The relationship between school teacher’s English teaching style and optimism perception in Birjand

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between school teachers' English teaching style and optimism perception in Birjand. The research population includes all teachers in the city of Birjand and statistical sample consists of 100 people of them that are chosen using simple random sampling method. Data were collected and extracted using two questionnaires, Grasha teaching style and Byrd et. al. school teachers' optimism perception. Spss software was used for data analysis and Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated for variables. The research findings detected that there is a meaningful relationship between formal authority teaching style, personal model teaching style, facilitator and agentive with school teachers' optimism perception, but there is no meaningful relationship between expert style with school teachers' optimism perception. As the final result, it can be concluded that there is a significant relationship between teaching style and school teacher’s optimism perception and that the teaching style effects noticeably on school teachers' optimism perception.


Introduction
Teaching style is an important issue of the educational system, all around the world. From a long time ago, in different cultures and civilizations, when the education of new generation was the point choosing teaching style was a point, too and any teacher was acting according to his/her view and perception. Nowadays, however, because of development of community and practical and scientific knowledge of mankind behavior, teaching styles and principles are transformed [Karami et al. 2014, 35]. So many efforts have been done to establish fundamental reform and improve the educational system, all with the aim of improving the effectiveness of education system. Achievement of the educational goals is an index of schools effectiveness. Educational progress of students is considered as an index of achievement of educational goals. Thus, scholars pursue educational progress of students which is achieved investigating effective factors on the academic progress of students. The literature indicates that academic optimism can help teachers to success through structure design pattern and good implementation of it [Abbasian & Heidarzadeh, 2015, 148].
The style is a key element in teaching. Teaching style is the quality of behaviors that a teacher implements during teaching in the class. In other words, the teaching style points to behaviors of a teacher interacting with his/her students. It plays an important role in various aspects of teaching. Thus, educational leading process and its effect on students and their learning ability are known as a teaching style [Darvish Ghadimi & Rudbary, 2015, 148].
Teaching style includes the personal behavior of teachers and teaching materials that they use for information transmission. Considering that teachers need special scientific and technical skills to be successful in class management, it is necessary that better methods be used for its improvement by teachers [Razeginezhad et al. 2010, 199].
Academic optimism is a concept that comes out from the interaction of effectiveness, educational emphasis, and trust building. It helps to create a positive atmosphere in the school. In addition, this atmosphere helps teachers to be effective. Educational emphasis leads to high degree of expectations and creates high standards for academic success. In schools with high academic optimism, there is a trust between teachers, students, and parents which leads to a sympathy between them. According to literature, academic optimism has a positive effect on the academic progress of students controlling their background [Abbasian & Heidarzadeh, 2015, 149].
Teaching is an effective tool which provides pedagogies. The most of experts consider teaching style skill of a teacher as an index of his/her competency. This index is considered as a superior index [Karami et al. 2014, 35].
There are so many styles which could be applied by a teacher while he/she teaches, but the teacher should choose the best one according to the subject, students, and the environment of the school. Teaching is the process of formation and simplification of learning which flows from a teacher to students and is completed with the interaction of them.
There are so many factors which affect learning. Teaching the style is one of them. Teaching is style is the behavior of a teacher and the devices that he/she uses during interaction with students. Personal characteristics of a teacher specify the style that he/she should apply [Haghani et al. 2010, 944].
Teaching is considered as the focal point and intersecting point of all academic elements and the most important performance of a teacher in the class which provides the basis for learning. Because any subject should be taught with the special teaching style, so it is necessary to apply the suitable method for each subject [Yasilaghi Sherahi et al. 2016, 31].
Personal perception of teachers significantly affects teaching environment, learning, and students. Academic optimism is one of these perceptions. It is a new structure which may lead to the academic success of students [Ghanbarlu et al. 2015, 220].
Teachers play an important role in the process of teaching-learning. In other words, the characteristics of the teacher including his/her interest and motivation for teaching, personal characteristics, and professional skills and competence affect the quality and quantity of teaching which provides the basis of success or failure of students, directly or indirectly. Thus, scientific and academic optimism structures of the teacher are considered as fundamental factors of academic progress of students that should be investigated [Moradi et al. 2014, 143].
As the end section of this part, various teaching Styles are introduced, briefly: A) Prashing classifies teaching styles as follows: 1) Traditional or pure analytical teaching style 2) Flexible teaching style 3) Student or total oriented teaching style [quoted from Hagani et al. 2010, 944].
A teacher who uses the pure analytical style in his/her teaching applies a step-by-step method and each step is finished before initiation of next step. He/She emphasize on facts and details and transfers vocal or written feedback to students. In flexible teaching style, however, students are allowed to learn in groups. In this style, the contribution of students in the selection of subject is increased. As teaching goes wrong, the teacher with flexible teaching style thinks instantaneously about various solutions to motivate students. In total oriented teaching style, the teacher emphasizes on learning requirements of students. He/she leads students to discover their own facts and encourages them to interact socially in the class in relation to learning material to enhance their own experiences. B) Grasha classifies teaching styles as follows: 1) Expert: these types of teachers have a knowledge or an experience that students need it. He/she tries to keep his/her position as an expert providing knowledge to students and upgrading scientific excellence of them through a competition that he/she creates between them. He/she are interested in transferring information and ensuring the full redness of students. The limitation of this method is that if it be used more than usual, the knowledge of teacher becomes a threat to new students. 2) Formal authority: these types of teachers are popular among students because of their knowledge and their position as a faculty member. They pay attention to positive and negative feedbacks of behavior, achievement of goals, and observing the rules by students. They suggest standard and acceptable methods to do things and emphasize on acceptable methods and clear expectations in things that should be done. This style is standardized as an inflexible style and doesn't motivate students. 3) Personal model: they believe in personal examples and providing a typical model for students to how to think and how to act. Altogether, this style presents guidance and achievement of direct skills in doing things and encourages students to observe and then to compete. In this style, continuous and direct supervision is emphasized. These types of teachers believe that their teaching method is the best way to lead students while if they couldn't achieve the standards and expectations they will feel that they are incompetent. 4) Facilitator: this style emphasizes the interaction between teacher and student. Students are evaluated through asking questions, expressing ideas, reasonable suggestions, and encouraging them to develop their insight and options. Altogether, this style points to develop the capacity of students so that they be able to achieve independence in action and responsibility. The teacher works with students as a consultant and guides and encourages him/her. The advantages of this style include personal flexibility, emphasis on requirements and goals of students, and satisfaction. 5) Agentive: these types of teachers like to develop the capacity of students to do things independently. Students work on projects independently and the teacher is available as an understanding person. The contribution of students for professional progress and trust-building leads to mutual trust [quoted from Razeghinezhad et al. 2010, 199-200].

