The hypothesis that, for vocational and nonvocational teachers, a directive teaching style would be more effective with concrete authoritarian students and a nondirective teaching style would be more effective with abstract, nonauthoritarian students was tested in a two-phase study. A behavior rating scale, Student Perception of Teacher Style (SPOTS), was developed and tested in phase 1, while 12 directive and 12 nondirective high school teachers (half vocational and half nonvocational), chosen on the basis of their SPOTS scores, served with their students as subjects in phase 2. Student satisfaction with the course, student relative preference for the teacher, and student achievement (grades) were analyzed separately for vocational and for nonvocational teachers by two factors: teacher directiveness or nondirectiveness and student personality orientation (as obtained from the Interpersonal Topical Inventory and the F-scale which were completed by the students). Findings showed that all students were more satisfied with, preferred, and earned high grades from nondirective teachers in both vocational and nonvocational subjects, and that abstract and nonauthoritarian students showed differentiation between directive and nondirective teachers while concrete and authoritarian students did not. (An 86-item reference list and an appendix containing the tests used are included.) (SM)