The Effect of Congruent Teacher-Student Characteristics on Instructional Outcomes

Twenty fourth, fifth, and sixth grade teachers with direct and indirect teaching styles were paired with a small group of students who were high or low on social-emotional development to create congruent and incongruent matches. Teachers used their natural style in teaching a series of reading lessons for 20 consecutive school days. Congruency was consistently related to instructional outcome with the effect strongest for student affect, followed by achievement, followed by time at attention to task. It is argued that these findings support Hunt’s theory of person-environment congruency for effective teaching.