T&D Tool Subscribe This week's tool is the Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI), a free assessment tool. If you are a trainer or an instructor, or are interested in becoming a trainer or instructor, you might find your TPI results illuminating. The TPI allows teachers to assess their own actions, intentions, and beliefs regarding teaching and learning. The TPI can help you understand what "good teaching" means to you by giving you scores on five perspectives toward teaching: transmission, apprenticeship, developmental, nurturing, and social reform. You can read more about the five teaching perspectives in an article by Pratt (2002) called Good Teaching: One Size Fits All? The article is in the eReserves section of our classroom (in the Course Resources module) and is also available through the UMUC library. However, I encourage you not to read the article until after you have taken the TPI. To take the TPI, click on this link: http://www.teachingperspectives.com/tpi/ The site will ask for your name and email address. Note that UMUC is not a member of any of the groups currently using the TPI. You will be asked to focus on a specific group of learners and specific content. If you are not currently a trainer or instructor, think about a situation where you have had to teach someone else. Perhaps you had to train a new coworker or a new employee, or you potty-trained your child, or you taught your teenager how to drive. Once you finish the inventory, you will receive an immediate report with your scores and interpretive information. Was your teaching perspective what you expected? Would your style be a good fit for an online environment? Why? Is it consistent with other assessments you have taken? How do you think the TPI could be useful for a T&D professional? Reference Pratt, D. D. (2002, Spring). Good teaching: One size fits all? In J. M. Ross-Gordon (Ed.), Contemporary viewpoints on teaching adults effectively. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 98, 5-15.