Relationship between philosophical preferences of classroom teachers and their teaching styles

The purpose of this study is to examine the philosophical preferences of classroom teachers, their teaching styles and the relationship between the two variables. Participants are 301 volunteered classroom teachers who teach at the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th classes in primary schools. To collect the data, philosophical preferences assessment form which was developed by Wiles and Bondi (2007) and adapted to Turkish by Doganay and Sari (2003), and Teaching Styles Questionnaire which was developed by Grasha and Reichmann (1994) and adapted to Turkish by Saritas and Sural (2010) were used. Analyses figure out that classroom teachers mostly prefer experimentalist philosophy and have facilitator teaching style. Examining the relationship of educational philosophies and teaching styles of teachers, there is a positive and significant relationship between the adopted educational philosophy and teaching style. Key words: Classroom teacher, educational philosophy, teaching style.