Teaching Perspectives Inventory – Reflection
The group of learners that this TPI was focused on were grade 8 girls (approx 13-14 years old) for the sport of volleyball. The following are my results: Dominant scores in both Apprenticeship and Nurturing of 43, moderate score of 39 for both Developmental and Social Reform, and a recessive score of 34 for Transmission.
Taking the TPI has been an interesting process. It has opened my eyes to critically reflecting on my own perspectives of knowledge, learning and social role as a teacher and has allowed me to really dive in and explore these perspectives. It was very helpful to reflect on my teaching philosophy before I was able to reflect on my TPI scores. My philosophy is based around the importance of transference and the use of physical activity as a vehicle to teach valuable life skills that aims at empowering and motivating students to be the most authentic versions of themselves inside and outside of school. I believe strongly in creating a safe environment where students feel welcome to express themselves and to accept failure rather than fear it; express it, don’t repress it! Examples of some valuable life skills consist of teamwork, responsibility, confidence and understanding the importance of active living.
My dominant scores were both in Nurturing and Apprenticeship with no considerable variation among the internal scores. Essentially, what I believe about teaching and learning corresponds with what I am trying to accomplish and the actions that I am taking. I was not surprised in the slightest to see high scores in nurturing. Based on my philosophy and in the words of Pratt, “people become motivated and productive learners when they are working on issues or problems without fear of failure” (p. 11). This being said, my students will be welcomed into an environment where they feel safe to take risks and to make mistakes, and “their efforts to learn will be supported by their teacher and peers” (Pratt, 2002, p. 11). I can relate strongly with Pratt’s metaphor of the learner; “the vulnerable self” (p.11). When a person’s self esteem and sense of worth is threatened, the natural reaction is for the person to build up a wall to protect themselves and in the process, “learning will be blocked, diverted, or halted altogether” (Pratt, 2002, p.11). A main part of the reason as to why I scored so high in the Nurturing perspective and for all three internal scores, is that I have been that learner and I can relate to how it feels; scared, low confidence, conformed and unmotivated. With my group of learners, I was able to create a safe environment and I knew this because they were able to openly share their fears and vulnerabilities with me and the rest of the team. I am passionate about creating a nurturing and safe environment for my students where failure is accepted rather than feared and “achievement is only the means by which people can improve their self-confidence and self-esteem as learners.”(Pratt, 2002, p. 12)
In regards to the Apprenticeship perspective, I was surprised at first because I thought I would be more developmental, however after some reflecting, I can understand why I scored so high. I believe that schooling and education needs to shift away from the industrial model that is based on a linearity of learning and conformity, to a more agricultural model that provides an optimal environment for learners and their varying talents to flourish. “As we learn more about why so little classroom learning transfers to work sites, this view becomes increasingly relevant.” (Pratt, 2002, p.9). Relating back to my philosophy of transference and as I reflect on these TPI scores, it makes sense that my beliefs and intentions are so high (15). I believe and intend on making tasks relevant so that learners are able to authentically apply their own talents as they work on “tasks that are meaningful and relevant to the community of practice” (Pratt, 2002, p. 10). Although the difference in score for Action was not significantly lower, as I reflected on my focus group, I found it difficult to practice authentic task in a volleyball setting and to “matching learners’ capabilities with tasks that represent legitimate work.” (Pratt, 2002, p. 11). An authentic task that I had my group work on and apply to our volleyball setting was that of teamwork and understanding.
My two moderate perspectives with a score of 39 were Developmental and Social Reform.
The internal scores for social reform relatively agree with each-other; 12 for beliefs, 13 for intentions and 14 for action, however there was a significant deviation for the internal scores for the Developmental perspective; 9 for belief, and 15 for both intentions and actions. I really had to think about this one. My intentions and actions agree 100% with the concept of providing developmentally appropriate learning experiences that caters to each individuals learning needs. To do this, one must first understand the variety of learning styles and stages of each learner. Once the stage and style has been determined, the teacher must “try to build bridges from the learners’ way of thinking to better, more complex, and more sophisticated ways of thinking and reasoning” (Pratt, 2002, p. 8). One of the things I love doing and believe is crucial to learning is the “use of effective questioning that challenges learners to move from relatively simple to more complex forms of thinking and the use of meaningful examples” (Pratt, 2002, p. 8). Upon reflection, I was able to understand why I scored so low on the belief perspective; I went into this coaching situation with the assumption that the groups of girls were at a similar stage of learning in regards to volleyball. The variety of technical and tactical skill was shocking and unfortunately for the less experienced players, I didn’t respect their prior knowledge and my intentions were that they would reproduce my understandings. In the words of Pratt, “Foremost, it means that teachers must genuinely value learners’ prior knowledge and understand how they think about the content before presenting new material” (2002, p. 8). If I hadn’t reflected on the TPI scores, I wouldn’t have realized this about myself. This is one of the main reasons why I value the experience of this activity.
I believe that my social reform perspective scores reflect my scores for developmental, apprenticeship and nurturing perspectives because they have a lot in common. “[bringing] learners into diverse communities of practice, ask probing questions and use powerful metaphors that help learners bridge between prior knowledge and new concepts, and work hard to respect and promote the dignity and self-efficacy of their learners” (Pratt, 2002, p.12-13). My beliefs of social reform, in which I imposed on this group of young women, was based around respect; for themselves as powerful and independent women and to respect others in their community. My intentions were for them to appreciate themselves and the individuals around them, regardless of their differences, and my actions were based on being a positive role model by living with integrity and holding myself accountable. I was a successful teacher in regards to this perspective because the group shared these ideas and agreed that these were just as important to them as they were to me (Pratt, 2002, p.13).
Lastly, my recessive perspective was Transmission with a score of 34, resulting in no discrepancies between the internal scores. The transmission perspective goes against my philosophy and what I am trying to accomplish as a teacher. This perspective views the learner as an empty vessel that learns by being stuffed full of information (Pratt, 2002, p.8). The information is not made meaningful to the learner and no consideration of prior knowledge is considered. Also, this perspective doesn’t promote creativity with learning; “learners are expected to learn the content in its authorized or legitimate forms, and teachers are expected to take learners systematically through a set of tasks that lead to mastery of the content” (Pratt, 2002, p.8). Another reason as to why the scores are lower than the others is that I don’t feel like I’ve mastered my area of expertise. As Pratt states, “it is essential for transmission-oriented teachers to have mastery over their content” (Pratt, 2002, p.7), however I don’t believe that I will ever truly master volleyball, or any subject for that matter. I will always be learning and changing the way I think so that I can be a better teacher for my students.
I really value the experience of having not only completed the TPI, but critically reflecting on my results. I have a better understanding of my own beliefs as an educator and the reasons behind my actions. I encourage every new educator to take this test and critically reflect on their results.
References
Pratt, D. D. (2002). Good teaching: One size fits all? New Directions for Adult and Continuing
Education, 2002(93), 5-6. doi: 10.1002/ace.45