Week 5 Reflection: The TPI & Online Teacher Quality Standards

The TPI:
The Teaching Perspectives Inventory was a new and useful tool that was introduced to me this week. I really enjoyed taking the tool and thinking about my own personal philosophy of teaching. Not only do I see this as a useful tool now in the beginning of my new career (and hopefully helping me to write my philosophy for my portfolio) but I see this as something useful to refer back to over time and compare my results as I become a more experienced teacher. I think that this is yet another item to store in my professional development toolbag.

Quality Standards for Online Teachers:
The iNACOL has published “National Standards for Quality Online Teaching” which is basically a rubric for a number of criteria that online teachers should have. They borrowed work from SREB (the Southern Regional Education Board) and a few other locations. Overall I thought the list was pretty comprehensive but I’m still not quite clear on exactly how these would be implemented within various virtual schooling environments. Are they to be used as a professional development guideline for teachers, an evaluation of existing teachers, or as criteria for hiring teachers? Maybe the answer is all of the above. The one thing this article did highlight for me was the importance of identifying criteria that will eventually result in student achievement. I also noted that many, although certainly not all, of the criteria listed should apply to traditional face-to-face teachers as well.

The biggest AH-HA moment for me on this topic was actually in the article entitled “Online Teaches: What can SREB States Do to Ensure Competence and Quality?” Finally, an article that reflected what I had been thinking: “It may not be appropriate for instructors who teach in classrooms without borders” to have certification in that state! Exactly! I fully support the idea that virtual schools should “remove, modify or adapt their out-of-state teacher requirements” in order to attract the highest quality teachers regardless of geographic location. Perhaps, as the article articulates, there ought to be a national online certification for teachers based on their relevant experience and applicable training.

I did a quick look at some of the SREB schools and did not see evidence of this recommendation having taken effect, but I will definitely keep looking in the hopes of some day becoming an online teacher myself!