Writing a Statement of Teaching

Philosophy

Dr. Ciara O’FarrellTrinity College Dublin

Workshop aims

In this session we'll help you identify and articulate your teaching philosophy, provide examples of teaching philosophy statements, and spend time drafting your statement. 

Learner Outcomes

After this workshop you should be able to:

Recognise some of the purposes of teaching of philosophy statements

Apply a structure to your statement Have a rough draft of your own

philosophy of teaching statement

Free writing and Discussion5 minutes writing & 5 minutes discussion:

Who is the best teacher you have ever known?

What qualities made this person a great teacher?

Do any of this teacher’s qualities appear in your own teaching? What specifically?

What is a Statement of Teaching

Philosophy? Codifies your thinking at a particular

time Gives you a starting point to

examine your teaching practices Allows you monitor your

development as a teacher A personal document that should

reflect and represent you as an individual

Purposes

Personal Professional Pedagogical Reflective

Written for:

You Administrators Faculty Students

Freewriting Activity

Write for five minutes:

What do I believe about teaching?

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 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?

Some more guiding questions 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. Modelling?) 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?)

Freewriting activity

Write for five minutes.

What do I believe about learning?

Dos and Don’ts

Don’t

Rehash your curriculum vitae Make empty statements “I run a

learnercentred classroom”

Overload with information

Do

Keep it short Be relatively humble in tone (“My student

evaluations are consistently high” rather than “My students say I’m the best teacher”)

Be reflective: Talk about your mistakes and describe what you’ve learned from them to become better teachers

Mention how students have reacted to your teaching innovations

Freewriting Activity

What is a personal best achievement for you as a teacher during the past two years?

Remember

It will be read by others so make it lively and interesting

Keep your statement updated – it’s ever-evolving

What it’s not:

Not a utopian vision but an expression of a desired performance in the light of contextual reality

Freewriting Activity

Write for ten minutes:Think of an activity that bombed in

your classroom. Why do you think it didn’t work? How would/did you change that

activity?

Freewriting Activity

Think of an activity you used in class: write a paragraph or two, answering the following questions:

What did I want my students to learn from this activity?

How well did it work? How do I know how well it worked? What would I change next time and why?

Instructional Goals

What goals do you have for your learners?

What can a student get out of your course?

Why are these goals important?

Three levels of educational goals

What goals do you have for students as learners in the specific subject matter

What goals do you have for students as learners in your area

What goals to you have for students as learners in the general educational framework?

Activity

Group work:Handout: Read and comment on the

handout – “Goals samples”

Activity 2: Goals

Focus on one episode in teaching that epitomizes your goals and equally reflects your teaching.

  Describe what is special about that

episode and why or how it is representative of your other teaching

Activity 3: Goals

See handout: Teaching Goals Self-scorable version available at:

www.uiowa.edu/~centeach/tgi

Design and Implementation: How do you intend to establish

these goals? (Teaching methods etc.) Alignment important – design and

implementation should reflect and be informed by your goals.

Activity

Group work Read and comment on the sample

statements in the Instructional Design and Implementation handout

Assessment and Evaluation Should measure how well you have

achieved your goals. Achieve congruence between your

instructional goals, instructional methods, and your assessment program.

What types of assessment do you use and how are they effective for you?

Documentation and Reflection

– A running commentary – What have you learnt about student

learning and how have you fed that back into your instructional practices?

– Demonstrate your desire to grow as a professional teacher

Documentation and Reflection Do you have a live portfolio? Gather documentation over time

that gives evidence of your goals, methods and assessments

Build a case for the strategies you use

Identify targets for improving your work.

Activity

Group work:

Read and discuss the document and reflection examples.

Structure 1-2 pages long A personal narrative Evidence of your sincerely-held beliefs Representative of your experience and

practice A showcase for your strengths A place that points to directions in your future

growth An effective abstract for your teaching

portfolio

Various structural possibilities:

Title / Quote (optional) / Thesis statements/ Narrative

OrTheoretic framework / goals / design / implementation / assessment / evaluation…

Or

Structural possibilities 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

Editing

Are your teaching objectives clear, attainable and realistic?

Are your teaching methods explicit?

How do you measure effectiveness?

Editing… Should you work for greater clarity, by

giving examples? What words reveal your teaching

values? Are you knowledgeable without coming

across as opinionated and dogmatic? What will a reader remember the most

about this teaching philosophy statement?

To do:

Build your literacy about learning and teaching

Read some sample teaching statements

Share and critique Edit for content, accuracy and

style

Remember:

Do not attempt to be perfect Include the future Write in a personal way

Final writing activity:

Write for five minutes: What do I have to do to finish this

Teaching of Philosophy Statement?

You might…

Take the Teaching Goals Inventory Online:

http://itsnt12.its.uiowa.edu/cft/tgi/FMPro?-db=tgi.data_.fp5&-format=tgi.data.entry.html&-view

Take the teaching perspectives Inventory

http://teachingperspectives.com/html/tpi_form_english_v1.htm

Further Reading“Statements of Teaching Philosophy”:

http://www.utep.edu/cetal/pub/stofteac.htmlTeaching portfolios/ describing your

teaching philosophy www.umdnj.edu/meg/career_portfolios.htm

Sample statements: www.utep.edu/~cetal/portfoli/samples.htm

See the Teaching of Philosophy Page on the CAPSL website.