1. Mosston and Ashworth’s Spectrum
Self-Identified and Observed Teaching Styles of Australian Tennis Coaches
Dr. Mitchell Hewitt Tennis Australia and Associate Professor Ken Edwards ● Faculty of Education
University of Southern Queensland ● Toowoomba ● Queensland ● Australia
INTRODUCTION
Many educational theorists believe that there is no ‘best’ teaching style. A common principle in the discipline of coaching is that coaches should base their teaching style(s) on a number of considerations. These include the developmental characteristics and individual requirements of the player, as well as the subject matter intent.
METHODOLOGY
Part A of the study employed a survey questionnaire with 208 tennis coaches in Australia to determine which teaching styles they reported using during coaching sessions throughout the year. Part B of the study consisted of observing 12 coaches during three 30 minute lessons. An extended observational period was also performed with one selected coach for 18 hours at their local tennis club. All 13 coaches additionally participated in one interview of minutes duration.
Mosston and Ashworth’s Spectrum
of Teaching Styles (2008).
RESULTS
Results demonstrated a lack of congruency between the teaching styles that coaches believe they employed and what was actually observed. When the recorded lessons of the observed coaches were coded, two teaching styles were observed. Command Style-A was employed for 11.4% of the time, and Practice Style-B was employed for 73.3% of the time. These teaching styles strongly correlate with the pedagogical principles associated with direct instruction whereby the coach makes decisions about what players are learning in addition to how and why they are learning it. The interviews indicated that the terms coaches used to describe their teaching styles lacked definitional consistency and were frequently used interchangeably. It was also found that coaches were incapable of accurately identifying their own teaching styles and the theoretical assumptions that underpin these practices. Coaches also revealed that their choice and employment of a particular teaching style did not alter as a function of the age or ability of the players they coached.
“There may not be a best way to teach, but there may be a best way to teach particular content to particular learners”
(Rink, 2001).
CONCLUSION
Understanding what teaching styles tennis coaches are using and why they are using them is essential since we need to examine what coaches are doing before theorising about how coaching practices may be developed, extended, improved and /or changed. These findings may also extend relevance into sports coaching more broadly.