The Most Suitable Way of Teaching

Within the context of educational science it is necessary to deal with ways of making the transmission of knowledge to individuals more effective. In trying to find out which is the best way of teaching K-12 curriculum (that is how publicly supported education from kindergarten to High school is called in most countries), we asked our samples, which consists of eighteen (18) nursery (or pre-education) teachers, twenty five (25) primary teachers, fourteen (14) IT (or Computing) teachers and nine (9) secondary teachers, one simple question “Which is the most suitable way of teaching according to your opinion?”. The research background consists of educators’ efforts to comprehend ways of effective and functional teaching through the years. The method of our research is qualitative and the tools we use adopt elements from semi-structured e-mail interviews and discourse analysis. Expressing themselves in various ways, teachers ended up stating that the most suitable way of teaching is Group collaborative teaching/learning. We could claim that all teachers participating in our research try to match their teaching method to pupils’ needs and that is an essential and strong element. What makes the topic significant is the fact that how to teach is an issue that concerns educators (and not only) worldwide and since aspects are numerous and not always conclusive, it is interesting to highlight them and constantly study educational reality.

the computer science course, regardless of gender, age and work experience. In the category called "secondary school teachers" we included people from our sample who worked in secondary school, no matter of gender, age, work experience and course they were teaching.
Namely, our sample consists of eighteen (18) nursery (or pre-education) teachers, twenty five (25) Primary school teachers, fourteen (14) IT (or Computing) teachers and nine (9) Secondary school teachers, which sums up in sixty six (66) educators in total. We asked them one simple question ("Which is the most suitable way of teaching according to your opinion?") and this question was either sent and replied via e-mail or answered in writing. Data collection took place from May 2018 to May 2019 in Greece.
At first, for each category, data were processed separately and coded by colour as follows: on the first time a teaching method appeared in a participant's response, we highlighted it with a colour of our choice (either Italics or Bold or underlined for our own convenience) and each time this way of teaching reappeared we consistently highlighted it the same way. Furthermore, within each category we noted the answers that drew our interest, as also the unique answers. In this way we gradually visualized the participants' responses, which facilitated our research ("Barcelona Field Studies Centre", 2020. At this point we want to stress that colour coding was chosen in each category individually and not as a whole in all data. Regarding the nursery (pre-school) teachers we sought which teaching way-method was most frequently used according to their statements and six (6) methods emerged. For each one we used different colour or/and different marking, in order to manage analyzing and clearly state the results. Subsequently, as regards primary teachers eleven (11) ways-methods emerged, as regards IT (or Computing) teachers eight (8) ways-methods emerged and regarding secondary teachers five (5) ways-methods emerged. Finally, we designed bar charts for each specialty depending on participants' relevant answers (and their number).
Once we completed this process, we converted the colour coding to taxonomic coding. As Glesne (2018, p. 301) writes "there is no correct coding scheme", but if we had to include our coding somewhere, we would include it in taxonomic coding (Glesne, 2018). The purpose of this conversion was to make our research more reader friendly. The conversion of the coding was done in the following way: for each colour we used in each category (basic code), we created a subcode.
For example, our first category (code, as mentioned above) is the "Kindergarten teachers". Firstly, at this category (code) we highlighted Collaborative teaching/method answers with yellow colour and then we "converted" the yellow colour to the subcode "Collaborative teaching/learning". This subcode included all the answers that we had marked yellow referring to collaborative teaching/learning from the "Kindergarten teachers" code. This coding process was performed for all research participants' responses and in this way all the subcodes of the four (4) basic codes (Kindergarten teachers, Primary school teachers, Primary and Secondary school informatics teachers, Secondary school teachers) were created.
The answers of the interviewees were coded (Flick, 2017;Glesne, 2018;Isari & Pourkos, 2015) in order to distinguish patterns (Glesne, 2018) and four (4) codes with their subcodes emerged. "A code is a word or a short phrase, not a combination of numbers / letters or a set of letters that represent a phrase" (Glesne, 2018, p. 297). We chose not to use abbreviations (acronyms) because according to Saldaña they appear not easy at decoding (Saldana, 2009).
We seeked through the literature (and try to sort of synthesize it) in order to try to answer our research question. Electronic journals were accessed through Scholar and we also used books that we own. We chose articles mainly published after 2010 (with some important exceptions). For most searches, we used one, two or three keywords (concurrently) (i.e., best*, best way*, best way teching*).
