Have you ever sat back and thought about your own teaching perspective? There is currently a move within education, predominantly in Europe and North America, towards a more constructivist view of learning and teaching. I must confess that I am a fan of this particular perspective of teaching but reading a recent article, Good Teaching: One size fits all?, by Daniel Pratt has got me thinking. Pratt has developed a website, Teaching Perspectives Inventory (http://www.teachingperspectives.com/), where you can examine your own teaching. Pratt has identified five perspectives: Transmission, Developmental, Apprenticeship, Nurturing, and Social Reform. His paper describes each perspective and makes the case that one size does not fit all and we should carefully consider which perspective to adopt depending on the teaching and learning context (‘Good Teaching: One size fits all?’ paper).
You may ask what has this to do with TeachNet? In TeachNet we are asking teachers to consider how they can use ICT to engage learners and to try and move away from teacher-centred instruction to create learning environments where students are more actively engaged. This paper is written from the perspective of teaching adults but I feel it has a lot of relevance to teaching across levels. The key message is that teachers should reflect critically on the underlying assumptions and values that give direction and justification to their work. This is key in creating a successful TeachNet Project.