Teaching Styles and Motivation Strategies Applied by McCourt and Finn (A.K.A. Mr S): A Comparative Study

The teaching styles are the pervasive ways of approaching the students that might not be changed within various methods of teaching and are categorised into task-oriented, cooperative planner, child-centred, subject-centred, learning-centred, and the emotionally exciting and its counterpart (Fischer & Fischer, 1979). On top of teaching styles, the role of motivation in mediating teaching dimensions and social behaviour is also a great concern. Ames (1992) mentions factors that need to be considered in relation to the motivational patterns namely achievement goals, classroom structures, tasks, evaluation and recognition, and authority. This paper aims at determining teaching styles and motivation strategies performed by teachers both in Frank McCourt’s Teacher Man (McCourt, 2005) and School of Rock , a film (Linklater, 2003).  It is a comparative study on McCourt’s Teacher Man and Linklater’s School of Rock film to examine the teaching styles and motivation strategies used by teachers in both literary works. It is found that McCourt was indeed a successful teacher dealing with various kinds of students with his persistent teaching style from time to time. In terms of motivation, Dewey had the leadership trait of creativity, the ability to think differently to find solutions.