Our method is qualitative and the tools used adopt elements from semi-structured e-mail interviews and discourse analysis, since we interviewed the teachers but following we tried to analyse their words (each specialisation separately). The methodological tool of content analysis is defined as "the scientific study of content of communication" and refers to what is actually and deeply meant behind words and texts (Prasad, 2008, p. 1;Sriwimon & Zilli, 2017) or as Fragoudaki concluded in 1979, it is a "pragmatic" method (Fragoudaki, 1979, p. 11) that treats any form of "text" as an object for research. Moreover, as regards semi-structured or unstructured interviews one has to keep in mind that they "may include only one or a few predetermined questions allowing the interviewer to explore issues brought forward by the interviewee" (McGrath, Palmgren, & Liljedahl, 2019, p. 1003. Interviews are of great interest to the researcher who uses them (Fink, 2000). But when interviewing one has to take into account that s/he should follow the interviewees' schedule and even sometimes the interviewees' expressed points of view (as researchers we may deal with the likelihood of correcting or counseling the participant etc.) (Qu & Dumay, 2011;Gerard Forsey, 2010;Palys & Lowman, 2006). Meanwhile, Bolderston (2012) reminds us that as researchers we are of direct necessity of them in order for the data to be gathered; we need persons who have the will and the experience to talk about what we are interested in studying.
Concerning e-mail interviewing, many writers have exalted the fact that these interviews (which are included in asynchronous communication schemes) have access to participants all over the world at the time and Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.12, No.29, 2021 place that is convenient to them (Bampton & Cowton, 2002;Bowker & Tuffin, 2004;Coomber, 1997;Fritz & Vandermause, 2018). Not to mention that e-mail interviews reduce cost (Fontes & O'Mahony, 2008;Gibson, 2010), present more concrete answers (Kazmer & Xie, 2008;Synnot, Hill, Summers, & Taylor, 2014),participants may even feel authors of their own lives and get excited about it- (Gander et al., 2013;Gibson, 2010) and help participants talk about personal and more intimate issues (Deakin & Wakefield, 2014); apart from offering them time to re-contemplate their answer and, moreover, the most appropriate "environmental" conditions (James, 2016;Opdenakker, 2006).
To make the long story short, "email interviews engage the full range of methodological and theoretical themes of qualitative research" (Burns, 2010, p. 5) and are increasingly and widely used to this end (Hawkins, 2018).

Main Research
In the following subchapters we list all the answers given by the participants of our research by code, using our individual coding. We also write the information we extracted from the analysis of these answers and encodedmanaged thereafter. More specifically, at the beginning of each subchapter we list the subcodes we created, then we quote a diagram (bar chart) that shows the frequency of appearance of these codes, followed by some of our own comments/remarks regarding the participants' answers and we close by citing them.

Kindergarten teachers (18 participants)
Collaborative learning/method Empirical/Experiential learning/method Cross-curricular / Interdisciplinary Playful learning Differentiated teaching Frontal learning Figure 1. Frequency of responses. (Authors' own) Frequency of each of the six (6) different answers. In Figure 1 the frequency of each of the six (6) different answers is presented. The question was "Which is the most suitable way of teaching, according to your opinion?". The most common answer is "Collaborative Learning", then "Empirical and Playful Learning" follows and then "Differentiated Teaching". "Frontal Learning" and "Cross-curricular" come last.
According to authors' opinion, answers 1, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11 imply teachers' effort to stimulate children's interest. Answer 5 is the only one that includes the word empathy, answer 18 attracted our attention since it gives more importance to the kindergarten teacher than to children and answer 17 alone refers to the word constructivism -in word; although other teachers refer to the whole procedure of building on the existing knowledge. Answers: i. The most effective way of teaching is through the principles of collaborative teaching. Using working groups and sharing roles so that knowledge comes from the children and I have a helpful role when it is necessary (giving children the right material, tools, instructions and mainly trigger interest in the subject that we are interested in). ii.
The one who uses the chidren's experiences as a start and aims at the joint discovery of knowledge (pupil/student and teacher). As a method the bibliography suggests the collaborative teaching but from Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.12, No.29, 2021 8 my practice, I am in favour of frontal by 70% and 30% of the grouped cooperative. iii.
