Title: DRAFT!! EXPERIMENT!! Activity Packet: Write Your Teaching Philosophy Statement
Course: FLO MicroCourse: Write your teaching philosophy statement OER > Section: Hub

Get Ready... Get Set

What is a teaching philosophy statement (TPS)?

What Makes Good Teaching? A Short Film by Harvard Ed Students

“A teaching philosophy is a self-reflective statement of your beliefs about teaching and learning. In addition to general comments, your teaching philosophy should discuss how you put your beliefs into practice by including concrete examples of what you do or anticipate doing in the classroom.” (U. Minnesota, p.1 PDF)) “Each teaching philosophy statement [also] reflects not only personal beliefs about teaching and learning, but also disciplinary cultures, institutional structures and cultures, and stakeholder expectations as well.” (Schonwetter et al, U of Manitoba & U. of Winnipeg, p.1 PDF)

The most common reasons for writing a TPS are: to apply for a job, a promotion, tenure, or a grant, or to be considered for an award; to complete a teaching dossier; or to take stock and give new direction to your work which “in turn enhances your ability to contribute positively to your learning community.” (Chapnick, Faculty Focus Special Report, 2009, p.4).

What makes writing a TPS so challenging?

If the task this week is causing you some anxiety, you’re in good company. “For most educators, writing a philosophy of teaching statement is a daunting task. Sure they can motivate the most lackadaisical of students, juggle a seemingly endless list of responsibilities, make theory and applications of gas chromatography come alive for students, all the while finding time to offer a few words of encouragement to a homesick freshman. But articulating their teaching philosophy? It’s enough to give even English professors a case of writer’s block.” (Bart, Faculty Focus Special Report, 2009, p.2)

There are several reasons for this:

- There is no standard formula or set of guidelines to follow.
- The writing style -- narrative and first person rather than formal and academic -- is unfamiliar.
- Experienced teachers may have too much to say in 1-2 pages; whereas, new instructors may have too little.
- It can be difficult to show, for example, that you’re passionate, care about your students, take a learner-centred approach, value active learning, and foster individual growth (desirable) without saying that you’re passionate, care about your students, take a learner-centred approach, value active learning, and foster individual growth (undesirable). (Arghh!!!!!)

What will we be doing during the course?

Goals

- To complete a first draft (at least)
- To contribute to a class ‘gallery’ by sharing that draft
- To apply the criteria for an effective TPS when composing and checking your own and reviewing others’ work
- If comfortable, to ask for feedback, specifying what help you need or selecting the rubric to be used
- If time, to revise and share your next iteration

As you work through the steps and take advantage of the support of your colleagues, you’ll come to think of writing your TPS as an opportunity to indulge in some enjoyable reflection and conversation about teaching plus a little shameless self-promotion :-).

Where to begin?

The articles below, by writers who wrestled in one way or another with TSPs, will get you thinking about different ways to tackle this project.

"How do you write a statement of teaching philosophy that doesn't sound exactly like everybody else's?"

James Lang (2010, Chronicle of Higher Education). 4 steps to a memorable teaching philosophy. From https://www.chronicle.com/article/4-steps-to-a-memorable/124199

"As an academic, I'm used to people paying no attention to what I write. But what about those people who do decide to read my statement? What on earth do they want?"

Jeremy Clay (2007, Chronicle of Higher Education). Everything but the teaching statement. From https://www.chronicle.com/article/Everything-But-the-Teaching/46672/

"Quietly, he read and reread my statement. Then he turned to me and simply said, 'Tell me what you are trying to convey.' I realized I could not succinctly answer his question."

Mary Ann Lewis (n.d., Ohio Wesleyan U.). Teaching statement as self-portrait. From https://chroniclevitae.com/news/734-teaching-statement-as-self-portrait?cid=articlepromo

Why are so few TSP samples provided in this course?

You may be surprised to hear that reading other people's teaching philosophy statements can make finding your own voice and vision more difficult. Drawing on the advice and support of peers and co-workers is more productive. So you decide if you'd find it useful to search online for examples that fit your discipline & exemplify the kind of writing style to which you aspire.

Do I have to follow all the steps?

No, nothing is mandatory. You know best what you need to push forward and achieve your goal(s). According to the pre-course survey, this group is split pretty evenly between those who want to update an earlier TSP and ‘newbies’, so the course has been designed to accommodate both working sequentially and personalizing.

TASK 1: Your institutional values

Find the links to your institution &/or division’s mission statement, strategic plan, and any other pertinent documents. Take a look at what they say about what makes for good teaching and learning on your campus (whether bricks and mortar or online).

