A Study on the Relationship Between Teaching Style and Teaching Experiences of Professors in Higher Institutions

The purpose of this study was to determine the teaching styles of professors who teach adult students in selected higher institutions. It also identified whether professors' teaching styles were teacher-centered or learner-centered and examined the relationship between instructors' teaching styles and such instructor demographic variables as gender, years of teaching experience, and taught level of courses. This study used The Principles of Adult Learning Scale(PALS) (Conti,1983) to measure instructional preferences. Demographic characteristics were collected through a personal data inventory. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) tests were used to analyze the data. The data were examined for significance at the .05 level of confidence by means of analysis of variance. The dependent variables in this study were teaching styles of full-time professor, as represented by the seven subscores from the standardized instrument on the PALS. The seven subscores were: (1) learner-centered activities, (2) personalizing instruction, (3) relating to experience, (4) assessing student needs, (5) climate building, (6) participation in the learning process, and (7) flexibility for personal development. The study established that there was a significant difference in mean scores on the PALS between participants when examined by the number of years of teaching experiences.