Perspective on ‘Good Teaching’

Next week I will be attending the Certificate Program in University Teaching and Learning at the SFU Teaching and Learning Centre for the Spring 2012 session.  I am pretty excited about being accepted to the program, commuting to campus on a weekly basis, and learning something new.

In preparation for the first week, I had to sign in to the SFU WebCT (currently unsuccessful, wrong browser), write a little blurb about myself (unable to without the WebCT), read an article (cannot, once again, it’s on the WebCT), and complete an online survey called “Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI).”  I took a break from working out my browser issue and proceeded with the TPI.

I am fascinated by preference inventories and the generalizations they make, like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).  What I do love about these inventories is reading the profile that best describes ME.  According to the TPI, my dominant perspective on ‘good teaching is nurturing.  “Effective teaching assumes that long-term, hard, persistent effort to achieve comes from the heart, not the head.”  The nurturing description continues to say, “People become motivated and productive learners when they are working on issues or problems without fear or failure” (TPI, 2011).

Unbelievable.  The description is so spot on.  As I read the nurturing perspective, I am reminded by my favorite teaching/learning framework, that is, “Assessment for Learning (AFL).”  My workshops are about AFL and FEAR-FREE-LEARNING (FFL).  This is me.  I am nurturing.

To be truthful, I would not have described my teaching practice as “nurturing.”  My second dominant perspectives were “transmission” (content or subject matter oriented) and “developmental” (from the learner’s point of view).  It’s not to say that these perspectives are not important to me.  They are.  My recessive perspective was “social reform” (seeks to change society) and the perspective with some discrepancies was “apprenticeship” (socializing students to norms and ways of working).

I hare already learned something new about my teaching practice.  I can see how this can create a disconnect with my dissertation claim and beliefs… or maybe not.  What makes a good math teacher?  Is it content knowledge or the love?  Hmm… my theoretical framework needs a revisit.