I am almost half way through my Provincial Instructor diploma Program and I have put a lot of thought into my teaching philosophy but nothing into teaching perspectives. I took the teaching perspective inventory with no pre-set expectations. I know I am still in an active learning phase of my career, and with every new task and assignment I learn a little more about the instructor I am becoming. After taking my teaching perspective inventory I looked into the breakdown of my beliefs, intentions and actions and how they fit into the 5 teaching perspectives: transmission, apprenticeship, developmental, nurturing, social reform. Here is a recap of my results:
Apprenticeship came out on top of my results and I feel this is a great fit for me since I believe strongly that instructors are experts in the fields they instruct. I worked in the dental field for 15 years prior to becoming a clinical instructor. I feel my prior knowledge has been a huge asset in my instructing.
Developmental came in as a close second, which is no surprise to me since I feel that keeping my instructing relevant to my students prior learning and knowledge is very important.
Transmissions for me was in the middle of my chart, I feel very passionate about being a certified dental assistant and I know my passion is visible in my classroom. I love rewarding feeling I get when my students conquer a new skill. I only hope that my students will one day have that same passion for their careers, as I have in mine.
Nurturing, at first I thought this would have been higher but as I was answering the questions and trying to directly relate it to my clinical classroom, I realized that although as a dental assistant I am very nurturing in my profession. This is very different from how I have to be as an instructor. I like to keep my emotions out of my instructing. There is pre-set outcomes to meet and guidelines we follow to help our students reach their goals.
Social Reform, there was no surprise that this was at the bottom of my chart, as a clinical instructor in a health care profession I care about our society but it is not on the top of my list to change it.
You can take the TPI on this website:http://www.teachingperspectives.com/tpi/
Instructor Under Construction 