Writing a Statement of Teaching Philosophy



Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement

Dr Ciara O’Farrell CAPSL Trinity College Dublin

The information contained on this web page accompanies the CAPSL workshop, “Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement” facilitated by Ciara O’Farrell, Academic Developer who will take you through the process of writing a Statement, help you articulate your Teaching Philosophy, examine some structural and content issues, and begin an initial draft statement.

What is a Teaching Philosophy Statement?

This statement of reflection is a philosophical framework of your personal approach to teaching and the rationale behind what guides your practice i.e. What impacts on you as an educator and how it influences your teaching. It may be written for a variety of purposes: promotional, pedagogical, personal, political, reflective or professional. Whatever your motivation for composing a statement about your approach to teaching, it should achieve the following:

• Provide evidence of your sincerely-held beliefs

• Codify your pedagogical thinking at a particular time

• Examine your teaching practices

• Monitor your development as a teacher

How long should it be?

This depends on the purpose of your statement but ideally no longer than 1-2 pages (400-800 words)

What is the purpose of my Statement and who is the reader?

Like any piece of writing, your teaching philosophy statement will change according to its purpose. If your document is public, keep your primary reader in mind: what does your reader know about you and your position? What does he/she need to know? Always include any specific information required by your reader; however, don’t be tempted to make your statement read like a curriculum vitae - a teaching philosophy statement is not a utopian vision but a sincere personal expression situated within the contextual reality in which you teach.

Provide evidence of your sincerely-held beliefs

A teaching philosophy statement should provide scholarly evidence of your sincerely held-beliefs. Thus, avoid empty statements without backing them up. (So if you say, “I run a learner-centred classroom”, make sure you show how you do this.)

If a statement accompanies a Teaching Portfolio, you will have potential to expand on your beliefs and to show them in practice. If it is a stand-alone document you do not have this opportunity. It is therefore important to give examples to illustrate your beliefs – a teaching method, a particular assessment that worked well, or an activity that encourages learning. Even a stand-alone statement needs to be aligned and consistent.

Where do I begin?

1. Read some samples:

A good place to begin is to read some sample documents written by other University staff members and teachers. Remember that every statement is a personal view, and therefore different. There are many examples on the web, of varying quality, but it’s worth browsing.

The following PDF contains some excerpts, and full statements for your perusal. Please note that these are not chosen for their excellence, but to show you the range of choices of styles, structures and content that comprise teaching philosophy statements.

When you read through the extracts, think about the following:

• Are the author’s personal beliefs about learning and teaching cogent?

• Does theory inform practice?

• What words reveal the writer’s teaching values?

• What will you remember most about this statement?

Sample Teaching Philosophies

2. Take the Online Teaching Goals Inventory:

This inventory asks you to think of a particular course you are currently teaching. It lists 52 goals that you have to rank as to how valuable each one is to your aims for your students in a particular course. It then gives you a detailed table containing your results in specific clusters.

What is useful about this inventory is that it can help you define your primary role as a teacher. The goals may also spark some ideas with you about specific skills you would like to write about in your statement.



3. Take the Teaching Perspectives Inventory:

Similarly, this inventory may help you to identify your perspectives on teaching.



4. Build your literacy about learning and teaching:

While there is a lack of research on teaching philosophy statements, contact CAPSL for recommended books on Higher Education, Learning and Teaching, and the Scholarship of Teaching which will help build your literacy in this area.

A good starting point for teaching philosophy statements is the following article written by Gail Goodyear, the Director of the Center for Effective Teaching and Learning at the University of Texas at El Paso, and Douglas Allchin, an historian and philosopher of biology.

Abstract: Well-defined teaching philosophy is essential to creating and maintaining a campus culture supportive of teaching. Presented in this paper are reasons for statements of teaching philosophy as well as descriptions of how the statements are beneficial to students, faculty, and university administrations. Described are ways of creating a statement of teaching philosophy and dimensions that may be included in such statements. This article begins a discussion of roles, composition, and evaluation of statements of teaching philosophy.



