In this blog, we are going to be looking at three prominent teaching styles and their pros and cons. We will be asking the question, “Which one are you?”  We will also try to identify if your teaching style is helping you or hindering you in your ability to manage the classroom.

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1. The Authoritarian Approach

So the first teaching style I want to talk about is the authoritarian style. The authoritarian is probably what your caricature of an old school teacher might be back in the day.  The teacher was the boss, very strict and behaviour was managed with rules and consequences. The teacher laid down the law, which had a set of consequences. If you broke the rules, then you got the consequence and there was no room for error, leeway or margin. 

Now the authoritarian structure is not all bad. I know that it has probably fallen out of favour a little bit, but there are some key elements to behaviour management in the authoritarian style of teaching that we should all pay attention to. The first thing is this. An authoritarian style is very effective at establishing boundaries. If you have done any work with me or done any of my courses, you know that I am a big advocate for having clearly communicated boundaries and expectations in the classroom. If you do not communicate your expectations, there will not be any structure or behaviour in the class, so this teaching style is very good at establishing the rules and managing those rules very effectively. 

The authoritarian style operates off hierarchies. Human nature is such that when we walk into a room, we tend to assess the status of the person we are interacting with. We do this subconsciously. We place them in a hierarchy depending on how we perceive them. So if we perceive them to be someone in authority we tend to give deference to them. If we perceive them to be someone lower than us, then we give no deference to them. 

Now with younger children, if somebody is in charge and they have a clear set of rules, they will very quickly defer to that person. So if you are teaching younger children, having clear expectations, being very firm with your boundaries can be very good at establishing a rapport and respect between them and the teacher. This tends to fall apart with older students because, as they become teenagers, they go through a process called individualization, where they are actually looking for ways to separate themselves from the adults that are in charge of them. 

So very often an authoritarian style can work negatively with teenagers. It can actually create a power struggle, where the teenager wants to show their dominance over the teacher. So, an authoritarian teacher, who is working with a student who is like this, will often find that the interaction will escalate unnecessarily. 

Sometimes the authoritarian teacher can leave no room for understanding the humanity of a person. Managing human behaviour is more grey than black and white. Sometimes circumstance and background do play a part in how people behave and so we need to be flexible enough to understand that and work with each student individually. The authoritarian never see it like that but he sees it like this; “These are the rules, these are the consequences and we are not departing from that”. If you take that approach, what will often happen is that you will break your relationship with the student because you cannot see the humanity of the person.

If you don’t take the time to investigate and to understand what they are going through, then you will make a decision or give a consequence that is insensitive, lacking in empathy or perhaps not in the best interest of the child long term so be really careful of that aspect. 

Also, the authoritarian structure as I mentioned before, is based upon a power hierarchy. The teacher says, “I am the boss because I am the teacher so you will respect me”. Now, that’s fine if that is the way you see yourself, however, many children are not raised with that perception of teachers. Back in the day, parents would tell you that your teacher is in charge, you need to respect them, it doesn’t matter whether you like them or not. Well, that is not the case anymore. Most families are raising their children to be a bit more independent. There is no expectation that students automatically have to respect their teachers. 

So when you have children coming into the classroom that does not necessarily defer to you automatically, you have to earn that respect and you have to take time to build the rapport and the relationship before they will respect you. If you just come in with the authoritarian approach, it does not compute for them and it can actually create barriers between you and the students.

2. The Democratic Approach.

The second style is the democratic style. Now, the democratic style is more collaborative, the teacher and students work together to form the rules and the consequences. They discuss everything and it becomes a  process by which the teacher becomes a facilitator, who helps the students to contribute ideas about how the classroom is to be managed. This can be really powerful because it allows students to feel like they are valued because their opinions are valued. It makes them feel heard when the teacher is listening to them and they get to express themselves. It also teaches them cooperation with each other and also cooperation with the teacher. 

So there are some positives with the democratic approach but there are also some cons as well. What can sometimes happen is that it can blur the line between teacher and student. If you lean too much towards the democratization of behaviour management, what will often happen is that the students stop respecting the teacher as the person who is ultimately responsible for their well-being and for outcomes, which is the reality of teaching. Although it is nice to be collaborative with your class, ultimately the buck stops with you. You have to take responsibility for the behaviour in your class and the academic outcomes in your class.

So that requires you to take charge of the classroom and that is not always possible if you are totally democratic. Sometimes that line can be blurred and the students can try to take advantage of it. It can also dilute the importance of clear expectations, that you as a teacher, may have established  (and I recommend you do).  By creating a democratic environment, students may feel that those rules don’t apply to them because they don’t agree. 

By giving them too much say in how things are, you may find it hard to enforce rules or get them to adhere to your expectations in the classroom. These are a couple of cons with the democratic approach. It is valuable but there are some weaknesses in it when it comes to behaviour management.

3. The Laissez-Faire Approach

The third type I wanted to look at is the laissez-faire approach. Laissez-faire teachers are very relaxed and very permissive in the way that they manage kids, there is nothing off limits. They really want to encourage kids to be independent, creative and self-determining, which can be very positive. Teaching students to think independently, be creative and to problem-solve by themselves, is a really powerful thing that children need to learn.  

The difficulty with this approach is, that with a lack of structure it usually leads to chaos. Chaos, when it comes to managing children, really breeds anxiety amongst students because kids thrive on structure. They thrive on feeling secure and knowing where they are going. So by creating a laissez-faire approach where there is no structure, the children are really going to start saying, “Well who is really in charge here? Who is managing this operation?” For some children that will cause anxiety which can manifest itself as negative behaviour and can create a chaotic environment. It becomes noisy, difficult to concentrate and difficult to keep children on task. It can also tend towards creating an attitude of self-indulgence. 

When there is no structure, expectation or you do not consider the other people in your environment, students become so self focussed. They think, “Everything is about me, you are here for my benefit and to help me get what I want.” That can cause children to feel entitled and they can be a bit “bratty” and difficult to work with. 

 I do not want you to say, “This is right, this is wrong”. I want you to evaluate your teaching practice and ask yourself which teaching style sounds more like you? You will probably have a tendency towards one. If you can see value in some of the pros of the other systems then start to incorporate them. If you see negatives in the system or style that you are using, then you need to address that, say, “Ok this is stuff I can change to make my behaviour management more effective.” Like I said before, teaching is not governed by one type of behaviour management. It is not black and white and so you really need to be able to shift between three teaching styles. 

A lot of the time I tend to go towards more authoritarianism. I am more about the structure and having clear expectations. However I understand there is a human aspect to teaching, I need to make allowances and talk to kids. I need to be able to work collaboratively with them. It is not always black and white. There are times where I actually need to encourage children to be independent. They need to be less dependent on me and to start thinking for themselves. So your teaching style ebbs and flows and you figure out where you sit within that spectrum of styles. 

Take the pros and address the cons. That will make your teaching practice more effective. Yes, I know that was a lot to read but I hope you found it really helpful. Do not forget that I have my free ebook “Behavior Management Blueprint,” that is available on my website. When you download this free ebook you also get a five video email course where I walk you through the five keys to managing behaviour more effectively.

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