[PRL] Fwd: TP Msg. #998 Writing a Statement of Teaching Philosophy for the Academic Job Search

Mitchell Wand wand at ccs.neu.edu
Thu Feb 11 19:25:41 EST 2010


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rick Reis <reis at stanford.edu>
Date: Thu, Feb 11, 2010 at 6:39 PM
Subject: TP Msg. #998 Writing a Statement of Teaching Philosophy for the
Academic Job Search
To: tomorrows-professor at lists.stanford.edu


As these recent job ads illustrate, requests for teaching philosophies are
common in the academic market. In fact, a survey of 457 search committee
chairs in six disciplines (English, history, political science, psychology,
biology, and chemistry) found that 57% requested a teaching statement at
some point in a job search (Meizlish & Kaplan, in press).
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Folks:

The posting below is an excerpt on some key points to pay attention to in
writing a teaching philosophy statement.  It is by Chris O'Neal, Deborah
Meizlish, and Matthew Kaplan* and is from the Occasional Paper series (#23)
published by the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) [
http://www.crlt.umich.edu/] at the University of Michigan.THE FULL ARTICLE
CAN BE FOUND AT:
http://www.crlt.umich.edu/publinks/CRLT_no23.pdf Copyright 2007 The
University of Michigan. Reprinted with permission.

Regards,

Rick Reis
reis at stanford.edu
UP NEXT: The Need for (Em)powerful Teaching

                                                   Tomorrow's Graduate
Students and Postdocs

         -------------------------------------------- 1,268 words
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                         Writing a Statement of Teaching Philosophy for the
Academic Job Search

       Domestic Environmental Policy and Politics.
       Lehigh University's yearold Environmental Initiative seeks an
Assistant
       Professor for a tenure track positionŠ To apply, please send a
       cover letter, current curriculum vitae, syllabi and other
       evidence of teaching style and  effectiveness, a statement of
teaching
       philosophy, a sample of  scholarship (if available) and three letters
       of reference.

       Assistant Professor (tenure track) Specialization in African and Post
       Colonial LiteraturesŠ. Send letter of application, curriculum vitae,
statement of teaching
       philosophy, graduate school transcript, and three letters of
recommendationŠ Northeastern
       Illinois University is an affirmative action, equal opportunity
employer.

       LSU's Department of Chemistry (chemistry.lsu.edu) anticipates filling
one or two tenure-track
       positions in the fields of NMR Spectroscopy  (Ref: Log #0184) and
Physical Chemistry (Ref: Log
       #0186), broadly definedŠ. Applications should consist of a research
proposal, a statement of
       teaching philosophy, and a curriculum vitae (including  address).
Applicants should arrange for
       submission of three letters of recommendation.

Introduction

As these recent job ads illustrate, requests for teaching philosophies are
common in the academic market. In fact, a survey of 457 search committee
chairs in six disciplines (English, history, political science, psychology,
biology, and chemistry) found that 57% requested a teaching statement at
some point in a job search (Meizlish & Kaplan, in press). These results
differed slightly by institutional type, with master's and bachelor's
institutions requesting them more often than doctoral institutions. Results
also differed by discipline. Surprisingly, requests for teaching
philosophies were most frequent in the natural sciences. But the overall
message is clear: job applicants in all fields may be asked to submit a
teaching philosophy (see also Bruff, in press; Montell, 2003; Schönwetter,
Taylor, & Ellis, 2006).

Teaching philosophies can serve several purposes (e.g., self-reflection,
introduction to a teaching portfolio, communication with students), but we
focus here on those written for academic job applications. Such statements
communicate a job candidate's approach to teaching and learning to a faculty
considering whether to make that candidate one of their colleagues. Since a
committee cannot possibly observe the teaching of every applicant, the
teaching philosophy helps search committee members imagine themselves in
each candidate's classroom. What is it like to be one of this instructor's
students? Why does she make the pedagogical decisions she does? As a student
in this classroom, how would I spend my fifty minutes on a given day? How
does the instructor address the challenges and resources of teaching in his
particular discipline? Does her teaching style complement our department's
philosophy of instruction?

This Occasional Paper is designed to help experienced graduate students
write a statement of teaching philosophy. The paper contains four sections.
First, we offer suggestions for making a philosophy of teaching explicit and
getting it on paper. Second, we discuss research on characteristics of
effective statements. Third, we introduce a rubric that can guide the
development and crafting of a teaching statement that search committees will
value. Finally, we address questions that job candidates often raise about
this sometimes perplexing document.

Advice for Getting Started

Just because you have never written a statement of your teaching philosophy
does not mean you do not have a
philosophy. If you engage a group of learners who are your responsibility,
then your behavior in designing their
learning environment must follow from your philosophical orientationŠ. What
you need to do is discover what [your philosophy] is and then make it
explicit. (Coppola, 2000, p. 1)

Beginning the teaching philosophy is often the hardest part of writing one.
The motivations behind the decisions we make in the classroom can be
surprisingly elusive when we try to put them on paper. Since there is no
single approach that will work for all writers, we offer three strategies
for getting started:

1. Goodyear and Allchin (1998) found that thinking about the "big" questions
of teaching helped instructors
articulate their philosophies:
* What motivates me to learn about this subject?
* What do I expect to be the outcomes of my teaching?
* How do I know when I've taught successfully?

2. In workshops and seminars at U-M, we have found that some graduate
students prefer to approach a statement by thinking about more concrete and
manageable "fragments" of teaching that can then be assembled into a
holistic essay. The following questions are designed to get you started:
* Why do you teach?
* What do you believe or value about teaching and student learning?
* If you had to choose a metaphor for teaching/learning, what would it be?
* How do your research and disciplinary context influence your teaching?
* How do your identity/background and your students' identities/backgrounds
affect teaching and learning in
your classes?
* How do you take into account differences in student learning styles in
your teaching?
* What is your approach to evaluating and assessing students?

