Session 3 - Pratt's 5 Perspectives

Transmission Total: (Tr) 24
B = 8; I = 7; A = 9
Apprenticeship Total: (Ap) 30
B = 10; I = 9; A = 11
Developmental Total: (Dv) 35
B = 11; I = 12; A = 12
Nurturing Total: (Nu) 41
B = 14; I = 14; A = 13
Social Reform Total: (SR) 31
B = 11; I = 10; A = 10
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Beliefs total: (B) 54
Intentions total: (I) 52
Action total: (A) 55
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Overall Total: (T) 161
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Reflection.

I'm not surprised that 'nurture' rated highly, as not only is this the way I'd like to see myself, but the questions of the form seemed to make it reasonably obvious what the nurture points were and so I answered them accordingly with that in mind. The excercise is interesting in that it makes you consider what kind of teacher you are, or want to be, but I'm not sure it's an accurate an assessment of what you actually are. We all imagine ourselves a certain way, it's not necessarily how we are perceived though.

The social aspect is lower than I would expect, but again, this is was in the intentional way I answered the questions. I do believe in the importance of the social dimension because of connections with nurturing, however notions of 'confidence' and getting kids to do things and behave in certain way whilst done for positive reasons sit awkwardly for me. Being a shy nervous child I really did not appreciate being forced to be confident or to engage in activities that I may have actually enjoyed - being forced to do certain physical activities I was scared of involved the feelings of inadequey and bullying, this did not disappear just because I ended up enjoying the activity, and assume that I wouldn't have eventually tried them for myself as I often was more likely to have ago once the pressure stopped. There's the added problem of 'you did enjoy this, now do you see how wrong you are.' or, if I ended up doing this activity but not being good then I was dismissed for that failure.
Forcing people to behave in ways that is good for them despite themselves or benifitial to others but not themselves for the good of society doesn't seem as helpful as supporting people to be the best version of themselves and minimising the worse aspects.... be good to yourself, and the societal benefits can follow.

The Transmission rating was a surprise, and I wonder if it's down to who I interpreted the questions as much as it's how I might actually be. I certainly believe that good subject knowledge is vital. Delivery is very important to me and part of the reason why I wanted to look at 'persona' as part of the group presentation and essay assignments. This section uses the word 'enthusiasm' several times which does make me bristle slightly as I wonder that the definition of enthusiasm is often limited to 'jumping around like a presenter on Playschool' by some people. What I did think when answering the questions was that the idea of teacher as fount of knowledge, all knowing and appearing highly skilled to children is not necessarily an image I want to present. I like the idea of being inquizitive and interested and showing the not knowing/understanding/etc is a challenge to rise to rather that a limitation of ability. But I guess appearing that way is not the same as being that way.

Some of the Apprenticeship section falls into similar issues as the Transmission section, but I think it's something I need to consider more, especially as I have a tendency to assume when it comes to some children's prior learning.

I'm pleased my Developmental score was reasonably high, not because I think of myself as good at planning and organising - I'm very far from it. But I like the idea of considering the learner's POV and this is something I think I've only recently started to take into account. I mentioned previously that some teacher's ideas of 'creative' seem a bit silly or embarrassing to me, but that ignores that fact that I'm a jaded old misery and have seen everything and become a bored know it all, but for children that silly stuff might be shiny and new to them.