Learning And Teaching Styles Of Student Teachers In The Northwest

Abstract

Learning style refers to the predominant and preferred manner in which individuals take-in, retain, process, and recall information. Teaching style is defined as the predilection toward behavior in the teaching-learning exchange that comes from attitudes, aspirations, and, personal and social histories and cultures. The purpose of this descriptive study was to describe the preferred learning style and teaching style of student teachers in agricultural education at the University of Idaho and Montana State University. The Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) and the VanTilburg/Heimlich Teaching Style Preference were administered to students majoring in agricultural education at the University of Idaho and Montana State University, who had student taught during 1992 and 1993. A high percentage of agricultural education majors who had student taught at Montana State University and University of Idaho were 25 years or older. The GEFT findings suggest that female agricultural education student teachers in this study are more fieldindependent than females in the general population. Overall, Montana State University and University of Idaho preservice agricultural education student teachers preferred the field-independent learning style. Montana State University and University of Idaho students prefer student-centered teaching styles.