3. Finally, some instructors find it most useful to begin by simply looking
at examples of others' philosophies.
CRLT has posted sample statements from a variety of disciplines at <
http://www.crlt.umich.edu/tstrategies
/tstpum.html <http://www.crlt.umich.edu/tstrategies%0A/tstpum.html>>. When
looking at others' philosophies, you will likely note considerable
variation, both in terms
of content and format, and you will likely find some approaches that
resonate with you. While there is no
single approach to a teaching philosophy, Figure 1 provides some general
guidelines for those statements written for the academic job market.

----------
Figure 1. Some general guidelines for writing the teaching philosophy
(adapted from Chism, 1998):
       * Keep it brief (1-2 pages).
       * Use a narrative, first person approach.
       * Make it reflective and personal.
       * Discuss your goals for your students, the methods you use to
achieve those goals, and the
          assessments you use to find out if students have met your
expectations.
       * Explain your specific disciplinary context and use specific
examples of your practice.
       * Showcase your strengths and accomplishments.
----------

Once you've articulated a first draft, you can begin shaping and polishing
it for the search committees who will be reading it. In the following
section, we discuss characteristics of successful teaching philosophy
statements and provide a rubric for evaluating a teaching statement and
aiming it at the right audience.

What Constitutes a Good Statement?

In their survey of search committee chairs, Meizlish and Kaplan (in press)
found broad agreement on the
desirable characteristics of a statement of teaching philosophy.
Specifically, chairs described successful
teaching statements as having the following characteristics:

* They offer evidence of practice. Search committee chairs want to
understand how candidates enact their
teaching philosophies. In particular, they want to see specific and personal
examples and experiences rather
than vague references to educational jargon or formulaic statements.

* They convey reflectiveness. Search committees want to know that a
candidate is a thoughtful instructor. They are interested in candidates who
can discuss their approach to instructional challenges and their plans for
future pedagogical development.

* They communicate that teaching is valued. Search chairs appreciate a tone
or language that conveys a
candidate's enthusiasm and commitment to teaching. They are wary of
candidates who talk about teaching as
a burden or a requirement that is less important than research.

* They are student- or learning-centered, attuned to differences in student
abilities, learning styles, or
levels. Search committee chairs want concrete evidence of a candidate's
attentiveness to student
learning (rather than just content) and awareness of and ability to deal
with student differences in the classroom.

* They are well written, clear, and readable. Search chairs draw conclusions
about candidates from all
elements of the application packet. Candidates can be undermined by
carelessness in their teaching
statements.

Note again  that the full article can be found at:
http://www.crlt.umich.edu/publinks/CRLT_no23.pdf


References
Bruff, Derek (in press). Valuing and evaluating teaching in the
mathematics faculty hiring process. Notices of the American
Mathematical Society.

Chism, N. V. N. (1998). Developing a philosophy of teaching statement.
Essays on Teaching Excellence 9(3). Athens, GA: Professional and
Organizational Development Network in Higher Education.

Cohen, S. A. (1987). Instructional alignment: Searching for a magic
bullet. Educational Research, 16(8), 16-20.

Coppola, B. (2000). How to write a teaching philosophy for academic
employment. American Chemical Society (ACS) Department of
Career Services Bulletin.

Goodyear, G. E., & Allchin, D. (1998). Statements of teaching
philosophy. In M. Kaplan & D. Lieberman (Eds.), To Improve the
Academy: Resources for Faculty, Instructional, and Organizational
Development, Vol. 17 (pp. 103-122). Stillwater, OK: New Forums
Press.

Gurin, P. (1999). Expert testimony in Gratz, et al. v. Bollinger, et al. &
Grutter, et al. v. Bollinger, et al., in The Compelling Need for
Diversity in Higher Education. Retrieved August 20, 2007 from
http://www.umich.edu/~urel/admissions/legal/expert/gurintoc.html<http://www.umich.edu/%7Eurel/admissions/legal/expert/gurintoc.html>

Kaplan, M. (1998). The teaching portfolio. Occasional Paper No. 11.
Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Research on Learning and Teaching,
University of Michigan.

Kardia, D. (1998). Becoming a multicultural faculty developer:
Reflections from the field. In M. Kaplan & D. Lieberman (Eds.), To
Improve the Academy: Resources for Faculty, Instructional, and
Organizational Development, Vol. 17 (pp. 15-33). Stillwater, OK:
New Forums Press.

Meizlish, D., & Kaplan, M. (in press). Valuing and evaluating teaching in
academic hiring: A multi-disciplinary, cross-institutional study.
Journal of Higher Education.

Montell, G. (2003, March 27). What's your philosophy on teaching, and
does it matter? The Chronicle of Higher Education, Chronicle
Careers. Retrieved January 15, 2007, from
http://chronicle.com/jobs/2003/03/2003032701c.htm

Schönwetter, D. J., Taylor, L., & Ellis, D. E. (2006). Reading the want
ads: How can current job descriptions inform professional
development programs for graduate students? Journal on
Excellence in College Teaching, 17(1&2), 159-188.


*Chris O'Neal is Senior Consultant for Institutional Initiatives at the
Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT). Deborah Meizlish is
Coordinator of Social Science Initiatives at CRLT. Matthew Kaplan is
Managing Director of CRLT. They have Ph.D.s in Biology, Political Science,
and Comparative Literature, respectively.

*       *       *       *       *       *       *
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