MODELS, METHODS AND TEACHING STYLES FOR PHYSICAL EDUCATION.

A NEW METHODOLOGICAL
VIEW
Dr. Domingo Blazquez Sanchez

INTRODUCTION

This text is written for Physical Education teachers who want to approach their teaching from a
new (or not so new) perspective based on several guiding threads: taking the student as the centre of
education; competences as a way of understanding the purpose of teaching; formative assessment and
the involvement of students in the many possibilities that modern motor skills provide us. All of this is
very compromising as it requires a profound methodological change in the approach to the subject.
In this sense, it is necessary to review some concepts that we had given as unquestionable
references. This has happened with ideas such as style, technique, etc., which were very useful when the
achievement of results was thought of in terms of behaviors or conduct, that is, in the short term. But
they are not so much when we talk about skills. In other words, they were ideal when their effects were
clearly short-term, since each of them (styles, techniques, etc.) could be used for a short time in each
class and/or immediately combined or given way to others successively, up to three or four times in a
single lesson. However, this meant that they lacked a medium and long-term perspective from which to
view the entire process of sequencing, execution and evaluation of the performances to be achieved in
Physical Education.
Today, we already have many well-articulated and effective teaching models and methods.
Most of them have been developed in other subject areas and have been adapted and adopted for
Physical Education. This is the case of Cooperative Learning, Project-Based Learning, etc.). Some, it is
true, have been developed to teach students exclusively in Physical Education, such as the MED Sports
Teaching Model, while others come from other areas of knowledge.
The models, methods and teaching styles presented here are those that have been developed
separately and appear in isolation in specialized books and journals. What we offer is a synthesis to help
teachers select and practice these comprehensive patterns of education.
This work aims to help its readers achieve several objectives.
1. The first is to become familiar with concepts such as models, methods and teaching styles for
Physical Education, including what they are, what you need to know to use them, the
components and dimensions that determine the teaching pattern and how to select the most
appropriate one to achieve the greatest pedagogical success.
2. The second is to master and assimilate each of the teaching strategies that they can choose for
their selection. These descriptions will provide you with enough information to get started with
whatever strategy you select, so you can begin using it with confidence and results.
3. The third goal is to be able to perform from a strategy-based perspective so that it becomes
your way of teaching. We don't want to just tweak a little bit here and a little bit there. We want
to provide a whole new perspective on the important educational mission you carry out every
day at your school.
In summary, we want readers of this work to move from styles to pedagogical models in their
approach to teaching Physical Education by applying them to students of all ages.

