Medicine,
Mind and Adolescence 2002, XVII, 1-2
APPROACHES TO TEACHING CHILDREN AND YOUTH
Jac Andrews1
Jac Andrews1
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Abstract
This study evolved out of a body of research that has contemporaneously examined students’ approaches to learning and teachers’ approaches to teaching. The purpose of this study was to create a teaching process model, design a questionnaire that would measure approaches to teaching, determine the extent to which the questionnaire would correspond to its’ scale construction, and investigate whether approaches to teaching would
vary according to personal and situational characteristics.
The study used a sample of public schools teachers, private school teachers, and fourth year university practicum students who taught in elementary, junior high, and high schools and responded to the Teaching Process Questionnaire. The resulting data was factor analysed and provided support for a two factor (surface-achieving and deep) teaching process model.
The findings from the study suggest that there are significant differences between the school level of teachers (elementary, junior high, high school) and their teaching approaches (surface, achieving, deep) as well as between teaching status (public school teachers, private school teachers, university practicum students) and their teaching approaches.
Results also indicate that teachers have mixed motives and strategies for teaching but are predominantly motivated in one particular way and use strategies that are compatible with their motives.
The conclusion from this study is that the use of the teaching process model and the TPQ can potentially provide relevant information to teachers about their approaches to teaching.
Key Words: Approaches to learning, Approaches to teaching, Teachers, Teaching Process Questionnaire.
1. Correspondence to: Jac J.W. Andrews, Division of Applied Psychology, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive N.W., Calgary, Alberta Canada, T2N 1N4. E-mail: jandrews@ucalgary.ca