Other recommended articles on Teaching Philosophy Statements include:

Chism, 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) Statement of teaching philosophy. To Improve the Academy 17, 103-22. Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press.

Schonwetter, D.J. Sokal, L., Friesen, M. and Taylor, K.L. (2002). Teaching philosophies reconsidered: A conceptual model for the development and evaluation of teaching philosophy statements. The International Journal for Academic Development, 7(1), 83-97.

What content can I include in my Teaching Philosophy Statement?

Above all, a Teaching Philosophy is a personal statement and as such must avoid cliché. The hub of the statement should show what you believe about teaching, and how you apply those beliefs.

There are many guiding questions that can be included in a teaching philosophy statement. Because of length restrictions, it is not advisable to squeeze too much information into your statement. However, reflecting on some questions below may help you in beginning to articulate your approaches:

Some guiding questions

• What do I believe about teaching?

• What do I believe about learning? Why? How is that played out in my classroom?

• What are my goals as a teacher?

• What demonstrates my desire to grow as a teacher?

• What do I still struggle with in terms of teaching and student learning?

• What motivates me to learn about this subject?

• What are the opportunities and constraints under which I learn and others learn?

• What do I expect to be the outcomes of my teaching?

• What is the student-teacher relationship I strive to achieve?

• How do I know when I have taught successfully?

• What habits, attitudes, or methods mark my most successful teaching achievements?

• What values do I impart to my students?

• Has my approach to teaching changed?

• What role do my students play in the classroom (listeners? Co-discoverers? Peer teachers?)

• What have I learned about myself as a teacher?

• What excites me about my discipline?

• How has my research influenced my teaching?

• What does teaching mean to me (coaching, leading, guiding, telling, showing, mentoring?)

• What teaching practices do I use and prefer (lecture, lead discussions, guide problem solving, provide demonstrations?)

• What are my plans for developing or improving my teaching? (learn new skills, try our new approaches?)

How do I structure my statement?

The choice is large. Look at examples of statements to get some ideas. A Statement may just be a well-organised group of paragraphs, or it may follow a structure or theme such as:

■ Descriptive: What you do when you teach, types of activities you use when you are teaching

■ Analytical: Why you teach in the way you do, how your thinking about teaching has changed over time

■ Empirical: Experiences or observations of student learning on which your decisions about teaching are based

■ Title / Thesis (declarative) statement/ Narrative

■ Theoretic framework: goals / design / implementation / assessment / evaluation…

Chism’s five components: (extracted from Ohio State University: ) In her article (Chism, 1998), “Developing a Philosophy of Teaching Statement,” Nancy Chism, former Director of Faculty & TA Development at The Ohio State University, suggests five major components.

1. Conceptualization of learning

Ask yourself such questions as “What do we mean by learning?” and “What happens in a learning situation?” Think of your answers to these questions based on your personal experience. Chism points out that some teachers have tried to express and explain their understanding of learning through the use of metaphor, because drawing comparisons with known entities can stimulate thinking, whether or not the metaphor is actually used in the statement. On the other hand, most instructors tend to take a more direct approach in conceptualizing learning, i.e., to describe what they think occurs during a learning episode, based on their observation and experience or based on current literature on teaching and learning.

2. Conceptualization of teaching

Ask yourself questions such as “What do we mean by teaching?” and “How do I facilitate this process as a teacher?” Chism suggests that personal teaching beliefs on how the instructor facilitates the learning process would be appropriate for this section. Again, the metaphor format can be used, but a common practice is a more direct description of the nature of a teacher with respect to motivating and facilitating learning. Along with the questions above, you may also address such issues as how to challenge students intellectually and support them academically and how the teacher can respond to different learning styles, help students who are frustrated, and accommodate different abilities. Furthermore, you may talk about how you as a teacher have come to these conclusions (e.g., through past experience as a student or teacher, or as a result of literature reading or taking classes).