1. The arrival at the Teaching Models has been an abrupt path for Physical Education. Why has
this happened?

1.1 Models, Methods, Teaching Styles… The Terminological Jungle

Physical Education, more than any other school subject, poses complex teaching challenges for
its teachers. No other subject requires its teachers to address learning in which the three areas of
behaviour are present (conceptual, attitudinal and procedural), nor is there another subject with such
disparate content (from body expression to federated sports) and that they work in such variable
learning environments (gym, outdoor courts, multipurpose rooms, extra-curricular settings, etc.).
All of this requires that teachers have a broad command of models, teaching methods and
teaching styles. For this reason, this article aims to outline a new scenario where Physical Education
professionals find new keys to be able to apply the new ways of teaching to our teaching practice
without necessarily implying the exclusion of other previous proposals.
 But it is true that notions such as models, methods and teaching styles intersect in the didactic
space of teaching strategies in such a way that the teacher finds himself in front of a semantic and
conceptual mess that we could well consider a “terminological jungle”.
The confusion generated by these terms causes, at first glance, a feeling of bewilderment. What
is it that differentiates each of these terms and makes them different from each other? Does this
differentiation help teachers to be more effective in distinguishing and choosing well, or is it just a play
on words?
From the perspective of a future teacher in training who is receiving this new knowledge, and
sometimes even an expert professional in practice, they constitute concepts that are sometimes
repetitive and require conceptual clarification and an unequivocal use of words. Certainly, the definitions
of these terms are so open and generalizable that it makes it very difficult to differentiate them. Thus, an
interpretation and dissection is necessary to give them a unique and specific meaning.
Yes, but what is the difference between the teaching models and innovative methods
(promoted by the Competency-Based Approach) and between these and the teaching styles proposed by
Mosston and Ashworth (1999)? Should we stop using the teaching styles we have used for decades? Is it
possible to make them compatible? These questions immediately come to the minds of teachers when
we approach and propose competency-based methodologies.
In our opinion, the answer is clear: they can and should complement each other within the
choices that teachers consider when designing teaching sequences. Even knowing that there are grey
areas where it is not clear how to differentiate them.
It is true that teaching styles are designed to achieve learning of motor skills and techniques.
The vast majority of them can be used in a complementary way within a single lesson plan. We are used
to reading in Physical Education lesson plans how two or more styles appear successively depending on
the tasks that the students must perform. This leads us to deduce that its use is intended for a short-
term scope, that is, learning that can be resolved in one or two sessions, such as skills, abilities, and
techniques of a simple nature.
Instead, methods are proposals to be used over a medium-term period, sometimes lasting
several weeks or months. They fit very well into the achievement of competencies since they are a
complex and authentic type of learning, which entails the need for a considerable amount of time to
achieve effective performance.
But that does not prevent, at certain times, the achievement of competencies from requiring
the learning of more instrumental skills, without which it would be impossible to exercise a competency.
Being competent requires knowing how to mobilize resources, and that means having those resources
available. It is difficult to be competent in dancing or ballroom dancing if you have not previously
automated certain steps that enable the overall realization of this expressive competence.
It therefore seems necessary not to exclude teaching styles as a possibility of use in teaching
competencies. The key will be knowing how to adequately combine these pedagogical models with
methodologies and teaching styles.
Let's see what characterizes and differentiates each of these proposals.

1.2 From Styles to Teaching Models. An interesting itinerary

The first methodological proposals for teaching Physical Education at the beginning and middle
of the last century were established by people trained in medical sciences and who used hygienic and
corrective techniques to help students train and regularly participate in their best physical health.

