Teaching Preference Inventory

When I started down this path of librarianship, I did so with the goal of eventually becoming an academic librarian, preferably at a Health Sciences Library. I know that a position in the Education and Reference department at any academic library will require me to do a substantial amount of teaching. Whether this teaching occurs in a group or individual face-to-face instruction, I will need to have a basic understanding of how I teach before I can determine what kind of impact I hope to have on my students.

As a starting point, I took the Teaching Preference Inventory which is a survey of about 45 questions aimed at helping teachers understand their own views on teaching and how to express their beliefs, intentions, and actions in their teaching philosophy statements. Once I got past the fact that half of the questions were in Spanish (Google Translate is a wonderful tool!), I was able to complete the survey in about 15 minutes.

My TPI profile results page revealed how my answers compare to the "Five Perspectives" of teaching. The results indicated that I possess two dominant perspectives, namely "Apprenticeship" and "Nurturing".

The Apprenticeship Perspective basically states that teachers should be experts in their field and should be able to teach students in an easily accessible language starting with simple concepts and moving on to more complex concepts as the student progresses. As the student becomes more advanced, the teacher steps back and becomes more of a mentor than an instructor. I did a lot of this when I taught private music lessons years ago. I started students off with a good foundation (proper tone, scales, knowledge of basic music theory, etc.) and as my students progressed, my role as an instructor took a backseat to my role as a mentor. I was not surprised, therefore, to see this perspective listed as one of my dominant traits.

The results also indicated that am dominant in the Nurturing Perspective. This claims that students' desire to achieve lay in the heart rather than the head and that anyone can learn as long as they put in the effort to do so. Basically, students should want to learn! I have always hoped that I provide a safe, caring environment in which to learn. I want students to know that it is okay to make mistakes along the way and not to be discouraged by mistakes but rather learn from them. This goes back to the whole mentor thing. I feel as though when students have proper guidance and can count on an instructor to see mistakes as efforts rather than failed attempts, they will inevitably succeed.

By taking this Teaching Preference Inventory, I know a little bit more about myself as a teacher. To be honest, these results where not too surprising for me. I know from past teaching experiences that I have told my students that making mistakes was okay, as long as they learn from them. I always strive to be a mentor to someone rather than being that person at the front of the class spewing information. And I have always taught my students to start small. It's important to have a firm foundation on which to build the rest of your learning. Hopefully, I can carry on these teaching traits to my future instructional endeavors so that I can once again have a positive impact on my students!