Literature review
In this section, theoretical and practical backgrounds are provided.

Theoretical background
Alton Lee (2006) believes that teaching is a complicated process which is designed beforehand and should be implemented by the teacher and its goal is to engage students with the teaching material [quoted from Karami et al. 2014, 37]. Kabadei (2006) stated that teaching style is a known method that a teacher uses to do a specific teaching task and to lead teaching process. This could be considered as a preference for a behavior that leads to learning which is affected by values, beliefs, and social and cultural backgrounds of the teacher. In other words, the concept of style is related to a preferred method of a person who implements his/her skills. This is an important factor to differentiate between people and issues such as thinking, learning, teaching and generally doing things. Here, it is necessary to point out a pretty new concept which is interested by scholars. This concept is teaching style. It is the common model of the behavior of a teacher in the class and his/her method of teaching [same reference 38]. Abednaker & Dame (2006) stated that one of the teaching styles is student-oriented teaching style. In this style, the teacher, dependent on the differences between students, acts differently. He/she has an active role facing problems of his/her students and his/her students are active and contributor. The teacher often talks about his/her problems with his/her colleagues and evaluates his/her teaching, directly or indirectly. Academic progress of students is important for him/her. This is why he/she tries to interact with them friendly. This teaching style concentrates on learning and students themselves. In return, the style that is on basis of course subjects do not pay much attention to personal differences of students and personal progress of them, instead, it emphasizes on course subjects and mystery of students on them [quoted from Khandaghi & Rajaee, 2013, 23]. Chin Chang (2009), from Taiwan national community of Sciences, said: the teachers who believe in the building of knowledge by students themselves are student-oriented and suggest autonomous learning and group decisions. This view emphasizes the learning process. On the other hand, transmission oriented view considers the teacher as a source of knowledge. This model emphasizes on getting the information. In this method, the main responsibility of learning is on a teacher who should transfer the knowledge to the students.