And, although it is true that many contemporary professionals had interests far removed from
strictly medical ones, the teaching of Physical Education continued during that period and for much
longer being influenced and in the hands of teachers who taught Physical Education according to a
traditional didactic method.
Indeed, Physical Education teachers of the S. XX believed that the way they taught was the only
method to use in Physical Education. It was a methodology that today we understand as direct
instruction and/or direct command that required teachers to subscribe to narrowly predetermined
models and procedures and that confined students to a very submissive role in the development of
classes. Essentially, the teacher gave instructions and the students obeyed them unthinkingly. Most
content, regardless of context and grade level, was taught using this approach. In Physical Education,
when we talk about teaching methodology we are referring to the way in which we approach problems
and systematize the way of finding the answers for the success of our teaching.
Given the need to transform and diversify strategies and ways of teaching in Physical Education,
several proposals arose that occurred in Spain in the 70s and 80s of the last century through two
phenomena:
1. The emergence of the sub-area of Didactics Methodology of teaching Physical
Education. The publication of the works “Methodology of teaching Physical Education” (Pila, 1978) and
“Bases for the didactics of Physical Education” (Sánchez Bañuelos, 1984) was a clear reference to this
episode.
2. And almost simultaneously, the book “Teaching Physical Education” by Muska Mosston
(1978) appeared in Spanish, which was much more impactful, renewing the entire teaching of our
subject. This work offered the so-called Spectrum of Teaching Styles under the subtitle of the Command
to Discovery, and generated a radical transformation in the didactic field. This Spectrum of Teaching
Styles was promoted and disseminated in Spain by Dr. Sánchez Bañuelos (1984) and Dr. Delgado Noguera
who provided the teaching of Physical Education with devices that gave it great versatility and credibility.
In the United States, the Teaching Styles Spectrum had already begun before these dates. That is, in 1966
Professor Mosston presented it in the USA. US and it spread to various countries at different times
(Mosston, 1966).
A third approach emerged in the 1980s and 1990s when Objective-Based Pedagogy was seen as
a constellation of decisions and actions that led students to higher levels of success in their learning. The
teachers developed a repertoire of methods specific to the pedagogy of success that they applied within
their methodological proposals.
At the same time, other approaches were emerging under terms such as Teaching Strategies
and Teaching Methods (Blázquez, 1986). Certainly, before they reached us here, they already had a
history in the literature of the pedagogical field, such as “Pedagogy of Situations”, “Project-Based
Learning”, “Service Learning” and others.
Thus, after promoting the traditional method of Physical Education for more than half a century,
innovative ways of teaching Physical Education suddenly appeared.
Over the last ten years (already in the 21st century) there has been a fourth movement in this
range of ways of teaching Physical Education. According to Peiró and Julián (2015, p.10), it is produced by
the need to rethink the teaching of the subject, so that it contributes significantly to the comprehensive
education of students, taking into account current social demands. Thus, the Teaching Models in Physical
Education emerge with some profusion. While this movement has taken longer to grow, I would say that
it has prompted us to reflect on how to improve and conceptualize how we teach content for all
students.
In relation to teaching practice based on Models, we already had precedents such as Models of
Teaching (B. Joyce & Weil, 1972); also the Curricular Models (Jewett et al., 1995); and the Instructional
Models (Metzler, 2000); and finally the Pedagogical Models (Haerens et al., 2011). The latter, based on
the interdependence and irreducibility of the relationships between learning, teaching, content and
context (Rovegno, 1998).
Bruce Joyce and Marsha Weil published their book Models of Teaching in 1972. In it, they
argued that instruction should be composed of logically coherent and lucidly described teaching
patterns. Each distinctive set of these patterns was called a Teaching Model because it united theory,
planning, classroom management, teaching-learning processes and evaluation. The scope of his
perspective on teaching was much broader and more holistic than our traditional notions of methods,
strategies and styles. The Models approach is intended to address long-term learning outcomes, those
intended for entire units and even programs.
At that time, when the Models appeared (70s/80s of the 20th century), none of them
represented a before and after in the work of Physical Education teachers in our country, since Physical
Education Didactics had remained for decades anchored and mediated by Teaching Styles. But,
progressively, the Models were having more impact.
Indeed, currently, the Pedagogical Models, as an interpretation that includes the transversality
of all the previous proposals, seem to be gaining a greater audience in the field of Physical Education
Didactics. In our opinion, favoured by the Competency-Based Approach, and also by a growing sensitivity
to link Physical Education with real life (authentic education).

1.3 To clarify notions and concepts, why don't we define teaching models, methods and styles
 separately?

1.3.1 Models

According to DRAE: Model: Archetype or reference point to imitate or reproduce.

If we focus on the pedagogical field, the models are synthetic perspectives of pedagogical
theories or orientations, which place teachers in the elaboration and analysis of study programs and/or
in the systematization of the teaching-learning process. It could be said that they are conceptual patterns
that allow us to clearly and concisely synthesize the parts and elements of a pedagogical practice, or its
components.
They fall within the scope of beliefs, training and teacher updating. It is a theoretical-formal
construction that, based on scientific and ideological grounds, interprets, designs and adjusts the
pedagogical reality that responds to a specific need, that is, a model is a theoretical representation that
we then put into practice in a given context (Metzler, 2000).
Each teaching theory uses a model for better study, analysis and understanding, and the
different models (linked to different theories) give rise to the evolution of didactics. There are several
teaching currents that prevail today. All of them are based on theories and use models for their
understanding.
Some authors interpret general scientific evolution from a change of " 1models" or "paradigms"2.
In this sense, all science is produced in the current paradigm until a new one appears that breaks the
previous one.
These models vary according to the historical period in which they appear and are in force, in
their degree of complexity, type and number of parts they present, as well as in the emphasis their
authors place on some of the components or on the relationships of their elements.
Teaching models are a widespread activity, since every day, teachers at all educational levels
approach their teaching-learning processes from certain paradigms. These models are more or less
articulated and are based on theories that allow teachers, with greater or lesser success, to practice their
profession. These theories of practice are diffusely articulated and may respond to multiple needs arising
from completely different fields.
Its differentiation from other teaching intervention strategies (methods and styles) is that it is a
pedagogical approach that moves away from the content and the teacher as protagonists of the teaching
work; trying to align the learning results with the needs of the students and their teaching context
(Casey, 2016).

