Unit 1: Teaching Perspectives Inventory

This week we were asked to try the Teaching Perspectives Inventory (http://www.teachingperspectives.com/tpi/). This was an interesting way to reflect on my teaching practices and perspectives. My results of the TPI seemed to be somewhat accurate to how I view myself as a teacher. In some ways I was surprised by some of my results, though I see how they came to be.  I think it is important to note that in some ways I answered the questions as a Learning Centre teacher, though there were times my first response would be to answer as though I was back in an English classroom. I had to remind myself to keep the same teaching context and group of students in mind while answering the questions instead of toggling back and forth based on the questions. With the role I am currently in, I think I answered the questions differently than if I were teaching English again.

Artifact 1: TPI Inventory Results

 I was slightly surprised that nurturing was my highest (just slightly, but it was) as I do not consider myself to be overly nurturing (I would have expected that one to be in the middle). However, upon reflection, I realized that I think a lot of what I do and value is helping to develop a sense of confidence with the students I work with. Many often feel like they are not "good at school" so I see it important to help them recognize their strengths and what they are good at which I can see could read nurturing. Having a sense of self worth and confidence can change the amount of effort and time one is willing to put into something and increases the likelihood that they will take risks while learning. 

The next two highest scores (which were pretty close together) were apprenticeship and developmental. Those are the two I would have expected to be highest based on the paragraph summaries and my perspectives and beliefs about teaching. I consider myself to generally take a constructivist approach (which seem to line up well with apprenticeship and developmental) when teaching and guiding students in their individual goals. I also think learning through experiences and having the opportunity to practice skills across setting supports generalization. I love having students learn by doing and using authentic experiences to teach important skills relevant to their individual goals and their lives.

I think that there are some similarities in how I teach and how I like to learn, though since switching to working full time in the Learning Centre, I have evolved as a teacher and a learner and have adjusted my approach.

This was a great activity to gain some information about myself as a teacher.