Thoughts on the TPI

As I was reviewing Daniel Pratt’s article “Good Teaching: One Size Fits All?” as well as my scores on the TPI, I found myself wondering what perspectives my students might rank as dominant for themselves as learners in Public Speaking, the course that I teach.  Certainly, a test like this would differ in some ways from the TPI but could yield important insight into the perspectives that our students value in the courses that we teach.

Pratt writes that “a perspective on teaching is an inter-related set of beliefs and intentions that gives direction and justification to our actions.  It is a lens through which we view teaching and learning” (1).  The perspectives that compose Pratt’s model are derived from his research with educators across the world and their views on what good teaching is.   Since Pratt’s article and model focus solely on teachers’ perspectives on good teaching, we only see teaching through one lens: our own as teachers.

I imagine that a student version of a TPI-like test would reveal their perspectives on what approaches to teaching were best suited for their learning within a classroom.   How could this, coupled with our TPI scores, shape our teaching practices?  How important is it to consider students’ perspectives on approaches to teaching that help them succeed in learning?