[Link] There is no "one and/or best way" to teach

If a teaching model is a structured plan that must be used to configure a curriculum, to design
teaching materials and to guide teaching in gymnasiums, its proper choice constitutes an important and
complex task, as well as the teaching methods that are derived from it (B. R. Joyce & Weil, 1985). So it is
not surprising that educators search for the perfect model: the approach that will solve all educational
problems (help any student learn anything efficiently).
In our understanding, we deny the idea that there is a perfect and ideal model. We should not
limit our teaching strategies to a single model, however attractive it may be at first glance, because there
is no model capable of dealing with all types of learning. There are different types of learning that require
different teaching3 models and methods. We also recognize that our students come to us with different
personal learning styles, seeking those that allow them to learn more effectively.
Many people believe that good teaching is something that can be recognized at first glance. But
experience shows that there is no single optimal, safe and effective approach. This conclusion bothers
those who believe they possess the optimal and complete model. They often say that the reason we
have not achieved such a demonstration is our inability to accurately measure results that would confirm
the goodness of their preferred strategy.
The above will be useful if teachers, when designing and deciding their actions, resort to a

1 According to the DRAEL (From the Latin modulus.) An example or form that one proposes and follows
in the execution of an artistic work or in something else.
2 According to the DRAEL (From Latin paradigm.) Example or exemplar.
3 We highlight the importance of distinguishing or analyzing the terms models and methods. In the
teaching of Physical Education, models have permeated the pedagogical conception of our area.
teaching model through which they develop and put into practice the education they intend. Therefore,
we believe that the following points should be reflected in every model:
• Educational theories that support education in the chosen model. An analysis of these
will indicate the type of person we want to form.
• Components that make up the model.
• Relationship between the different components.
It is necessary that teachers, after studying theories and models, come to develop their own
"personalized" models, which, with sufficient experience, they must justify, justify and implement in the
educational reality.

2. Models, Methods, Styles in Physical Education

2.1.
MODELS TEACHING
ERPS
PEDAGOGICAL METHODS

RESOURCES TEACHING
DIDACTIC STYLES

Teaching models in Physical Education

If Muska Mosston represents the reference author of the Teaching Styles, Metzler and his work
“Instructional Models for Physical Education” personify the profusion of the Models in Physical
Education.
Following Peiró and Julián, “The predominant approach to teaching Physical Education has been
the traditional one, focused on the mastery of some curricular contents or blocks of content, which are
usually repeated in all courses (for example: physical condition, body expression, games, health or
different sports modalities) and which are taught disconnected from each other, without taking into
account the level and experience of the students in that content, with a single explicit objective, such as
the acquisition of technical skills, and whose learning activities are not very relevant and significant for
the majority of students, so that, very often, they do not integrate them or see them as transferable to
their life outside the school context.
Pedagogical models provide a superior frame of reference and a coherent and comprehensive
action plan for teaching Physical Education; they highlight the permanent and indissoluble
interdependence between learning, teaching strategies, content, classroom context and its connection
with the sociocultural environment as a basis for developing specific programs or teaching units, and
they serve teachers to help students learn, with the creation of learning climates or environments that
are consistent with the models being especially relevant.
The development of these models aims to connect physical education with the interests and
needs of students; to motivate them to participate in physical activities (organized and even daily) in the
school and extracurricular environment; to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes
that favor their responsible and autonomous involvement in physical-sporting activities (as participants
sometimes, but as promoters, critical spectators, etc. in others), so that they incorporate them and build
active lifestyles, and to train them as citizens critical of the social offers of physical-sporting culture”
(Julián & Peiró, nd, p. 10).
Therefore, Pedagogical Models do not annul Methods or Teaching Styles, but rather incorporate
them into their structures, the current trend of which is focused on a varied and long-term approach,
centered on the student. However, we cannot consider that the Pedagogical Models are a simple
organization of the Teaching Styles according to interest. In fact, although in some Models they seem to
identify with certain Styles, in many cases this similarity is a mere appearance since the intentions that
generate them have nothing to do with the initial intentions of their original authors (Mosston, 1966).
Again according to Julián and Peiró (2015), the pedagogical models are characterized by:
• Include a theoretical foundation.
• Establish learning outcomes to be achieved.
• Identify key aspects for developing favorable learning environments.
• Highlight the planning, development and evaluation processes.
• Include learning activities that are properly sequenced and appropriate for
evolutionary development.
• Incorporate behavioral expectations for teachers and students.
• Highlight the expert knowledge of teachers on the content to be developed.
 BASIC MODELS IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION

