Week 2 PIDP 3260 - Teaching Perspective Inventory (TPI)

TPI -  Teaching Perspective Inventory

The first thing I thought to myself is what is this ? and why should I take it?  After some reading I realized that this was a great way to gain some insight on who I think I am as a teacher. I can gain some valuable information on my views and perceptions of teaching. As I have never really asked myself some hard questions about teaching I was up for the challenge. For those of you who have not taken this test it does not take long (10 minutes) and your results are instant. Go to http://www.teachingperspectives.com  to start now. For 3 easy payments of $29.99 you too can gain wisdom about teaching. Joking of course, it is FREE! 
Below are my results. First off I listened to the videos and realized it would be much easier if someone was facilitating the conversation about my results but I was still able to take a good look at the results and do some self reflection. 
For future, I would like to try this again to see if my perspective changes as I believe it will and to see what my students and colleagues also think. 

TPI Results:

Transmission Total: (Tr) 35.
B = 12; I = 11; A = 12.
Apprenticeship Total: (Ap) 34.
B = 9; I = 13; A = 12.
Developmental Total: (Dv) 36.
B = 11; I = 13; A = 12.
Nurturing Total: (Nu) 38.
B = 13; I = 13; A = 12.
Social Reform Total: (SR) 29.
B = 9; I = 10; A = 10.
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Beliefs total: (B) 54
Intentions total: (I) 60
Action total: (A) 58
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Mean: (M) 34.4
Standard Deviation: (SD) 3.01
Dominant Threshold: (HIT) 37.41
Recessive Threshold: (LOT) 31.39
Overall Total: (T) 172

Reflecting on Your TPI Results

• Review the Summary Paragraphs
  Remind yourself what philosophical viewpoint each of the five perspectives represents: Transmission, Apprenticeship, Developmental, Nurturing, and Social Reform. Remember, these are Teaching Perspectives; not personality-based 'styles' or technical 'methods'. 

  
  

  I had no idea what each viewpoint stood for. A summary is below:

  Transmission - commitment to content or subject matter.

  Apprenticeship - highly skilled practitioners. 

  Developmental - must be planned and conducted for learner's view. 

  Nurturing - effort to achieve comes from the heart, not head.
  Social Reform - change society.
  Upon looking a this I felt that I would be relatively high with  the majority of the perspectives but the lowest one would be social reform. 
• Examine Your Profile Sheet
  The height of the five large vertical bars on your profile represents how strongly you hold each of the Five Perspectives outlined on the Summary Sheet: Transmission, Apprenticeship, Developmental, Nurturing, and Social Reform. Remember that all teachers embody all five views, but in varying degrees. 

  
  

  The highest perspective for me was Nurturing at 38 and my mean score was 34.4. I was not surprised at this as I think very highly of hard work as this is something I have to do as a learner. 
• Note the Height and Range of Your Overall Scores
  Scores on the profile sheet can range from a minimum of 9 to a maximum of 45. Do your scores overall generally fall in the 40s? Or the 30s? Or 20s? Are your individual perspectives strongly held? Moderately held? Weakly held? Do you know anyone who holds stronger views on teaching? What might this suggest?

  
  

  
  

  Most of my scores are in the 30s meaning I think that I have a balanced viewpoint and nothing really stands out. I don't feel that any of the views are strongly held, except nurturing but social reform is weakly held. This might suggest that I was confused by the questioning or unsure but I feel it means that I think the course I was thinking about does not change society and I don't think I am teaching to change society, even though I feel I am mentoring students  to become more rounded, and contributing members to society.  From the video my results suggest that I am trying to be everything to everybody being a first time teacher. I also have multiple teaching responsibilities as I am in a program and all the courses seem to be inter-twinned. When thinking about the questions I was thinking  of one class which consists of adult learners that I see on a consistent basis. I feel there are peers that hold stronger views on teaching and this may be attributed to experience, more courses dealing with education and personality. 
  
  
  

  Check the Differentiation among Your Perspectives
• On which perspective is your score the highest? Lowest? Are there marked (step-like) differences among your scores, some high and others low? Or is your profile somewhat 'flat', with smaller differences between your highs and lows? Keep in mind that to agree with some items meant that you must logically disagree with others--you cannot agree with everything. As you were completing the TPI, did you keep a single, specific educational context and a single group of learners in mind throughout?