3. Goals for students

This section should entail the description of what skills the teacher expects her/his students to obtain as the result of learning. You may address such issues as what goals you set for your classes, what the rationale behind them is, what kind of activities you try to implement in class in order to reach these goals, and how the goals have changed over time as you learn more about teaching and learning. For instance, you can describe how you have expected students to learn not only the content, but also skills such as critical thinking, writing, and problem solving, followed by elaboration on how you have designed/planned individual sessions towards accomplishing the goals.

4. Implementation of the philosophy

An important component of the statement of a teaching philosophy should be the illustration of how one’s concepts about teaching and learning and goals for students are transformed into classroom activities. Ask yourself, “How do I operationalize my philosophy of teaching in the classroom?” and “What personal characteristics in myself or my students influence the way in which I approach teaching?” To answer these questions, you may reflect on how you present yourself and course materials, what activities, assignments, and projects you implement in the teaching-learning process, how you interact with students in and outside class, and the consequences.

5. Professional growth plan

It is important for teachers to continue professional growth, and to do so, teachers need to set clear goals and means to accomplish these goals. Think about questions such as “What goals have I set for myself as a teacher?” and “How do I accomplish these goals?” You can elaborate this plan in your statement of teaching philosophy. For instance, you can illustrate how you have professionally grown over the years, what challenges exist at the present, what long-term development goals you have projected, and what you will do to reach these goals. Chism suggests that writing this section can help you think about how your perspectives and actions have changed over time.

In summary, these are the main questions Chism suggests to answer in a statement:

• How do people learn?

• How do I facilitate that learning?

• What goals do I have for my students?

• Why do I teach the way that I do?

• What do I do to implement these ideas about teaching and learning in the classroom?

• Are these things working? Do my student meet the goals?

• How do I know they are working?

• What are my future goals for growth as a teacher?

Goodyear and Allchin’s structure: (extracted from Ohio State University: )

Gail Goodyear and Douglas Allchin (1998) have made suggestions for structuring the statement of teaching philosophy in a somewhat different way than Chism.

1. Integration of responsibilities. Teaching, research, and public service are the main missions of university faculty. Each teacher therefore should explicitly describe what they do in carrying out these three missions in their statements of teaching philosophy.

2. Expertise. It is important for faculty to link their special knowledge or expertise in the field to ways of helping their students learn that knowledge and communicate with students effectively during this teaching-learning process.

3. Relationships. A healthy relationship between the teacher and students is “essential to successful teaching.” Ways in which a teacher establishes such a relationship, such as getting to know students, specific ways of building rapport with students, and special teaching techniques used, should be explicitly described in his or her statement of teaching philosophy.

4. Learning environment. In conjunction with the previous issue, the authors suggest that teachers can illustrate what they have done to create a supportive learning environment in their classes socially, psychologically, and physically to help students learn.

5. Methods, strategies, and innovation. Faculty should use teaching philosophy statements to reflect on their teaching practice, both past and present, as well as to illustrate how special teaching techniques they use are in compliance with their teaching philosophy.

6. Outcomes. Teachers can demonstrate in their statements of teaching philosophy how the previous efforts have produced anticipated outcomes. For example, students have learned the subject matter and they are able to use the knowledge learned in class to solve real-world problems.

Remember to edit your document:

Like any written document, it is important to proofread for style and to edit for content and clarity. A good idea is to circle those words that reveal your teaching values and gauge:

• Are these really important to you?

• Have you measured their effectiveness?

• Should you work for greater clarity, by giving examples?

A final exercise is to think about what a reader will remember the most about this teaching philosophy statement? Is this what you want them to remember?

And when it’s finished?

Finally, remember teaching philosophy statement is a dynamic document, and one that will change and grow as your academic development does. As such it’s never really finished; rather a document that you will return to again and again as you reflect on your teaching.

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