Statement
of Teaching Philosophy
Your statement of teaching philosophy is a short,
one- to two-page document that should function both as a stand-alone essay that
describes your personal approach to teaching, and as a central component of the
teaching dossier. Your statement should not simply describe your experiences
and initiatives in teaching, but, as Schönwetter et al. (2002) write, should
provide “a systematic and critical rationale that focuses on the important
components defining effective teaching and learning in a particular discipline
and/or institutional context” (p. 84). It is personal and reflective, drawing
on your own experiences as a teacher.
Purposes
Your statement of teaching philosophy does several
things for you. It can:
Clarify what you believe good teaching to be.
Explain what you hope to achieve in teaching.
Contextualize your teaching strategies and other
evidence of teaching effectiveness.
Promote and provide an opportunity for reflection
and professional development in teaching.
Provide a means for others to learn from your
experiences.
Components
A statement of teaching philosophy is a flexible
document, and can be successfully constructed in a number of different ways.
One way in which statements of teaching philosophy vary is in whether or not
they include descriptions of an instructor's specific teaching strategies (e.g.
a description of a particular assignment of class activity) alongside the
instructor's teaching beliefs. Some instructors prefer to integrate these
strategies into the philosophy statement; others prefer to describe them in a
separate document (a “Statement of Teaching Practice"). Other common
components of a statement of teaching philosophy include:
Your definition of good teaching, with an
explanation of why you have developed or adopted this particular definition.
A discussion of your teaching methods: how do you
implement your definition of good teaching?
A discussion of your evaluation and assessment
methods and a description of how they support your definition of good teaching.
A description of your students, and their most
important learning goals and challenges.
A description of your teaching goals: with what
content, skills, or values should students leave your classroom? What are your
goals for improving your own teaching?
Format
As concise as possible: 1-2 pages single spaced
(the document may be slightly longer if it includes information on specific
teaching strategies).
Include generous white spaces between paragraphs
to allow for ease of reading and to provide space for comments.
Written in a personal, relatively informal tone,
usually in the first person. Sometimes mentioning the names of scholars who
have been particularly influential to your teaching can be valuable, but the
statement should generally not include a substantial review of relevant
research.
10
Steps to Completion
Identify one or two of your most effective
teaching methods. Why are these methods effective?
Jot down what you know about your students and how
they learn.
Review some of your teaching materials (assignments,
syllabi). What are their strengths? How would you improve them?
Consider some of the issues that most shape your
teaching: What do you hope will be the result of your teaching? What
disciplinary or institutional structures affect the way you teach? What were
some critical moments or experiences for you as a teacher? How do you know that
a teaching activity or a course has been successful?
Consider how these issues are connected. Do your
teaching materials reflect your understanding of your students and their needs?
Do you derive your teaching goals from a positive or negative experience with
particular teaching activities?
Using these notes and reflections, write a draft
of your philosophy statement in narrative form.
What evidence do you have of your teaching
effectiveness (teaching materials, feedback from students and colleagues)? Does
this evidence reflect what you have identified as your strengths and priorities
as an instructor?
Re-write the philosophy statement, taking into
account your evidence of teaching effectiveness.
Have someone else read the statement.
Re-write the philosophy statement a second time,
incorporating feedback from others.
Avoiding
common pitfalls
Some common complaints from people who evaluate
teaching philosophy statements include:
Too general: A statement that does not reflect the
particular beliefs, experiences, and circumstance of the author.
A statement that is not reflective: it simply
lists teaching techniques or experiences, but does not describe how these
techniques or experiences have contributed to the author’s beliefs about what
constitutes effective teaching.
A statement that dwells too much on negative
experiences or circumstances.
Too clichéd: A statement that expresses a belief
in a popular contemporary approach to teaching without establishing how that
approach has been integrated into the author’s teaching.
Too oblique: A statement that references a
philosophy or belief but never describes it outright.
Too few examples: A statement that does not
include information about how the author knows his or her teaching to be
effective.
Additional
resources
Angelo, T.A. & Cross, K.P. (1993). Teaching
goals inventory. Retrieved from
fm.iowa.uiowa.edu/fmi/xsl/tgi/data_entry.xsl?-db=tgi_data&-lay=Layout01&-view
Faculty & TA Development Office, Ohio State
University. (2005). Writing a philosophy of teaching statement.
Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher
Education. (2002). The deep end: Self-reflection: Easier said than done.
Retrieved from www.mcmaster.ca Teaching
philosophies of some 3M National Teaching Fellowship award winners.
Articles & books:
Chism, N. V. N. (1998). Developing a philosophy of
teaching statement. Essays on Teaching Excellence, 9(3), 1-2. Professional and
Organizational Development Network in Higher Education.
Goodyear, G.E. & Allchin, D. (1998).
Statements of teaching philosophy. In M. Kaplan (ed.), To improve the academy,
17, 103-122.
Grundman, H. (2006). Writing a teaching philosophy
statement. Notices of the American Mathematical Society, 53(11), 1129- 1133.
Available online at: [PDF] www.ams.org/notices/200611/comm-grundman.pdf
Schönwetter, D., Sokal, L., Friesen, M. &
Taylor, L. (2002). Teaching philosophies reconsidered: A conceptual model for
the development and evaluation of teaching philosophy statements. International
Journal for Academic Development, 7(1), 83-97.
No comments:
Post a Comment