Teacher styles and strategies for improving dyslexic students’ learning skills

This paper proposes that teaching involves problem solving and there are differences between novices and experts. It is evident that teachers use different styles and strategies and they would benefit from exploring these with knowledge of their individual differences. A diagnosis of teacher styles and strategies is made with a view of making recommendations for using these to teach dyslexic students. A conceptual model is proposed as a research tool to develop understandings of teacher styles and strategies and so develop a model to enable teachers to match their styles and strategies of teaching with the styles of dyslexic students. Of note is the Wholist-Analytic (W-A) and Verbal-Imagery (V-I) category of styles which Mortimore (2008) argues is important when matching students’ styles to teachers and so may help students achieve. The W-A/V-I model is diagnosed by the Cognitive styles Analysis (CSA) but caution should be taken if this instrument is used to develop dyslexic students’ knowledge of a topic (Mortimore, 2008). Analysis of cognitive styles of pre-service teachers suggests there are grounds for matching styles and strategies with dyslexic students’ styles as this may be helpful for learners; but this requires detailed exploration. Where students find it difficult to interact socially with other teachers it may be necessary to think about the structures of artificial intelligence models to help learners gain confidence and skills.