An effective way of teaching is the collaborative method in which pupils/students are divided into small heterogeneous groups and work interactively and interdependently to achieve common goals. v.
Love what you do and feel empathy! Collaborative teaching is focusing on the pupil/student and her/his needs. vi.
I use a combination of experiential methods. I'm trying to get the kids to come in to contact with the objects they're going to use, for example, to take the books and search. I use it a lot in the educational process and the computer. vii.
Experiential using audiovisual media as tools. ix.
I believe that experiential learning is the most effective, because it adapts to the needs, interests and experiences of children. Pupils/Students can observe, experiment, discover and develop problemsolving skills. x.
I work in a cross-curricular way I choose a theme e.g. "the water" and I work it separately for visual arts. xi.
I would say the one who starts from the child and her/his needs, from the pre-existing knowledge on which the future knowledge will later be built […]. In order for teaching to be as effective as possible, various audiovisual teaching means should be used and anything able to be presented as a playful learning to the children! xii.
Playful learning combined with experiences, experience and collaboration within the group. xiii.
The one who helps the child to understand the new material and to assimilate it more easily. I think that if this is done in a playful way then it will be more effective. xiv.
In my opinion, the most appropriate way of teaching in kindergarten is the playful teaching xv.
Differentiated teaching through active participation of children and the creation of groups. xvii.
The one based on the theory of the constructivism […]. Where teaching is done not through books and theories but through experiences and the active participation of the pupil/student. All this […] respecting each pupil's/student's personality and special features. xviii.
The most effective way of teaching is the one through which the teaching goals are set by the teacher.  The answers that were given from twenty five primary school teachers. At the right part of Figure 2 are listed the answers that were given from twenty five (25) primary school Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.12, No.29, 2021 9 teachers on question "Which is the most suitable way of teaching, according to your opinion?". At the left part is presented each answer's frequency, respectively. It is evident that the most common answer is "Collaborative Learning".
Answers of special interest are: 13 as it mentions supervisory means and 19 for mentioning technology. Alike, answer 2 is interesting, since we believe contradicts kindergarten teachers' answers; most of the latter chose "the group collaborative method", while in this answer it is mentioned that as regards group collaborative method "the younger the pupils/students, the more difficult it gets".
Finally, answers 6, 7, 8 and 9 are interesting for mentioning art and philosophy, educational drama, methodology of inadequacy (literal translation) and life skills.
Answer 1 depicts teacher's willingness to attract pupils'/students' interest, answer 4 mentions pleasure through learning, answer 12 shows preference in the use of blackboard, answers 13, 14, 15 introduce praisepenalty and answer 19 describes a combination of experiential learning and use of technology.
Before moving to the following parts we must point out the fact that answer 14 contradicts the traditional way of teaching (though via her/his answer it becomes obvious that s/he actually does believe that traditional teaching includes the elements s/he mentions). Answers: i. The most effective way is experiential teaching […] For example I teach them the prepositions in grammar with rap songs, which may be close to their interests. When children themselves participate in the learning process, the results are better and teacher's work becomes easier. ii.
The effectiveness of teaching depends on the purposes and the type of lesson taught, the desired results and the age group of pupils/students. In any case, a collaborative method works well both for achieving cognitive goals, and for developing the ability to collaborate and co-exist in groups of pupils/students […]. The younger the pupils, the more difficult it gets. iii.
Applying Vygotsky's theory of social constructivism. iv.
The best way of teaching ensures, as much as possible, pleasure through learning and promotes autonomy and independence by reducing enforcement and coercion (as it happens sometimes with school work). v.
The best way of learning is to exploit each pupil's/student's special skills by ensuring personalized teaching […]. vi.
Exploiting art and philosophy (Discussions with children faced with dilemmas to enhance critical thinking). vii.
Integrating educational drama and creating emotional atmosphere in lessons. viii.
Cultivating skills that promote life skills e.g. pupils'/students' self-presentation. ix.
Not to use primarily the methodology of deficit: not to start from deficiencies and disturbances in order to see the causes of failure, as it is multifaceted. x.
Teaching with groups of pupils/students consisting of four to five pupils/students. xi.
Teaching which is based on the constructive theory of learning. xii.
The traditional way of teaching with desks in frontal order, with systematic teaching of Grammar, using the blackboard and not photocopies. xiii.
