Author : Steven Minkler
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 510 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (233 download)
Book Synopsis Connecting Teaching Styles and Student Learning Styles in Community College Online Courses by : Steven Minkler
Download or read book Connecting Teaching Styles and Student Learning Styles in Community College Online Courses written by Steven Minkler and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Community college online instructors placed more emphasis on their teaching methods and techniques, than on their students' learning styles and strategies. This was one conclusion from an exploratory study which examined participants' reports of their use of expert, formal authority, personal model, facilitator , and delegator teaching styles; their students' use of competitive, collaborative, avoidant, participant, dependent , and independent student learning styles; and, the strategies they use to connect teaching styles and student learning styles in their online courses. This study used Grasha's (1996) Integrated Model of Teaching and Learning Styles as the conceptual framework, and employed a mixed-methods research design. Primary, quantitative data were gathered from a Web-based survey completed by 113 instructors who taught fully online courses at 41 community colleges in nine U.S. states. Supporting, qualitative data were collected from individual telephone interviews with 12 survey respondents who volunteered for this phase of the study. A number of studies have used Grasha's model to examine teacher-student interactions in face-to-face college classrooms, but very few have employed it in studies of online college courses, especially at the community college level. This study's four conclusions were: (1) There is a discernable difference between community college online instructors' reports that students should think and work independently, and their reports of using a blend of teaching styles that maintain student dependence on the instructor; (2) Faculty are reinterpreting the traditional strategies of lectures, discussions, and student participation for the online environment, instead of seeking alternative instructional strategies; (3) Community college online instructors place more emphasis on their teaching methods and techniques, than on their students' learning styles and strategies; and, (4) The Integrated Model of Teaching and Learning Styles, while suitable for this exploratory study, did not sufficiently address both how teaching styles and student learning styles are used in an online environment. Recommendations included developing a new instrument designed to study teaching styles and student learning styles in online courses, and creating a comprehensive, professional development curriculum for community college online faculty that emphasizes research-based models and assessment tools related to teaching and learning styles in the online classroom.