TPI Results

I’m not a teacher and never taught online/face-to-face in a formal setting, but the teaching perspective profile definitely revealed some interesting results that definitely make sense to me.

My dominant scoring categories are Nurturing (Effective teaching assumes that long-term, hard, persistent effort to achieve comes from the heart, not the head) and Apprenticeship (Effective teaching is a process of socializing students into new behavioral norms and ways of working), both tied at 37. I agree that Nurturing is my highest score because even when I tutored high school students as a big-sib in college, I was told that I encouraged their efforts while supporting them to try their very best. When a teacher helps the student feel capable and confidence, this will serve as a safe home base from which the student can continue learning. As a student myself, I am most motivated and productive when I feel like my learning efforts are supported by my teacher and he/she really cares about my well-being and learning needs. Once students can trust you as a teacher, it’s easier for them to make progress and achieve their learning goals.

My other scores are quite similar to each other, around 30-32 which probably means that most of the perspectives are equally important to me. My back-up perspectives are Transmission (Effective teaching requires a substantial commitment to the content or subject matter) and Developmental (Effective teaching must be planned and conducted 'from the learner's point of view). I often used real-world, concrete examples that are meaningful to the student to “bridge knowledge” and help illustrate mathematical concepts when I taught math so students can be able to transfer their new-found knowledge to other, related problems. I found that this strategy worked because the students were more likely to work hard when they focus on topics that they feel are worthwhile and relevant. Lastly, my recessive perspective is Social Reform (Effective teaching seeks to change society in substantive ways).

I think TPI results should be the same for face-to-face because their teaching style and values should be the same in any setting.