The traditional way of teaching and frontal learning. Focuses on the acquisition of cognitive and social goals. It is necessary to consider the use of audiovisual media for immediate acquisition. xiv.
Traditional way of teaching. Teacher assistant and observer. Freedom of expression for pupils/students. Reward-Penalties. Desks aligned in rows. xv.
Traditional Teaching: determining the role of the teacher, rewarding effort and setting boundaries. xvi.
The most appropriate way of teaching is experiential. Experiential learning is an alternative way of education that is beyond the desks, school books and memorization.
[…] Children are actively involved in learning through questions and queries by working in groups. xvii.
The most appropriate way of teaching is the collaborative way, because it is the method that helps the pupil/student to self-act, to think. It promotes cooperation and dialogue between children… xviii.
The grouped collaborative method, because only through working in groups and collaboration we can make children learn to perform. xix.
Experiential way with the use of technology as a tool to achieve the goals set by the teacher. xx.
Differentiated teaching is a way of teaching that focuses on the pupil/student by treating her/him as a special personality in the process of learning. That's why I think it's the most appropriate. xxii.
Student-centered, teaching that places the pupil/student in the center using always dialogue as a way to achieve the goals set. xxiii.
Mixed dialogue: free dialogue directed by the educator, so as to limit negative points and to use it so as to reveal pupils'/students' learning benefit.
Teaching via projects with the participation of children in groups. xxv.
Group collaboration teaching.

Primary and secondary school informatics teachers (14 participants) Student -Centred Way Group Collaboration Teaching Worksheets Role Games Theory Presentation
Interactive Way Apocalyptic Learning Other Teaching Ways Figure 3. Frequency of responses. (Authors' own) The frequency of each answer given from fourteen IT teachers. In Figure 3 the frequency of each answer given from fourteen (14) IT teachers working in primary and secondary education is presented. The question was "Which is the most suitable way of teaching, according to your opinion?". We observe that the most common answer is "Worksheets".
Special attention should be given to answers 6 and 12 refer to circumstances and how much they define the proper way of teaching; and the fact that no one refers to the term "Information and Communication Technology (I.C.T)". The most intriguing answer is number 11, since the educatore teaches computer science mainly without using computers. At this point we want to emphasize that according to the instructions for the Informatics course (given from the Greek Ministry of Education), teaching is carried out mainly with the use of computers. Answers: i. Apocalyptic learning ii.
Student -Centred method iii.
Student -Centred method, group collaboration teaching, worksheets role games iv.
Teaching in the laboratory with 2 pupils/students per pc, worksheets. v.
The interactive way. Participation of pupils/students in the educational process. vi.
The most effective way of teaching is the one that focuses on pupil's/student's insufficiencies/deficiencies, needs and interests. vii.
Theory presentation with worksheets, power points and pupil/student participation. viii.
Presentation and worksheets. ix. Interactive. x.
The teaching method should pay attention to synthetic and collaborative work. xi.
Creation of learning scenarios through games (mainly without the use of PC) with all pupils'/students' active participation. xii.
Depends on the lesson. For example, in IT applications I follow exploratory learning, guiding pupils/students to discover their own knowledge. In Programming I choose a mixed model. xiii.
Τeaching that focuses on pupils/students and specifically teaching in groups. xiv.
With use of video projector and check of the workstations.
Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.12, No.29, 2021 2.2.4. Secondary school teachers Student -Centered Teaching Frontal Learning "Voice thought" Empirical-Experiential learning/method Interactive The frequency of each of the five different answers given from secondary school teachers. In Figure 4 the frequency of each of the five (5) different answers given from secondary school teachers is presented. The question was "Which is the most suitable way of teaching, according to your opinion?". The most common answer is "Student-Centered Teaching" and the answers (which appear one time each), "Empirical Learning", "Frontal Learning", "Interactive Way", "Voice Thought" followed.
Answers 1 and 4 state that the proper way of teaching depends on the circumstances, answer 9 and 4 mentions audiovisual media and answer 7 seems very general, since "voice thought" can only be analyzed via personal contemplation. Answers: i. The way of teaching depends solely on the particular circumstances prevailing in the classroom.
[…] The aim is to activate and motivate pupils/students to participate and export the basic concepts as if it is a matter of cooperative process, -at least the largest part of the classroom. ii.
