There are a multitude of theories to draw on and it is sometimes confusing to establish which one 'suits' or 'matches' your preferences. One of the best ways to start this exploration is to go to the center of the learning environment and in my case this is the classroom. I have discovered over the years that my own perspectives, life experiences and values really do influence my delivery, sometimes good and sometimes in need of improvement! .
I also found that there is not one strategy that will suit delivery all the time, every time. Up until this point in time, I essentially did not have a 'picture' of who I am as an adult educator. A good start to this process was to use Zinn's PAEI (1998) and get an initial orientation to my teaching value and beliefs. I must admit, I had to complete the inventory twice. The first time the scores indicated my preferences were very close, in the sense that my position was too central across all the theories. Although I understand "there is no "right or "wrong " philosophy of education" (Zinn, p.72), I was conscious that sometimes it is easy to be an "idealist when asked to express your beliefs. As Zinn highlighted that "there are frequent discrepancies between what people say they actually believe and what they actually do (1998, p.41). So with this in mind, on my second attempt I approached the inventory with a much more critical eye, and the results were a quite different. .
I also understand that this inventory is only a tool in order to identify my philosophy and ultimately grow from it. Although philosophical analyses are not the "be-end-end all " in discovering who we are as practitioners, they can provide us with fairly useful indicators of the directions we choose in our training environment. As Apps has suggested; It can help us to become critically aware of what we do as practitioners: show us alternative approaches to program planning, teaching, budgeting, and so on; help us to become aware of how values and ethics.