One important use of a TPS is to show how your teaching is aligned with the values of your institution. Many sources also suggest that adjuncts & grad students who are actively looking for work should be prepared to rewrite their TPSs to fit the priorities of each job posting. This does not mean reinventing yourself but rather highlighting aspects of your experience & pedagogical perspective which make you a good candidate for a particular position.

Find Your Why

Most ‘how to’ websites and articles advise TPS writers to begin by answering a collection of questions designed to help them to verbalize what they do and the thinking that underlies the choices they make. Often such questions are grouped into categories that can be used to develop an organizing structure for the TPS. In this course we’re going to take a step back to think first about the essential question of why we teach and then put words to the big idea(s) which guide our work

.

Simon Sinek: Start with Why (excerpted from a longer TED Talk; also available the complete version with subscripts)

In the blog, Three Teachers Talk, Amy Rassmussen writes about how educators, like the business leaders described by Sinek, tend to be stuck in ‘what, how, why’’ thinking. Sometimes we don’t even get to ‘why’. “I do not know a teacher who does not want to inspire students …. but we “focus on the WHAT and the HOW – like making learning relevant, engaging our students, teaching them grit, focusing on achievement …. instead of WHY we teach our students in the first place. … To inspire lasting change, we must start with WHY.” >To make her point, Rasmussen gives us what could be an educator’s version of Sinek’s ‘business as usual’ example:

- “We teach high school.
- Our school culture is spirited and sound. Our curriculum is rich. Our test scores are high.
- Wanna come here?”

She then contrasts that to what happens when the conventional way of thinking is turned inside out:

- “Everything we do, we believe in challenging our students’ thinking. We believe in genuine and individual inquiry.the WHY
- The way we challenge our students is by making our school safe and innovative with … knowledgeable teachers who are … compassionate [and] cater to the needs of all students.the HOW
- We happen to graduate honorable and educated citizens. the WHAT, i.e. the results] Wanna come here?”

Finding your ‘WHY’ can give you the big or unifying idea for your TPS, but it doesn't always come easily. As you’ll read in this story by one biology grad student trying to write a TPS, the struggle can yield wonderful results.

TASK 2: Your WHY statement

The goals of this activity are for you to:

1. write one or more 'WHY' statements, and
2. share them in the Open Forum.

A tweet is about the right length. You can also comment on how you arrived at that 'WHY' or how it shapes your work as a teacher.

If you're ready to do this now or already have a 'Why' statement from a previous TPS, you can jump to the last step where you'll find a template with some writing prompts and a few real tweets shared under

If  you prefer to try the rest of the activity, read on and work through as much or as little as you need to get those 'WHY' thoughts flowing.

Self-assessment Inventories

There are 3 websites you can use to clarify your values with respect to teaching and learning. Each uses a long list of multiple choice questions to ascertain your preferences. They all provide feedback and guidelines about how to interpret your scores.

1. Angelo & Cross’s Teaching Goals Angelo Inventory (1993)  http://fm.iowa.uiowa.edu/fmi/xsl/tgi/data_entry.xsl?-db=tgi_data&-lay=Layout01&-view
2. BC’s Teaching Perspectives Inventory (2001)  http://www.teachingperspectives.com/tpi/
3. Grasha & Riechmann’s Teaching Style Survey (1996, first developed 1976) http://longleaf.net/teachingstyle.html

When I tried them, I found completing the questionnaires time consuming without an equivalent return in terms of insight. I ended up with a lot of information but few clues to help me integrate the details into a cohesive, useful picture of myself as a teacher.

As a work-around, I’ve created 2 self-assessment grids using major categories of teaching activities and learning goals found in these inventories.  Grid 1 crosses Angelo & Pratt’s teaching goals (1 above) with Grasha’s teaching styles (3). Grid2 crosses Pratt & Collins' teaching perspectives (2) with Grasha’s teaching styles (1 again).

The idea is to consider to what extent various teaching styles and perspectives are effective when it comes to working towards your and your students' learning goals.

Complete the grids

1. Each cell is the intersection of particular teaching style or perspective with a category of learning goals.

2. As you look at a cell, ask yourself what percentage of your time is given to that mode of work.

3. Record your percentages in their cells. It's OK to have empty cells.

4. To finish, EITHER add up the columns OR circle the individual cells with the strongest scores. FOR A MORE MEANINGFUL SCORE

Think of a specific teaching situation. Do both grids with that same context in mind. Try to choose ‘honestly’ rather than ‘ideally’ so you’ll get a picture of yourself as you are not as you think you should be or wish you were. If you don’t have much or any teaching experience yet, experiment. Imagine yourself in past classes e.g. with your most effective former teacher and then again with the least effective teacher you ever had.

Use your responses to create a profile for the teacher you want to be.

The .docx files are available for download.