Probably the most effective way of teaching is the student-centered, interactive way. iii.
The method derived from Student-Centered (student-centric) teaching and uses dialogue as the main tool. iv.
Because teaching is a complex process, its effectiveness, I think does not depend on the application of a specific way. In my opinion, teacher needs to be flexible […] traditional ways of teaching are combined with the power of modern audio-visual media, experiential learning […]. v.
The effective way of teaching and learning is important to focus on the pupil/student throughout various methods which will be initiated into knowledge. vii.
I believe that the "Voice thought" teaching model encourages pupils/students to illustrate their own strategy and way of thinking. viii.
Not the teacher-centric. We leave initiatives for action and participation by children and we offer them the trigger. ix.
Experiential method with the use of audiovisual media.

Discussion
The teaching and learning process has changed and is constantly being changed through teachers' personal experiences, beliefs and opinions and, undoubtedly, through the characteristics of the society in which it takes place. Within the teaching field there is a strong possibility one not to be able to choose between definitions and teaching techniques, methods and practices. We often, though, observe the following phenomenon: a gap between officially formulated goals and expectations regarding cognitive subjects and their implementation which proves inadequate with poor acceptance by the school community. For all the above mentioned reasons we tried to seek educators' points of view on teaching methods and processes.
Even though the answers were not exactly similar, one could claim that a lot of teachers (of our sample) try to match their teaching method to pupils' needs, as they quoted, and that is as essential and strong element as the answer which was mostly mentioned (Group collaborative teaching/learning). While teaching, the methods used are combined with personal notions and decisions and teachers are maestros of their classrooms and undoubtedly their thoughts. Of course, we should remember that there is always will and try.
Zeichner & Liston wrote (2013, p. x) that "…we are educators first, realists second, and dreamers third. It is our firm belief that an education that engages prospective and practicing teachers' heads and hearts, their beliefs and passions, their hopes and instructional practices needs to be fair and honest". This is one of the main reasons why we asked educators to freely express themselves on what practices and techniques they follow in the classroom within specific educational system. We would like to mention that our research could be conducted in the future with new and larger sample and be strengthened -as regards literacy-to ensure its validity.
The writers also reminded us the crucial role that cultural environment and its components and insights play regarding teachers and students (Zeichner & Liston, 2013). Cultural environment needs to be understood first, in order to prepare both sides (teachers and students) fairly and efficiently. Apart from cultural background, the local background also plays a role. The local background is one of the main factors that guide and ultimately determine techniques that vary according to students' needs (see also Martin et al., 2014;Manca & Ranieri, 2013;Hlebowitsh, 2012) and personal characteristics (Pološki Vokić & Aleksić, 2020). Teachers -in a rapidly changing world-seek to find elements that would match their students' interests (see also Twenge, 2013). Thus there cannot be a "best" teaching method. It is not possible to have an objectively "optimal" theory, against which educators can compare the ones developed by themselves (see also Hlebowitsh, 2012, p. 3). As Zeichner & Liston (2013) mentioned there are many inceptions of how teaching could be effective (see also Shukla, Dosaya, Nirban, & Vavilala, 2020;Oder & Eisenschmidt, 2018;Ginting, 2017).

Conclusion
This work aimed to explore the educational process through teachers' point of view and actions on a daily basis. Nursery, primary and secondary school teachers, as well as IT teachers were asked one question ("Which is the most suitable way of teaching, according to your opinion?"), in order for the main result to come about. As a concluding argument, we have to admit that looking the subject from a wider point of view, what could have been done is to also explore teachers' opinions and experiences on more questions on the same theme. Thus, much greater effort should be made in doing research beyond purely educational teaching activities, in order to highlight more realistic educational situations during teaching so as to enlighten educators' efforts. Apart from Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.12, No.29, 2021 13 that, more research and discussion by theorists and researchers seems indispensable, in order to compare current education in relation to different educational systems and evaluate existing and frequently used teaching techniques in the light of pioneering and more diversed teaching techniques. We focused on the most striking differences and similarities that arose from the sixty six (66) answers given to the question that we posed in total. At this point we have to highlight that the conclusions of this research are difficult to generalize, as they concern a limited number of participants (66 persons) who agreed to engage in it and answer a very specific question (Baker & Edwards, 2012;Ercikan & Roth, 2014).