DIRECT INSTRUCTION

PERSONALIZATION OF TEACHING

ADVENTURE
EDUCATION

MOTOR LITERACY

4 ATTITUDINAL STYLE
EA
4
4 SELF-CONSTRUCTION
AMB OF MATERIALS
4
HEALTH-RELATED PHYSICAL
EDUCATION MODEL
PER
EMERGING MODELS IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION
2.2. Teaching methods

According to DRAE: Method: m. Way of saying or doing things in an orderly manner.

The Method (didactic or teaching) follows another path; it is a scientific approach that consists
of achieving the greatest possible efficiency 4 in the students' learning process. It integrates a set of
principles, a description of the praxis and activities and normally the evaluation system. The choice of the
teaching method to be used depends largely on the information or skill of the one who is teaching, and
can also be affected by the learning content and the level of the students (Blázquez, 2016).
The concept of Teaching Method refers to the set of procedures and techniques used by
teachers to organize activities for students, as well as to use all the resources available for teaching. A
method in pedagogy is presented as an organization of the objects, of the teaching activity, of the ways
of working of the students and, with the students, and of the bases of this work.
A teaching method comprises the principles used for instruction provided by teachers to achieve
the desired learning by students. These strategies are determined partly by the subject to be taught and
partly by the nature of the students. For a particular teaching method to be appropriate and efficient it
has to be related to the uniqueness of the student and the type of learning that is supposed to occur. The
recommendations are there for the design and selection of teaching methods should take into account
not only the nature of the subject matter, but also how students learn.
The teaching methods for Physical Education, as for the rest of the areas, involve the procedures

4 Efficiency: Ability to adequately perform or fulfill a function.

to achieve certain objectives. There are no unique ways to achieve them and one can choose one or the
other, depending on the educational concepts that each person has and the type of objective that is
intended to be achieved.

2.2.1. Innovative methods for developing skills in Physical Education

As we have already mentioned above, although it is true that it is not possible to establish a
single Method for teaching Physical Education, it does seem advisable to promote the most appropriate
methodological proposals that meet the pedagogical criteria required in this approach. Let us briefly look
at the methods that we are going to address in this book (Blázquez, 2013).

Problem-based learning (PBL)

Problem-based learning involves presenting a problem, identifying learning needs, seeking the
necessary information, and finally returning to the problem. In the journey that students experience
from the original statement of the problem to its solution, they work collaboratively in small groups,
sharing in this learning experience the opportunity to practice and develop skills, to observe and reflect
on attitudes and values that could hardly be put into action in the conventional expository method.

Project-based learning (PBL)

The central idea of the project design approach is to articulate school knowledge with social
knowledge and real life, so that students do not feel that they are learning something abstract and
analytical (typical of academic school content) but with a clear and authentic purpose. The student who
understands the applicative value of what he is learning discovers the need for learning. Likewise, the
activity becomes a tool to understand the social reality that surrounds them, to be able to value it,
participate in it and act upon it by transforming it.

