This is the 12th and last blog out of a series of 12 talking about Mosston & Ashworth's Spectrum of Teaching Styles. Thanks for keeping up with us on this venture. Today we (Alba and Risto) will talk about Style K-the Self-Teaching Style. This blog is based on episode 270 of the podcast Playing with Research in Health and Physical Education. This blog is almost verbatim from the podcast, so if you prefer the audio version, here is the link for episode 270. You can also listen to the first episodes of this series in the following links #254, #255, #257, #259, #260, #261, #262, #263, #264, #266, #267, or read the first 11 blogs #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, and #11. All of the podcasts are listed by category on a google doc that you can find as the pinned tweet on the account @theHPEpodcast on Twitter. Alternatively, you can find it here. You can find the website where you can download the book for free and find more information and resources at the end of this blog.
Today we will explain the Self-Teaching Style K. This style is not found in formal educational settings. This means that the Self-Teaching Style does not exist in schools since it does not have a classroom teacher. As the name implies, the Self-Teaching Style has the learner individually implementing their own learning experience and being their own teacher.
The logic of the Spectrum is that it’s possible for a person to make all the decisions in their own learning experience. The Self-Teaching Style can be seen as the style where the learner is free and able to engage in a learning experience independent of others. Physical education has the goal to motivate people to be physically active. The Self-Teaching Style can provide autonomous learning experiences which have individuals seeking to learn and practice physical activities privately and with intrinsic motivation.
Let’s think of an example. Say that in school a student started to wrestle. This student became a wrestler in college and after completing his degree, he coached and kept wrestling and then had two back surgeries and decided that “hey Risto…maybe you should try something else!”
Eventually Risto stopped wrestling because he did not want to have a third back surgery. Risto then decides to search for a new physical activity that he can practice on his own time and have as a hobby that is less painful and better for his long-term health. He decides to start swimming. So, I already know how to swim but I want to do it for recreation and fitness purposes. The idea of the Spectrum is that the learner that has experienced the other teaching styles has developed the knowledge of how he best learns. So, the learner feels confident to develop his own project and go through with it. So, I start by researching everything I can about swimming I read a newspaper article on how to train for swimming, I watch YouTube videos on how to turn in the pool at the end of the lap, I look at videos and text books about how to breathe during different strokes etc.) and in my plans I think about how I will gain proficiency and add this new hobby to my daily life. Currently I am in the “Preparation” phase of this if we’re looking at the Transtheoretical model (or Stages of Change)…I have the community flyer on my fridge with the pricing to join the swimming pool, but I haven’t paid yet. Ok…I digress…
The defining characteristic of the Self-Teaching Style is the passion, motivation, and tenacity that a person has to accept the decision-making roles as a learner and as a teacher. This means selecting the content to be learned. In our example this is swimming. Then developing the rationale and the process of identifying the objectives aimed to be achieved. In our example, to develop proficiency in swimming. To succeed using the Self-Teaching Style, the learner needs to have curiosity, wonder, tenacity, motivation, and self-knowledge related to how they learn best. The person engaging in this style can be anyone. It could be a student, a young person, an older person, an amateur, or a professional who decides to learn or create something new by themselves.
The anatomy of the Self-Teaching Style has the learner making all the decisions. The learner initiates the learning experience, he or she is the student and the teacher. So, the learning experience in this style is guided by individual motivation, interests, and curiosity. This style normally happens in the privacy of an individual’s mind and experience. This means that there is no need for an audience or another person for learning to happen. External feedback only occurs when the learner desires and seeks the opinion of others and that leads to a shift from the Self-Teaching to another decision relationship. Because of the privacy of the Self-Teaching Style, one major implication is that the individual may not be able to adapt the knowledge developed to their social life.
Both the subject matter and behavior objectives of the Self-Teaching Style are defined and motivated by the individual engaging in the learning experience. Other examples that demonstrate this style of teaching are when individuals pursue a hobby, develop curiosity and fascination to learn about something, or when a researcher constantly seeks to understand the unknown. For individuals to engage in a learning experience using the Self-Teaching Style, they should be bold to push back boundaries, and tenacious to overcome obstacles.
As mentioned before, the Self-Teaching Style is when an individual is free and autonomous in their learning experience. However, it is important to note that this style is not the goal of all the other styles nor the ultimate objective of human development. This style only represents a portion of the human experience and should not stand alone. Remember, no style is better than the other and all of the styles in the spectrum contribute to human development. Not everything that is produced by a learning experience using the Self-Teaching Style is beautiful and contributes to society. This style can also produce chaos, destruction, and violence.
OR conversely, going back to my example…I could decide to go take a community class for adults learning to train in swimming for recreational and fitness purposes. This may get me to the pool quicker, and I could learn MUCH quicker and be motivated by the other people in the class. I don’t need to go online and search for all the information to do it myself. That’s why there are teachers!
So, the final message here is that the Spectrum of Teaching Styles is devoid of value. This means that no style is good or bad. The unified theory of teaching must consider the relationship and integration of all the styles of teaching. Only through this interaction will the Spectrum serve as a cornerstone for an expanded pedagogy that involves different visions of human development.
Thank you for engaging in this project with us. We hope it was useful and enjoyable. Once again, we encourage you to download the book and access the website that are linked in the notes. You will find resources and more detail regarding the Spectrum that can help you use the teaching styles in your classroom.
Thanks for reading!
Alba and Risto
For more resources see below:
Full Cite: Mosston, M., & Ashworth, S. (2008). Teaching physical education: First online edition, 2008. https://spectrumofteachingstyles.org/index.php?id=16
Visit: https://www.spectrumofteachingstyles.org
Twitter: @spectrumots