Perspectives on Cultural and Individual Determinants of Teaching Style

Abstract

Douglas Barnes and Denis Schemilt (1974) have distinguished between 'Transmission and Interpretation' Teachers. It may be that this distinction (assuming that we accept it) has its origins in an indi vidual's sense of autonomy or 'locus of control' (Rotter 1965) which may, in turn, be culturally determined. The concept of locus of con trol refers to the extent to which an individual sees his behaviour as being initiated by factors within himself (an internal locus of control), or how far he sees it as determined by external forces (an external locus of control).

In order to investigate any possible relationship between a teacher's or individual's position on the Transmission-Interpretation dimension, his locus of control and culture, a pilot study was con ducted by means of a questionnaire with two groups of undergraduate (B.Ed.) students - one group from Malaysia and one from the UK.

Implications of the results for teacher education and the in troduction of new methodologies are discussed.

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