Scientific background
There was no study on teaching styles of English teachers and academic optimism of teachers which are two variables of this study. The studies that one of these variables is considered as a variable in them are summarized as follows: Karami et al. (2013) published a paper entitled "an investigation on the orientation of high School teachers toward critical thinking and effective it on their teaching style" and concluded that teachers are interested in active teaching style rather than passive one and the level of critical thinking of teachers is good, generally. Khandagi and Rajaei (2013) in a research which is entitled "the effect of learning style of students on their preferred teaching style" concluded that the students are interested in active teaching style and their dominant learning style is convergent and observing styles. . The results suggested that consistency of teaching and learning styles has a positive and significant effect on the academic performance of students. Thus, it could be concluded that if the teachers of agriculture and natural resources faculties be able to consistent their teaching styles with learning styles of the students, the academic performance of their students will be better.
Moradi et al. (2014) in a study with the title of "the relationship between academic optimism with academic progress of male high school students of 6 th and 9 th zones of Tehran city" concluded that there is a significant and positive relationship between academic optimism and progress of students among the male students of these zones. Zabihi-e Hesari (2013) in his the entitled "academic optimism of the teacher and the goals of academic progress of students with educational engaging of high school students in Mashhad city" concluded that the three components of academic optimism of the teacher (the understanding of the teacher from effectiveness, the trust of the teacher on the students and their parents, and educational emphasis are able to predict the most factors of engaging of students [quoted from Moradi et al. 2015, 148]. Ghanbarlu (2013) in his thesis entitled "the relationship between academic optimism and emotional intelligence of teachers with academic progress of students of middle and high schools of high schools of Salmas town" concluded that amount the components of academic optimism of teachers, the trust on students and their parents has the most significant role on academic progress of students. Bevel & Mitchell (2012) in the study entitled "the effects of academic optimism elementary students reading achievement", in the USA, concluded that all components of academic optimism have a positive and significant relationship with the reading achievement of elementary students. Kirby & and DiPaola (2011) in their study entitled "academic optimism and public commitment in schools of Virginia state of the USA" concluded that in the schools with optimistic teachers, students would be successful regardless of their economic and social conditions. Mascall et al. (2008) in their research entitled "the relationship between distributed leadership and teacher's academic optimism", in the sample with 1640 people in Canada, concluded that distributed leadership has a positive and significant effect on teacher's academic optimism.

Research hypotheses
The main research hypothesis is that there is a significant relationship between teaching style and academic optimism of English teachers. The side hypotheses are as follows: 1) There is a significant relationship between expert style and understanding of optimism by teachers. 2) There is a significant relationship between formal authority style and understanding of optimism by teachers. 3) There is a significant relationship between personal model style and understanding of optimism by teachers. 4) There is a significant relationship between facilitator style and understanding of optimism by teachers. 5) There is a significant relationship between agentive style and understanding of optimism by teachers.

Research methods
In this study, the field and library methods were used. The goal of this study is determination of the effect of teaching style on academic optimism of English teachers of Birjand city. Statistical society of this investigation includes all English teachers of Birjand. 100 teachers were studied which were selected randomly. In this investigation, the measurement and data collecting tools were two questionnaires as follows: 1) Grasha standard teaching style questionnaire (1996): This questionnaire includes 40 closed response questions which investigate the five components including expert, formal authority, personal model, facilitator, and agentive styles. Pointing scale of this questionnaire is "Likert scale".

Data analysis
In this section, the collected data were analyzed using SPSS software. Pearson correlation method was applied to analyze the data. First, descriptive statistics (age, gender, marriage status…) are considered. Then, inferring statistics (acceptance or rejection of the hypotheses) are considered. a) Descriptive statistics Table 3. Responders distribution based on their gender As it can be seen, 52% (52 people) of responders are men, 46% (46 people) of responders are women, and 2% (two people) of responders didn't specify their genders. Table 4

. Responders distribution based on their ages
According to above table, 1% (one person) of responders is in range of 15 to 20 years old, 3% (three people) are in range of 20 to 25 years old, 40% (40 people) are in range of 35 to 40 years old, 44% (44 people) are in range of 40 to 45 years old, 8% (8 people) are in range of 45 to 50 years old, and 10% (10 people) didn't answer this question. Table 5

. Responders distribution based on their education
According to above table, 0% (no one) of responders had a diploma, 12% (12 people) had an associated degree, 80% (80 people) of responders had bachelor degree, 2% (two people) of responders had Master of Science degree, and 6% (6 people) of responders didn't answer this question. Table 6. Responders distribution based on their marriage status according to above table, 11% (11 people) of responders were single, 77% (77 people) of responders got married, and 12% (12 people) didn't answer this question. Table 7. Responders distributional based on the experiences at work According to above table, 7% (7 people) of responders had 1-5 years of experience at work, 11% (11 people) had 5-10 years of experience at work, 9% (9 people) had 10-15 years of experience at work, 17% (17 people) of responders had 15-20 years of experience at work, 23% (23 people) of responders had 20-25 years of experience at work, 23% (23 people) of responders had 25-30 years of experience at work, and 10% (10 people) of responders didn't answer this question. Inferring statistics The first hypothesis H 0 : There is no significant relationship between expert teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers. H 1 : There is a significant relationship between expert teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers.

