Welcome to Hannah Shaw’s Digital Teaching Portfolio for University of Florida VME6814.

Teaching Styles

The Teaching Perspectives Inventory largely confirmed what I already believed about my approach to education. My dominant perspective was Social Reform, followed by Nurturing and Apprenticeship, while Transmission was my lowest perspective. These results felt fairly reflective of my work.

The strong Social Reform perspective reflects the reason I teach in the first place. My goal has never been simply to help individual learners acquire knowledge, but to empower them to create meaningful change within their own communities. Whether I am teaching foster caregivers, shelter professionals, or veterinary teams, I hope that learners leave not only with practical skills, but also with the confidence and motivation to improve outcomes for kittens and to eventually teach and mentor others.

My high scores in Nurturing and Apprenticeship are reflective of my desire to help learners build confidence while translating complex concepts into practical skills. I frequently draw upon my own experiences, sharing both successes and failures to demonstrate that expertise develops through curiosity and experience rather than purely rigorous study.

My relatively lower score in the Developmental perspective struck me as an important piece of feedback. This aligns with a realization I have already begun to have during this course: although I work hard to make information engaging and accessible, I do not always provide enough opportunities for learners to actively construct knowledge for themselves. Going forward, I would like to incorporate more discussion, reflection, problem-solving, and formative assessment into my educational programs so that learners have greater opportunities to apply concepts rather than simply receive information. Overall, I found the TPI to be an accurate reflection of both my current teaching philosophy and my opportunities for growth as an educator.

Understanding my own teaching perspectives helps me recognize my strengths and areas for improvement when designing educational programs for animal shelter teams. Animal shelter staff and volunteers have diverse backgrounds, limited time, and an immediate need to apply new knowledge in practice. While my emphasis on social reform, nurturing, and apprenticeship aligns well with my goal of empowering learners, I have a new appreciation for the need to create opportunities for learners to actively engage with the material. I believe these insights will help me become a more effective educator by designing lessons that not only inspire learners but also help them develop the critical thinking and practical skills needed in real life shelter scenarios.