Teaching Styles and Student Achievement: What Works
This paper examines the relationship between teaching styles and student achievement in the context of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation. Drawing on multiple studies, the paper evaluates which teaching styles positively influence achievement, how cultural background shapes learning preferences, and what happens when teaching styles change abruptly. Key findings include the importance of matching teaching and learning styles, the value of culturally responsive instruction, the risks and benefits of transitioning to problem-based learning, and the advantage of blended teaching approaches. The paper concludes with recommendations for educators and directions for future research on teaching style effectiveness beyond NCLB's standardized-testing framework.
- Introduction: Teaching Styles and NCLB: NCLB critique and paper's research focus
- Defining Achievement and Teaching Styles: Key terms defined with study examples
- Preferred Teaching Styles and Academic Performance: Zhang and Woolhouse findings on style preference
- Changing Teaching Styles and Student Workload: Risks of switching to problem-based learning
- Cultural Background and Teaching Style Responsiveness: Cultural minorities and responsive teaching strategies
- Conclusions and Future Research Directions: Recommendations and gaps for future research
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- Synthesizes multiple empirical studies coherently, using each source to build a cumulative argument rather than simply summarizing individual papers in isolation.
- Grounds the discussion in a concrete policy context (NCLB), giving practical relevance to what could otherwise be a purely theoretical review of teaching style literature.
- Acknowledges limitations and contradictions in the research — for instance, noting that creative teaching styles do not improve achievement and that abrupt style changes can harm students — which strengthens the paper's credibility.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective evidence synthesis: it does not treat each study as a standalone finding but draws connections between them, showing how Zhang's preference-based findings, Woolhouse's longitudinal data, Ruiz-Gallardo's workload research, and Morgan's cultural responsiveness work all converge on a single policy recommendation — a balanced, culturally sensitive, gradually implemented teaching approach.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by situating the topic within NCLB policy, then defines key terms (achievement, teaching styles) before moving through a thematically organized literature review. It covers preferred styles, style-switching risks, and cultural factors in sequence, each building on the last. A conclusion integrates all threads and proposes a future research agenda, giving the paper a clear beginning-to-end argumentative arc typical of a competent undergraduate literature review.
Introduction: Teaching Styles and NCLB
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was passed to improve the overall performance of students across America, with a focus on achievement on standardized testing (Payne-Tsoupros, 2010). Some scholars, such as Payne-Tsoupros (2010) and Carbo (2009), criticize the methods under NCLB as a restrictive means of education. Specifically, the focus on a passing threshold for standardized tests emphasizes adequacy rather than aiming for increasing levels of achievement (Payne-Tsoupros, 2010). In response to NCLB's methods, one scholar suggested altering teaching styles to exceed the expected level of achievement (Carbo, 2009).
Before overhauling the educational methods implemented after No Child Left Behind, it is imperative to determine whether teaching styles can impact achievement. By adapting teaching styles to the needs of the students in one's classroom, an instructor can improve the progress and achievement of those students. This paper examines relevant research on achievement and teaching styles, discussing which teaching styles should be implemented, how they should be implemented, and when they should be implemented in order to improve students' achievement levels.
Defining Achievement and Teaching Styles
Achievement refers to performance on a determined factor. For example, NCLB does not recognize shades of achievement; it focuses on whether a student passes or fails a standardized test and evaluates schools based on the rate of students passing the exam (Payne-Tsoupros, 2010). Other studies have looked at student achievement in a specific subject area using raw scores or changes in an individual student's skill or performance level (Zhang, 2008; Carbo, 2009; Ruiz-Gallardo et al., 2011).
Teaching styles encompass a wide array of factors that make up how information is conveyed by an instructor to his or her students. For example, some teachers may use visual or tactile methods to introduce a topic or help students grasp a concept (Bourque, Bouchamma, & Larose, 2010). This incorporates characteristics of the teacher such as which media he or she uses to deliver instruction (Zhang, 2008).
Preferred Teaching Styles and Academic Performance
One study by Zhang (2008) examined the impact of students' preferred teaching styles on achievement. Items were taken from the Preferred Thinking Styles in Teaching Inventory and compared with semester exam scores across 12 subjects. The researcher determined that a preference for certain teaching styles positively impacted performance. These styles included brainstorming with other teachers when preparing lessons, stressing the importance of mastering facts, teaching a general strategy for analyzing any topic, and informing students of the relative importance of different problems or topics within a subject area. Creative teaching styles did not show a positive impact on achievement. The author noted that because all subjects were drawn from a Catholic boys' school, the results may not apply to all students (Zhang, 2008).
Teaching styles that incorporate the elements Zhang (2008) found to contribute positively to achievement may also develop a preference for such a style in their students. While Zhang (2008) notes that many teachers employ creative styles, these are not as beneficial as teachers often assume. Students, therefore, continue to benefit from developing a preference for the more beneficial teaching styles. According to Zhang (2008), it is the student's preference for a style, as opposed to the teaching style itself, that contributes to achievement across a wide array of subjects.
However, a longitudinal study conducted in the United Kingdom by Woolhouse (2003) noted that a mismatch between a student's preferred learning style and the teacher's actual teaching style can negatively impact achievement. Students who preferred teaching styles focused on theorist tendencies, and who were taught by teachers employing that approach, showed significantly higher achievement on A-Level examinations (Woolhouse, 2003).
References
Bourque, J., Bouchamma, Y., & Larose, F. (2010). Aboriginal students' achievement in science education: The effect of teaching methods. The Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 56(1), 57–71.
Carbo, M. (2009). Match the style of instruction to the style of reading. Phi Delta Kappan, 90(5), 373–378.
Morgan, H. (2010). Improving schooling for cultural minorities: The right teaching styles can make a big difference. Educational Horizons, 88(2), 114–120.
Payne-Tsoupros, C. (2010). No Child Left Behind: Disincentives to focus instruction on students above the passing threshold. Journal of Law & Education, 39(4), 471–501.
Ruiz-Gallardo, J., Castano, S., Gomez-Alday, J., & Valdes, A. (2011). Assessing student workload in problem-based learning: Relationships among teaching method, student workload and achievement. A case study in natural sciences. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27, 619–627.
Woolhouse, M. (2003). Learning styles and retention and achievement on a two-year A-Level programme in a further education college. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 27(3), 257–269.
Zhang, L. (2008). Preferences for teaching styles matter in academic achievement: Scientific and practical implications. Educational Psychology, 28(6), 615–625.
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.