Table 8. The correlation of expert style with understanding of academic optimism by teachers
According to above table, because the Pearson correlation factor is between 0 and 1 (1 and 0.169), there is a positive correlation between expert style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers; but because the significance level is 0.092 which is more than 0.05, thus, H 1 is rejected and H 0 is accepted. This means that there is no significant relationship between expert style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers. The second hypothesis H 0 : There is no significant relationship between formal authority teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers. H 1 : There is a significant relationship between formal authority teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers. Table 9. The correlation of formal authority style with understanding of academic optimism by teachers According to above table, because the Pearson correlation factor is between 0 and 1 (1 and 0.377), there is a positive correlation between formal authority style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers; because the significance level is 0.000 which is less than 0.05, thus, H 0 is rejected and H 1 is accepted. This means that there is a significant relationship between formal authority style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers.

The third hypothesis
H 0 : There is no significant relationship between personal model teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers.
H 1 : There is a significant relationship between personal model teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers. Table 10. The correlation of personal model style with understanding of academic optimism by teachers According to above table, because the Pearson correlation factor is between 0 and 1 (1 and 0.386), there is a positive correlation between personal model style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers; because the significance level is 0.000 which is less than 0.05, thus, H 0 is rejected and H 1 is accepted. This means that there is a significant relationship between personal model style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers.
The fourth hypothesis H 0 : There is no significant relationship between facilitator teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers.
H 1 : There is a significant relationship between facilitator teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers. Table 11. The correlation of facilitator style with understanding of academic optimism by teachers According to above table, because the Pearson correlation factor is between 0 and 1 (1 and 0.284), there is a positive correlation between facilitator style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers; because the significance level is 0.000 which is less than 0.05, thus, H 0 is rejected and H 1 is accepted. This means that there is a significant relationship between facilitator style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers. The fifth hypothesis H 0 : There is no significant relationship between agentive teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers. H 1 : There is a significant relationship between agentive teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers. Table 12. The correlation of agentive style with understanding of academic optimism by teachers According to above table, because the Pearson correlation factor is between 0 and 1 (1 and 0.335), there is a positive correlation between agentive style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers; because the significance level is 0.001 which is less than 0.05, thus, H 0 is rejected and H 1 is accepted. This means that there is a significant relationship between agentive style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers.

The sixth hypothesis
H 0 : There is no significant relationship between teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers. H 1 : There is a significant relationship between teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers. According to above table, because the Pearson correlation factor is between 0 and 1 (1 and 0.421), there is a positive correlation between teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers; because the significance level is 0.000 which is less than 0.05, thus, H 0 is rejected and H 1 is accepted. This means that there is a significant relationship between teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers.

Conclusion and suggestions
The first hypothesis: there is a significant relationship between expert style and understandings of academic optimism by teachers.
With a confidence level of 95%, the first hypothesis isn't accepted. This means that there is no significant relationship between expert teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers and these two variables don't affect each other.
The second hypothesis: there is a significant relationship between formal authority style and understandings of academic optimism by teachers.
With a confidence level of 95%, the second hypothesis is accepted. This means that there is a significant and direct relationship between formal authority teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers and these two variables affect each other.
The third hypothesis: there is a significant relationship between personal model style and understandings of academic optimism by teachers.
With a confidence level of 95%, the third hypothesis is accepted. This means that there is a significant and direct relationship between personal model teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers and these two variables affect each other.
The fourth hypothesis: there is a significant relationship between facilitator style and understandings of academic optimism by teachers.
With a confidence level of 95%, the fourth hypothesis is accepted. This means that there is a significant and direct relationship between facilitator teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers and these two variables affect each other.
The fifth hypothesis: there is a significant relationship between agentive style and understandings of academic optimism by teachers. With a confidence level of 95%, the fifth hypothesis is accepted. This means that there is a significant and direct relationship between agentive teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers and these two variables affect each other. The sixth hypothesis: there is a significant relationship between teaching style and understandings of academic optimism by teachers.
With a confidence level of 95%, the sixth hypothesis is also accepted. This means that there is a significant and direct relationship between teaching style and understanding of academic optimism by teachers and these two variables affect each other. Thus, all the components of teaching style, except expert style were accepted. These results suggest that: 1) All teaching styles should be taught to teachers so that they be able to implement the suitable teaching style in different situations. 2) It is suggested that the teachers choose the most suitable teaching style according to educational goals, teaching materials, requirements and interests of students, available facilities (time, space, devices,…), students density, and so on. 3) It is recommended this investigation be done on the teachers of other majors and the results be evaluated adaptively. 4) It is recommended to directors of schools and educational institutions to provide suitable con suitable conditions for teachers to contribute actively and develop teachers optimism by the creation of optimistic beliefs in themselves so that they be able to extend it in the academic environment, classes, and personal interactions.