analysis to identify their teaching styles. Findings from this study found that in laboratory lessons, 95.65% of the teachers’ emphases were on group activities and teacher’s explanation or instruction. Meanwhile, 65.22% of the teachers showed teacher-centred approach, i.e. giving explanation in theory lessons. Characteristics of the teaching styles were investigated in terms of type of teacher’s question and student’s question. Regardless of teaching styles, teacher’s questions and students’ questions were of closed-ended questions, and managerial questions. Based on the findings, teaching style for chemistry lesson is proposed.