Challenge-Based Learning (CBL)

A challenge is a provocation, challenge or incitement that implies a stimulus and a resolution for
the student to carry it out. This is a difficult goal that students set themselves. Indeed, Challenge-Based
Learning is a pedagogical approach that actively involves the student in a real, significant problematic
situation related to his or her environment, which involves defining a challenge and implementing a
solution for it. It focuses on addressing learning from a generic topic and posing a series of challenges
related to that topic, which students must achieve (Edu Trends5).

Cooperative Learning (CL)

5 Analysis of educational trends with the greatest potential for impact on education. See:
[Link]
The cooperative learning method is basically a methodological way of organizing the completion
of tasks in small groups where the responsibility for the teaching and learning process does not fall
exclusively on the teaching staff but on the group of students. Learning takes place more solidly when
interactions and mutual support between students occur with positive interdependence. All members of
the group are jointly responsible for their own learning and that of the other members.

Case method (CM)

The case method (also called case study) is a simulation technique used to develop the ability to
transfer knowledge or skills to “practice”. It is an inferential method. From a particular case, it is possible
to draw conclusions that can be generalized to other similar situations. It is based on the decision-making
process. It is based on the principle that there is more than one solution to the problem at hand.

Service learning (SLL)

 Service-learning is an educational methodology that combines the academic curriculum with
community service, often involving youth. As a pedagogical methodology, it falls within the philosophy of
experiential education; more specifically, it integrates community service with education and self-
knowledge as a way to enrich the educational experience, teach civics, encourage lifelong social
involvement, and strengthen the common good of communities.

Learning Environments (LE)

A learning environment is a space in which students interact, under favorable physical, human,
social and cultural conditions and circumstances, to generate meaningful and significant learning
experiences. These experiences are the result of activities and dynamics proposed, accompanied and
guided by a teacher. Specifically, within the framework of competency development, a learning
environment is aimed at the construction and appropriation of knowledge that can be applied in the
different situations that an individual may encounter in life and the various actions that he or she can
perform in society.

Didactic contract (CD)

The contract aims to change the relational parameters of the discourse between the teacher
and the learner, so that implicit rules are replaced by explicit rules and teacher control by student
autonomy, thus allowing a strong "diversified classroom" to emerge (times, spaces, content, goals, etc.
can be different). In this situation, regulated by learning support systems, we move from an educational
system based on the transmission of information [Teacher-Content -vs Student] to another system that
aims to provoke emancipation [Teacher + Student vs Contract].

Motor creativity. Body Synectics (BS)

Creativity is a capacity that can be educated. But the process that involves creativity also
educates. Therefore, creativity educates and is educated. Motor creativity is the human capacity that
allows the individual to make valuable innovations and innovatively solve motor problems.
Synectics as a method constitutes an approach whose purpose is to provide a repeatable
procedure, capable of increasing the possibilities of reaching creative solutions to various problems. Body
synectics develops expressive, cognitive, energetic and movement capacities.

“Flipped classroom”. The flipped classroom (FC)

The flipped classroom is a form of blended learning.

It is a pedagogical modality that raises the need to transfer part of the teaching and learning
process outside the classroom in order to use class time for the development of more complex teaching
activities that promote meaningful learning.
The implementation of this model has been favored by the potential that Web 2.0 offers for
searching, creating, publishing and systematizing resources through the Internet, thus opening up
possibilities for the teaching-learning process and altering the traditional roles that teachers and
students have within it.

Gamification (G)

Gamification is a learning technique that transfers the mechanics of games to the educational
field in order to achieve better results, whether to better absorb certain knowledge, improve a skill, or
reward specific actions, among many other objectives.
This type of learning is gaining ground in training methodologies due to its playful nature, which
facilitates the internalization of knowledge in a more fun way, generating a positive experience for the
user.
The game model really works because it motivates students, developing greater commitment
among them and encouraging a desire to excel. A series of mechanical and dynamic techniques
extrapolated from games are used.
 2.3. Teaching styles

According to DRAE: Style. m. Mode, manner, form of behavior.

