Preferences for teaching methods are influenced by several factors, including instructional goals, teacher's management style, experience and education. To discover in which ways primary school teachers with different management styles vary in their preferences for students' cognitive and social development, 128 teachers of Estonia were questioned. According to the results, authoritative and authoritarian-inconsistent teachers used different methods more frequently for gaining cognitive than social enhancement goals. However, authoritative teachers emphasised students' social competences significantly more than authoritarian-inconsistent teachers. Greater differences between groups were revealed in case of progressive methods. Moreover, authoritative teachers demonstrated a more conscious choice of teaching methods for a wider variety of purposes.