Teaching Styles of Community College Instructors

This study examined the teaching styles of online instructors at Florida's 28 community colleges in an effort to determine if the instructors had adopted the learner–centered model touted in the literature. The Principles of Adult Learning Scale was the primary instrument used to collect data from 292 online instructors. The study revealed that nearly half of the participants (n = 135) scored in the middle range, with 84% (n = 244) of the participants’ scores falling into the teacher-centered range. Although online distance education does have the potential to transition education from a teacher-centered orientation to a more student-centered orientation, continued efforts are needed to accomplish this shift.

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