Abstract
Adult educators who physically or virtually enter a classroom or training room have a teaching approach, philosophy, or perspective, whether articulated or not. Increasingly, job applications, performance evaluations, and development opportunities prompt adult educators to reflect on and articulate their teaching perspective. Many of us have taken and/or assigned the Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI; www.TeachingPerspectives.com) as a course assignment or development tool. These inventory results contributed to the research behind Pratt, Smulders, and Associates’ (2016) second edition of Five Perspectives on Teaching: Mapping a Plurality of the Good.
The book begins with an introduction by Stephen Brookfield and comprises 12 chapters divided into three sections. In Section 1, Pratt authors the book’s first three chapters and provides an overview. Chapter 1 introduces the original study’s conceptual framework, the general model of teaching, which consists of five elements—teacher, learners, content, context, and ideals—and three relationships—learners–content, content–teacher, and teacher–learners.
Chapter 2 examines three indicators of commitment—beliefs, intentions, and actions—including assessment and teaching strategies. The authors describe beliefs, intentions, and actions as the backbone for commitment to teaching which, in turn, forms the basis for a teaching perspective. Pratt et al. (2016) contend we each have a dominant teaching perspective but may identify with characteristics of other perspectives. Importantly, no one teaching perspective is universally better than another; each teaching perspective offers strengths for specific learners, aims, values, and contexts.
Chapter 3 introduces each of the five teaching perspectives as a complex lens through which teachers view the general model of teaching’s elements and relationships. Although initially appearing simplistic, the general model of teaching ingeniously represents different teaching perspectives by moving the teacher, learners, and content elements within a frame of context and around ideals to reflect varying emphases and relationships.
In Section 2, Chapters 4 through 8 each focus on one teaching perspective—transmission, apprenticeship, developmental, nurturing, or social reform. According to Pratt et al. (2016), each chapter features a colleague’s personal elaboration about what it means to teach and what characterizes effective teaching from the perspective.
In the beginning of Section 3, Pratt et al. (2016) emphasize, “Teachers cannot simply choose among perspectives any more than they can choose among personalities” (p. 215). This section continues to more closely examine the perspectives. Chapter 9 introduces analytical tools, and Chapter 10 applies these tools to compare, contrast, and map perspective differences. Chapter 11 introduces the TPI, and Chapter 12 tackles equitable and scholarly evaluation of teaching given the plurality of good teaching.
As a researcher and teacher, I see merit in identifying and examining my teaching perspective and better understanding, and therefore appreciating, others’ perspectives. I particularly appreciate the book’s theory coupled with relevant application to practice in adult education and the model’s ingenious simplicity and flexibility.
Some readers may find Section 2 frustrating, as authors address their teaching perspective from varied approaches, resulting in some difficulty in comparing and contrasting the perspectives. I encourage readers to appreciate each teaching perspective’s discussion, knowing Pratt et al. eventually compare, contrast, and map perspectives in Chapter 10. Last, the authors acknowledge the North American bias represented in Section 2’s descriptions of each teaching perspective. Because of the breadth of the adult education field, perhaps a future book will further examine the cultural nuances of teaching.
To end with the introduction, Brookfield stated, “How we teach is, at least partly, a function of who we are” (p. x). This book provides a valuable resource to adult educators for personal reflection on and development in teaching. In addition, the book complements traditional adult learning teaching methods and strategies books.