What's YOUR Perspective on Teaching?
by Donna Qualters

Because of my line of work, I'm often asked, "what's good teaching?". I usually answer this question by relating an experience I had a few years ago. I went to an invited lecture by a very famous academician. I was seated between a department chair on one side and a junior faculty member on the other side. At the end of the ninety-minute talk, I thought: "Hmm that was interesting, a little theatrical but some kernels I can think about." Simultaneously on either side of me the junior faculty member exclaimed, That was THE most inspiring talk I've ever been to!" and the department chair stated just as emphatically: "Well, that was a waste of an hour and a half!"

     We had three reasonably intelligent people viewing the same lecturer and having three different reactions. Was this lecturer good? Depends on whom you talk to. Much of the assessment of teaching has to do with the match between the learner's and instructor's perspectives of the role of teacher. This led me to some digging into teacher perspective, how do we view our role as teacher and what does that mean for our teaching.

     Daniel Pratt (2000) has done a significant amount of work in this area. Below is an adaptation of his work on the five different perspectives teachers have on their role and what it means. If you're interested in more, check out his web site http://www.teachingperspective.com where you can take the Teaching Perspective Inventory and discover your perspective on teaching.

TRANSMISSION Perspective:
This is the most common orientation in higher education. Teachers with a transmission perspective have a substantial commitment to content mastery and believe that the process of learning is additive. In order to transmit knowledge from teacher to learner, they provide clear objectives, give well-organized lectures, adjust the pace of lecturing, make efficient use of class time, answer questions, set high standards and develop objective means of assessing learning.

     However, as with all perspectives, Transmission teachers have some difficulties. They can have problems working with people who do not understand the internal logic of their content. When challenged they return to this very content to defend themselves. Lastly, they often spend too much time talking because they are primarily focused on the content not the learner.

DEVELOPMENT Perspective:
The primary orientation of a developmental teacher is to develop in their students increasingly complex and sophisticated ways of reasoning and problem solving within a field. They are interested in assessing their learner needs and then finding linkages from where the learners are to where they want them to be. They subscribe to what I call the velcro theory-when new information finds something to stick to it builds a stronger connection to learning. Their goal is to change the way a learner thinks rather than increasing factual knowledge base. Developmental instructors do this by becoming effective questioners and by developing meaningful examples that learners can relate to their current experiences.

     There are pitfalls here as well. Being a good questioner is an art form. Finding the right way to stimulate thinking and engage a learner is very difficult. Having the patience to provide sufficient "wait time" while a learner processes a response is often frustrating because we want to jump in with the answer. Lastly it's hard to develop assignments and assessment mechanisms that are consistent with complex reasoning. Teachers with a developmental perspective tend to focus on the lower learner levels of recall and comprehension rather than reflection, analysis and reasoning.

APPRENTICESHIP Perspective:
The belief here is that learning is facilitated when learners work on authentic tasks in real settings. Apprenticeship perspective teachers view themselves as coaches who not only build skills but also transform learners' identities to acculturate them into a profession. In other words, to these teachers learning is a combination of creating learners who have both discipline competence and social identity within a community of practice. Apprenticeship teachers create competency and identity using two prime techniques. One is "scaffolding" or breaking complex tasks into developmental smaller steps and then teaching from the simple to the complex. The other is honing their sense of when learners can work on their own and when they need teacher intervention. For these teachers it is very difficult to find "authentic" tasks in the classroom. They often use the case study approach or project oriented assignments to simulate as closely as possible actual practice. The added difficulty is developing situations broad enough to match individual learner capabilities with tasks that are legitimate work. Lastly, many practitioners find it difficult to put their practice into words.

The NURTURING Perspective:
Nurturing teachers believe that long-term, hard, persistent efforts to achieve come from the heart, not the head. Student motivation will be increased when the fear of failure is removed, there is support from teacher and peers, and achievement is a product of effort not benevolence of the teacher. These teachers provide a climate of trust and balance caring and challenge. Their strategies include listening and responding to emotional as well as intellectual needs, and providing a great deal of encouragement and support, along with clear expectations and reasonable goals for each learner.

     There are minefields with this perspective. Evaluation is difficult especially when institutional expectations are different from personal believes of what is needed to promote success. These teachers often give too much of themselves and burn out quickly or neglect other important work. Lastly, they often find themselves constantly defending their perspective against colleague's criticism.

SOCIAL REFORM Perspective:
This is the most difficult perspective to describe and the rarest category to find. Social reform teachers operate under three assumptions. First, their ideals are necessary for a better society, second, their ideals are appropriate for all, and third, the ultimate goal of teaching is to create social change. They have, however, much in common with other effective teachers with different perspectives. They are clear and organized, bring learners into diverse communities of practice, ask probing questions, and work hard to promote the dignity of their learner.

     For this perspective to be judged effective, learners must come to believe that the guiding ideals are as important to them as they are to the teacher. This is not an easy task when addressing and/or changing underlying value systems of students. What does all this mean? As Pratt points out, perspectives are neither good nor bad, they are simply philosophical orientations to knowledge, learning, and the role and responsibility of the teacher. Research has shown that most teachers hold one or two perspectives as their dominant view and marginally identify with one or two others. But what is important to remember is that each of these perspectives holds the potential for both good and poor teaching. It then becomes critical that we as teachers reflect upon what we do, why we do it, and on what assumptions we base our practice as teachers. By doing this, we will be able to revisit and readjust, if necessary, our own assumptions and pre-conceived notions about teaching and learning. By doing this we will continually improve the educational climate for our students.

Pratt, Daniel (2000), "Good teaching: One size fits all?", An Up-date on
     Teaching Theory, Jovita Ross-Gordon (ed.), San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.