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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
collaborating pupils make advances in such environment.
Teachers propose group activities that require active learning,
solving problems and mutual cooperation among pupils.
The Delegator is a teaching style developing the ability of pupils
to act autonomously. This means that it is a pupil-centred
approach in which teachers delegate control and responsibility
for learning either on individuals, or groups of pupils. Such
teachers assume the roles of advisors, often requiring pupils to
propose and implement complex learning projects. Pupils are
often asked to work either independently or in groups, in which
they have to work effectively and be able to perform various
interpersonal roles.
With regard to the given classification, or its described
individual teaching styles, A. F. Grasha (1996) created a
research instrument for the evaluation of teaching styles, which
finds its use in this research. Drawing on individual divisions of
teaching styles it seems to be evident that every teacher prefers
certain teaching style which gets projected to the teaching
process and for which are typical certain ways and procedures.
G. D. Fenstermacher and J. F. Soltis (2008) claim that it is
undesirable to try to shape teachers to use one “ideal” teaching
style. Pupils are enriched by various teaching styles, therefore
authors rather highlight and point to the procedures how to
reflect on their teaching and, at the same time, to become aware
of the motives of their acting. We also take the view that
teachers should reflect on their own teaching style, and
consequently modify it to allow its positive impact not only on
their professional development, but, at the same time, to
effectively influence the learning process and, last but not least,
the development of learners personality. With regard to the
above mentioned, also E. Petlák (2000) maintains that the main
sense of self-reflection, as a reflection on one´s own work, an
analysis of one´s work, its revaluation, etc., is that teachers not
only re-valuate their work, but, consequently, draw conclusions
from it to be used for its further optimisation.
3 Research methodology
3.1 Research aims, questions and hypothese
There are many factors entering teaching as a dynamic process
and significantly influencing teaching style. Based on what has
been said above, including the theoretical starting points for
teaching styles and the determinants influencing them, the
following research aims were set:
to explore the measure of influence of the selected factors
on the teaching style of primary school teachers,
to explore styles in a wider contextual frame of the factors
that determine them.
Based on the set aims, the following research questions and
research hypothesis were formulated:
RQ1: What impact do the selected factors have on the teaching
style of primary school teachers?
RQ2: Which factors influence the teachers´ individual teaching
styles?
H: It is assumed that teachers´ teaching styles are most
significantly influenced by a way they prefer and apply during
learning, i.e. their learning style.
3.2 Description of research sample
The research sample is made up by primary school teachers. Its
selection was defined by the approximation (estimation) of R. V.
Krejcie and D. W. Morgan (1970), where the percentual share of
research sample corresponded to the percentual share of basic set
in individual regions of Slovakia (a minimal estimated number
for teachers was N=370). To calculate the research sample, it
was necessary to have information on the number of teachers in
primary schools in Slovakia, and because of this we drew on the
statistical yearbook of educational system, prepared and
published by the Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical
Information (2018). The research sample was made up by 404
primary school teachers.
It was then characterised from the aspect of age, pedagogical and
regional specificities of teachers, i.e. from the aspect of gender;
age; length of pedagogical practice; school locality; its founder
and the grade in which teachers teach at primary level. Out of the
total number of respondents (N=404), women made up 97% of
research sample (N=392), while men reached 3% (N=12).
From the point of view of age, teachers were included into five
age categories. The most numerous one was made by teachers at
the age of 41 to 50 years (N=154). Approximately groups of the
same numbers were made up by the teachers whose age was up
to 30 years (N=65), from 31 to 40 years (N=79), and from 51 to
60 years (N=91). The least numerous group were teachers in the
age of 61 years and more (N=15).
The research sample was also characterised by the length of
teaching practice. Based on this, primary school teachers were
put into five respective categories: up to 30 years; from 31 to 40
years; from 41 to 50 years; from 51 to 60 years; and over 61
years. In the category, the most numerous group of the research
sample was made up by the teachers with the length of
pedagogical practice more than 15 years (N=239), the least
numerous group consisted of teachers with their pedagogical
practice from 11 to 15 years (N=35). Teachers with pedagogical
practice less than 5 years (N=74) and from 5 to 10 years (N=56)
were relatively equally represented in the research sample.
As for the locality of the school in which the primary school
teachers work, the most represented were cities. If compared
with the country (N=99), the research sample was made up by as
many as 305 teachers working in the cities, which was 75.5% of
the research sample total.
Based on the type of school according to its founder, 369
teachers from state schools participated in the research (91.4%).
The representation of teachers working on private (5.4%) and
church (3.2%) schools was comparable with the representation
of teachers working at state schools.
3.3 Research methods
Based on the set research aims and questions, the following
diagnostic instruments were selected:
Autodiagnostic questionnaire of factors influencing the
teacher´s teaching style,
Autodiagnostic questionnaire for the assessment of the
teaching style of primary education teachers (Grasha, A.
F., 1996).
As the first research instrument, we designed an auto-evaluation
questionnaire that consists of five conceived groups of factors
and determines a measure of influence of these factors on
teachers´ teaching styles. Individual factors and their
classification into groups were selected not only as a result of
our theoretical starting points, but they were also based on the
research of C. A. Evans (2003). The teachers´ task within each
group was to add points to the factors based on the influence
they may have on their own teaching styles, e. g. 1 – the given
factor has least influence on a teacher´s teaching style and 8 –
the given factor has biggest influence on a teacher´s teaching
style, and the values added to the factors cannot be within a
group repeated.
The second research instrument was the questionnaire whose
author is A. F. Grasha (1996). It is an auto-evaluation
questionnaire to determine the measure of application, or
preference of the five categories of teaching styles (i. e. the
teacher Expert, teacher Formal authority, teacher Personal
model, teacher Facilitator, teacher Delegator), whose
classification is given in the theoretical part of the paper. The
questionnaire consists of 40 items, and every teaching style in
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