Interpretation of TPI Report

I found it very impressive and exciting in taking the Teaching Perspective Inventory (TPI). It gave me an opportunity to do a self assessment on my own teaching and reflect upon the weak areas for further improvement. Among the 5 perspectives (Transmission, apprenticeship, developmental, nurturing and social reform) I got overall score of 169.  I found I need to have a much focus on developmental perspective as it is 29 at the recessive. I am dominant at the nurturing perspective with a score of 37, while others are above 34. 

Reflecting upon the result of the report, I have noticed that there are actions to be taken for further improvements. I believe that teacher must be well aware of the content as he is the key to deliver it to the students. However, having the content knowledge is not simply enough to be an effective teacher. The teacher must be a talented in transmitting the knowledge. According to the transmission perspective, I need to set the objectives as early as possible and have it shared with learners to be smarter in achieving the objectives. 

In apprenticeship, my positive side is that I already know the students individually, so that I use simplified language to cater the weak learners. However I need to promote ZPD in classroom more and student’s role should be increased while my role is hindered. 

I need t have much focus on developmental perspective, since it is the weakest area of mine. I need to design my lessons with activities which involve students in reasoning and complex cognitive activities. To be more effective I must use good questioning techniques to check their understating, to keep them on the right track, to motivate them and so on. 

I got highest in nurturing; this is because I use different techniques to create a caring and a congenial environment. Since I was teaching a class which is below average. I created the slogan “from known to unknown”. The purpose of this is get help from good students. This helps to make the students care for each other.

 I always try to incorporate societal values and norms in my lessons. When I give activities like article writing, I bring the social issues and ask them to discuss and write on them. This helps to make them aware of the values and norms of the society and prepare good citizenship. 

According to the result of the sub score of the TPI, I got least in intentions while I am satisfied with rest. So I think I need to have strong self set goals and I must be moving forward to achieve the goals. Overall, taking the TPI helped a lot to know where I am now and what I need to do.