Changing teaching styles

Abstract

Eleven tutor counsellors in the British Open University were interviewed to ascertain how they responded to the idea of using a facilitative teaching style in their tutorials. Their responses have been analysed by a systems model of the tutorial process which indicates the extent to which they possessed a coherent framework, appropriate for teaching in a distance education teaching system. The interviews revealed factors which have echoes in student learning research and which, taken together, offer a tentative explanation of why some tutor counsellors were more amenable to changing their teaching styles than others. This has implications for staff development, not only in distance education systems but for teaching in general.