Activity
Daniel D. Pratt and John B. Collins created the Teaching Perspectives Inventory, which is a 45-item instrument that yields dominant and back-up perspectives on teaching.
(from their website) What does it mean "to teach?" Ask a dozen people and you will hear a range of answers that describe guiding, facilitating, telling, showing, planning, helping, directing, and so forth. Some might say teaching is the effective or efficient transmission of information from one person to another. Others might answer that teaching is the socialization of people into a community, for example, helping people learn how to live harmoniously within a particular family or society. Still others might say that teaching is an arrangement of conditions that facilitate someone's learning.
A person’s perspective is an expression of personal beliefs and values related to learning and teaching. Read about the development of the Teaching Perspective Inventory.(pdf file)
Go to the Summary of the Five Perspectives of "Good Teaching" before and after you take the Teaching Perspective Inventory.
Take the Inventory on the website. The results of your TPI are emailed to you.
What's your perspective? Social reform? Nurturing? Did your result make sense to you? How useful do you think tools like this are?You might want to begin this journey of reflection by starting a simple journal page (pdf).
