Abstract

The compatibility between teachers’ teaching styles and pupils’ learning styles is an important area of concern in the domain of instruction. To examine this compatibility from a general standpoint is a meaningful task, but to examine it from a specific frame of reference would add more meaning to an inquiry. The purpose of this investigation was to examine this compatibility specifically in terms of John Dewey’s philosophy of experimentalism. Three hypotheses in connection with experimental attitude, teacher perception, and teacher discrepancy were investigated. In general, (1) teachers high in experimental attitude tended to be perceived as more experimental in attitude than teachers low in experimental attitude, (2) pupils taught by teachers low in experimental attitude seemed to have a greater teacher discrepancy than pupils taught by teachers high in experimental attitude, and (3) pupils in all seven school subjects, according to their perception of themselves and of their teachers, had a tendency to be more experimental in attitude than their teachers. Implications were also drawn from this study.