In the specialized literature, teaching style is understood as the individual expressions of each
teacher, the result of the perception that each subject has of one or several models; the teaching style is,
then, the set of unique features and the particular way of acting of a teacher in his/her daily
performance. The teaching style is therefore particular and unique to each teacher and is related to one
or more pedagogical models based on four fundamental elements: (1) the content that is taught, (2) the
particular ways of teaching it, (3) the interaction with the students and (4) the purposes of their
evaluation (Mosston, M. and Ashworth, 1999).
Teaching Styles were a true milestone in the Didactics of Physical Education in the 20th century.
They opened doors to different ways of understanding what teaching and learning mean. They
represented a fundamental change in researching and investigating the most effective ways of teaching.
We were challenged to use cognitive engagement methodologies in our area, which is so stigmatized by
the purely physical and mechanical component of human movement. His contribution was decisive,
there is no doubt. But, in its most genuine consideration, the term style (in Spanish) moves away from
what it seems to instill in English. However, we have allowed ourselves to be influenced and have made it
a reference.
In reality, teaching styles refer to the teaching climate and the organizational methods used to
teach; they are recognized by the way in which the teacher's interactions occur (individually and
personally). Thus, the teaching style is described as the dominant and personal way of being, of entering
into relationships and of teaching (Altet, 1988). The classroom climate can be positive, negative or
neutral. Teachers can be dynamic and flexible. They may interact more or less frequently with their
students. Be more or less stimulating and motivating. Therefore, students recognize teaching styles
through their teacher's interactions with the class group, with small groups and/or with their peers. The
mix of all the characteristics of the interaction determines the distinctive style of each teacher. Terms
such as affectionate, efficient, demanding or distant are used to characterize a particular teacher's style.
But it is important to note that Method and Style represent procedures that are not necessarily
subordinate. It is possible to imagine an apathetic, introverted and soporific teacher who teaches using
techniques that we call active, such as, for example, teaching through guided discovery or problem
solving. But it is also possible to find a dynamic, friendly, energetic teacher who uses traditional teaching
techniques, such as direct command.
In the search for an integrative conceptualization, to include the didactic aspect, Delgado
defines the Teaching Style as "the way or form adopted by the didactic relationships between the
personal elements of the teaching-learning process, both at the technical and communicative level, as
well as at the level of organization of the class group and its affective relationships based on the
decisions made by the teacher" (Delgado, 1991).
Having clarified the above, it must be admitted that in everyday language the term teaching
style has acquired its own entity thanks to the use that Professor Muska Mosston (1978; 1990) gave to
this concept to articulate his methodological proposal of the so-called "Spectrum of Teaching Styles"
(Blázquez, 2013).

Spectrum of Teaching Styles (Mosston)

Discovery
Threshold
< Reproduction » I * Production »

T B C D AN F G H Yo J
O D
MAX 4 Teacher ---------------> min
min € Student ---------------> MAX
Mosston, M., & Ashworth, S. (2002) Teaching Physical Education, 5th Edition. San Francisco: Pearson
Education, Inc.

Reproduction Production

Style A Style F

Direct command. Direct instruction Guided discovery

Style B G style

Task-based teaching Problem solving. Divergent style.

Style C Style H

Reciprocal style. Reciprocal teaching Individualized program. The student's design

Style D Style I

Self-assessment Style for initiated students

Style E J style

Inclusion style Self-teaching

3. Bibliographic references
Altet, M. (1988). Les styles d'enseignement: un instrument d'analyse de la stabilité et de la varibilité des
 pratiques d'enseignement. In Les sciences de l'éducation pour l'ère nouvelle. CERSE.
Blázquez, D. (coord. . (2016). Teaching methods in physical education. Innovative approaches to teaching
skills. IND.
Casey, A. (2016). Handbook of Physical Education Pedagogy. In C. D. (ed. . Ennis (Ed.), Models-Based
Practice. Routledge.
Delgado, M. TO. (1991). Teaching Styles in Physical Education. Proposal for a reform of Education. ICE
University of Granada.
Haerens, L., Kirk, D., Cardon, G., & De Bourdeaudhuij, I. (2011). Toward the development of a
pedagogical model for health-based physical education. Quest, 63(3), 321–338.
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