The purpose of this investigation was to determine the influence of democratic and authoritarian teaching methods on the efficiency of learning in a short, concentrated management technique course and to develop and test hypotheses regarding the relationship between these teaching methods and the factors of instructor personality, student age, educational background, work experience, reason for attendance, and student personality. Subjects were 96 adults enrolled in four classes in a two week course conducted at an adult education center. Crticial factors included teaching methods and the selection of the two instructors. Subjects in two classes were taught by an operationally defined authoritarian teaching method by two instructors, one possessing a potentially democratic personality syndrome, the other a potentially anti-democratic syndrome. The other two classes were taught by an operationally defined democratic teaching method by the same instructors. The instructors were selected on the basis of their scores on the California F Scale. Subjects in all classes performed at essentially the same level of achievement. Age, amount of experience, reason for attending the course, and the subject's personality syndrome did not affect his achievement level. Educational level, however, affected the level of achievement. (Author/PT)