Be Aware Of Teaching Roles and Teaching Styles

1. Choosing a teaching style will often depend on both your identity (what you feel comfortable doing given your personality, identity, experience) and the material (what is the most effective way to convey the information to the students). As a teaching assistant, work to find the teaching style that you are most comfortable with and then try to experiment with new methods to see what works best for the material.

2. The formal teaching style, as described on the continuum above, is more regimented and is preferred for situations where the material is highly complex or the audience is very large (situations where a uniform delivery is critical for uniform understanding and time does not allow for personalized interaction).

3. The informal teaching style is more dynamic and is often driven by the interactions that occur between teacher and student. It is also preferred for situations where students are expected to actively reflect and discuss their ideas and reactions.

4. You may find yourself working for a professor who has a teaching style that is different from yours. Always show respect for their style and their methods. If you have the opportunity, learn from them to make yourself more a more versatile teacher.

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