  
  

  highest score is nurturing which is not surprising because I feel if the effort is there , the learning will come. I do support the students through their challenges though and realize there might be set backs in the learning process and I don't make excuses for them
  lowest -social reform .
  My score is typical a flat score with slight variances. The test shows a dominant perspective of nurturing and a recessive perspective of social reform.
  As mentioned before some of my results might be because trying to be everything to everybody being a first time teacher. I also have multiple teaching responsibilities as I am in a program and all the courses seem to be inter-twinned. This is the point where it would be greta to have an expert help me bring out more and hopefully find the reasoning for the results. 
• Identify Your Dominant, Back-Up, and Recessive Perspectives
  Do one or two of your perspective scores fall at or above the upper line labeled 'Dominant'? Which one? Most people have at least one (occasionally two) dominant perspectives that represent strongly held views on their roles and functions as educators. Similarly, most people have one or two 'Back-up' perspectives that are also high, but somewhat lower than their dominant perspective. Which are your Back-Up perspectives? Do any of your scores fall at or below the lower line labeled 'Recessive'? Which one? These dominant and recessive thresholds are keyed to your profile individually (+/- 1 SD around the mean of your own five scores). They are not influenced by how other people score on their profiles. For you, which are Dominant? Back-up? Recessive?

  
  

  See above
• Check for Internal Consistency
  Examine the sub-scores labeled B, I, and A (the short bars within each Perspective bar). Your score on each of your five perspectives is comprised of three sub-scores: a Belief sub-score, an Intention sub-score, and an Action sub-score. These sub-scores are indicators of how much agreement exists between what you do (Actions), what you want to accomplish (Intentions), and why you feel that is important or justified (Beliefs). High internal consistency (sub-scores within one or two points of each other) means that your Beliefs, Intentions, and Actions are all aligned with each other.

  
  B-beliefs
  I-intentions
  A-actions
  My beliefs, intentions and actions are aligned with each other for all the perspectives except for the apprenticeship perspective. There is a discrepancy of more than 3 between belief and intention/action. I believe that this might be the case because our program has a major clinical component where the learning occurs while watching and working with a highly skilled worker. I might have been thinking about this when I answered the questions and related it to the lab where I teach my course and in comparison it doesn't happen as much as it does in clinical, hence a low score. I do believe a teacher should be highly skilled in what they do. If I was to do the questionnaire again nor recommend it to someone I would suggest they read over the definitions of the perspectives before taking it, which I did not. 
• Examine any Internal Discrepancies
  If your B, I, A sub-scores differ by three or more points, inconsistencies may exist that you should consider. Where your sub-scores differ by 3, 4, 5 or more points, look to see where the differences occur. Within which Perspective? Between which sub-scores: Beliefs and Actions? Between Intentions and Actions? Between Actions and Intentions? What might explain these differences? Job constraints? Philosophical inconsistencies? Non-clarity about departmental expectations?

  
  

  see above
• Look for Consistency Across Perspectives
  Examine the Intentions sub-score for all five perspectives. Does the highest Intention sub-score occur within your dominant perspective? If not, where does it occur and what might that indicate? Similarly, look across your Beliefs sub-scores; in which perspectives are your Beliefs expressed most strongly? Within which perspectives do your Actions predominate?

  
  

  My highest intention score occurs in my dominant perspectives as well as two others. The actions follow suite. 
• Self-Corroboration
  Are the scores on your profile sheet consistent with how you see yourself? Do they make overall sense to you? Are there any unexpected insights? Do your scores help you clarify how you see yourself as a professional educator? Do the thoughts, words, and ideas from the Paragraph Summaries or these Ten Steps offer you new ideas and an expanded language for explaining why you teach as you do? How might these ideas help you draft a written Teaching Philosophy Statement?

  
  

  I feel the scores represent who I see myself as a teacher. I like to think that I am fairly strong in multiple perspectives. I feel the pressure to cover everything in my classes but am becoming better with letting the class develop naturally and let the students drive the car more. This has been hard because I have been taught in the transmission education system and most of my examples  come from that. I feel I am creative with my teaching but still am a transmission style with a lot of questions. I am scared to try the flipped classroom! I just don't know if it would work for my course/students. 
• Next Steps: Peer/Professional Validation
  If you have exchanged profile sheets with your peers, have you shared and discussed your results with each other? Do they see you in the same manner as the profile suggests? Compare your profile with norms for other people in your department. Or compare with others in your same professional sector. Or with others who have a similar educational background? Is it now clearer that there are multiple and legitimate views on what constitutes 'good teaching'? Reconfirm or Check for Change: Remember, you can always take the TPI a second and a third time! Look for changes that may occur resulting from professional workshops, departmental discussions, critical self-reflection, discussions with your colleagues, or other important events.

  
  

  I would like to have my students feel this out as well as some colleagues on my behalf and compare the results . It would also be great to sit down with someone who could guide me through the interpretation of my results. Hopefully at the end of the PIDP program I could take this again. 

  
  

  Summary:
  
  I enjoyed this tool and feel it makes me look at myself as a teacher and define who I am. My recommendation for people trying this for the first time is to read the definitions of perspectives before attempting the questions. It would be great to have someone help with interpreting the results and it would be valuable to use again for comparison. I had never heard of this tool before and felt it made me look at myself and what my core perspectives are and why. I will definitely try it again.
  
  Information retrieved from http://www.teachingperspectives.com/tpi/ on April. 13, 2007.