Grid 1: $@RESOURCEVIEWBYID*17912@$

Grid 2: $@RESOURCEVIEWBYID*17913@$

Interpret your results

High column totals or the cells with the greatest scores will reflect how you actually spend a lot of your teaching time. You should be able to recall, or find in your portfolio, examples of actual experiences, assessment data, and/or student feedback to work into your TPS later on.

THIS IS WHAT YOU DO AND HOW YOU DO IT.

Ask yourself: Why these choices? Why do they result in stronger learning by the students? Why do I devote most of my time to working with students in these ways? What is most important to me as a teacher?

THIS IS WHY YOU TEACH THE WAY YOU DO.

Caveat: You may discover gaps between what you do and what you value.

DON'T WORRY.

You can can use that information to create a GPS route to the future in the conclusion of your TPS. What steps will you take to move from where you are to where you want to be?

Note: if this activity doesn't work for you, try doing one or more of the actual inventories instead. You can  use their feedback as your starting point for recalling and noting illustrative examples and evidence to weave into your statement.

More on crafting your WHY statement

Goals reminder:(1) write one or more 'WHY' statements and (2) share them in the Open Forum. A tweet is about the right length. You can also comment on how you arrived at that 'WHY' or how it shapes your work as a teacher.

If you're stuck for words, below you'll find a template with several prompts as well as a few tweets under #teachingphilosophy. When you've completed both goals, you're ready for the next step: brainstorming!

TASK 3

Add more...

Additional Resources

4 varied approaches

Jason Schreiner (2018, U. Oregon). Writing a statement of teaching philosophy. [slide show that functions like a handbook]  From https://tep.uoregon.edu/sites/tep1.uoregon.edu/files/programs_grads_kimble_teaching_philosophy_handout.pdf

Centre for Educational Innovation (2018, U. Minnesota). Writing your teaching philosophy. [questions for reflection, organizing structures, rubrics and samples]  From https://cei.umn.edu/writing-your-teaching-philosophy

(n.d.,Cornell U. Graduate School) Teaching Philosophy Statement [the best if you love bullet points] From https://gradschool.cornell.edu/academic-progress/pathways-to-success/prepare-for-your-career/take-action/teaching-philosophy-statement/

Robert Eierman (2008, Chemical Education aToday)..The teaching philosophy statement: Purposes and organizational structure. [most traditional and formal organizing structure] From https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ed085p336?download=true

FOR GRIDS 1 & 2 Goals for Students (left column; both grids)

Angelo, Thomas A. and Cross, K. Patricia (1993). Teaching Goals Inventory. Reprinted from Classroom Assessment Techniques. Retrieved on 20 Jan. 2016 from http://fm.iowa.uiowa.edu/fmi/xsl/tgi/data_entry.xsl?-db=tgi_data&-lay=Layout01&-view  [Note: Grasha’s 6th ‘goal’ – providing a role model – is omitted because it’s truly a goal for the students.] Teaching Styles categories (1. Teaching Styles x Goals for Students; top row)

Grasha, Anthony. (Fall, 1994). A Matter of Style: The teacher as expert, formal authority, personal model, facilitator, and delegator. From College Teaching, Vo. 42, No. 4, pp. 142-49. Retrieved 20 Jan. 2016 from . Quotations in the table are from p. 143. Teaching Perspectives categories (2. Teaching Perspectives x Goals for Students; top row)

Pratt, Daniel D. and Collins, John B. (2001-14). Teaching Perspectives Inventory. Retrieved 20 Jan. 2016 from http://www.teachingperspectives.com/tpi/

B. Discovery Education webinar for a deeper dive into 'WHY' (begins just after the 9:30 mark) found at https://vimeo.com/271712528 This blogger suggests working from “generative writing to clarifying and naming essential messages or statements about knowing, learning, and thinking”.

(2012, TILT) Learning and teaching philosophy. https://uminntilt.com/2012/09/03/learning-and-teaching-philosophy-got-one-you-openly-share-with-your-students/

“When students know their ‘why’ they are empowered to make big life choices. … If you are very clear about your ‘why’ … it … gives you the courage … to fight through when sometimes it can be very easy to give up. This is because you’re seeing the bigger picture.”

M. Hassam (2017, eLearning Industry). Why we should apply the golde circle model to e-learning.  https://elearningindustry.com/golden-circle-model-elearning-apply

For the instructional designers in our group. This writer's advice is to begin the collaborative process by determining the ‘WHYs’ of clients or colleagues and their learners. He poses 3 useful questions: “Why do you want to design this course? What is the goal of this course? Who is the learner?”

(2017, IB Community Blog). Do you know why you decided to become a teacher?  http://blogs.ibo.org/blog/2017/03/23/do-you-know-why-you-decided-to-become-a-teacher/