Reflecting on Your Teaching and Crafting a Philosophy

PERSONAL TEACHING IDEAS: QUICKWRITE

When you think about teaching and learning at the undergraduate level, what is important to you?

ELEMENTS OF A STATEMENT OF TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

All statements of teaching philosophy should include the following elements.
1. What is important to you about teaching and learning
Articulate what drives you to teach, what you are passionate about, your view of teaching, learning and education.

• Example: I embrace teaching as an opportunity to inspire and empower my students to take ownership over the learning process.
  

2. Your main objective(s) as a teacher
What are your goals for your students? What do you hope they take away from your class? Frame this in a way that is about student learning and how you support/encourage it, rather than simply what you do. Think about this, combined with what is important to you, as your theme for your whole statement.

• Example: It is my hope that my students become independent thinkers and develop sskills that they will take away beyond my classroom.
  

3. Description of how you teach
Describe how you implement your ideas and values about teaching and learning. What do you do in practice to met your main objective(s)? How do you facilitate your students meeting your goals? Include specific strategies and methods. Think about this as your evidence that you are carrying out your philosophy.

• Example: In my quest to develop independent thinkers, I strive to promote cros-cultrual awareness and appreciation. As a native of Argentina, I try to bring as much of my culture into the classroom as possible. For example...
  

4. How you evaluate yourself and your students
Think about how you can tell if your students are meeting your goals, rather than just about how you grade them. Also consider how you know your teaching strategies are working.

• Example: I give students timely feedback on their work so that they can incorporate suggestions, and so I have a sense of how individuals in my classroom are progressing through the semester.
  

5. Goals for future growth and how you will improve as a teacher

Demonstrate that you want to improve and how you will do that.

• Example: One of my goals as a teacher is to never take my teaching skills for granted. Each new group of students helps me learn how to better meet the needs of students in the future.
  

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING A GREAT STATEMENT OF TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

1. Paint a vivid picture of yourself as a teacher
The reader should be able to visualize what your classroom looks like and what you look like in it. Ask yourself, can your readers picture in their minds the learning environment you create for students?
2. Be specific
Weave in experience and give lots of examples. This helps give a picture of you as a teacher, and demonstrates that you actually believe in the things you say!
3. Make your statement memorable and unique
Talk about your talents, special interests, etc. to convey what's special about YOU. You want to set yourself apart from all of the other applicants.
4. Write concisely
Keep it to 1-2 double spaced pages!
5. Use present tense
This is the most common and easiest for your audience to read.
6. Use simple organizational structure
Concise paragraphs enhance readability!

COMMON PROBLEMS WHEN WRITING A STATEMENT OF TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

1. Negativity about teaching strategies

• Bad: Lecture is a terrible way to teach.
• Improved: Although lecture is useful for... I find that my students learn most effectively when...
  

2. Negativity about yourself (even if it is reflective)

• Bad: I really disliked my performance in class that quarter and was disappointed in my evaluation.
• Improved: I have learned how to negotiate the difficult task of balancing... and..., and over the past three years of teaching I have seen my students' performance improve in X, Y, and Z ways.
  

3. Know-it-all-iness

• Bad: There is 'no point' to powerpoint presentations. They are lengthy and boring to students.
• Improved: I find that my students become disinterested with lengthy powerpoint presentations, so instead I prefer to have a set of keywords on powerpoint display while simultaneously asking my students to...
  

4. Declarative and impersonal statements

• Bad: The only way to teach is to use class discussion.
• Improved: I believe that students learn best when they are actively engaged in discussion with one another, so I encourage peer discussion by...
  

5. Using overly technical terms

• Bad: I find transmissionist teaching is best for critical thinking.
• Improved: One of the most exciting projects I have participated in as a teacher was for Philosophy of Language, which I taught in the Spring of 2009. For this class, the students and I co-created a video explaining and, in some cases, acting out key terms in language philosophy. This project allowed the students to develop their understanding of the material by having to break down the complex terminology they learned in class for the 'lay man/woman.' It also gave students a sense of ownership over the material, and they were able to share this video via YouTube with friends and family members all over the world.
  

Teaching Careers Demystified Workshop

Early winter quarter, Travis Berge and I (Sarah Dalrymple) led a workshop that covered the major differences in teaching expectations and overall teaching environments among various academic institutions. Our goal was to help workshop participants articulate and focus their teaching interests and determine the appropriate way to prepare for careers at different types of schools. Participants read articles and informational interviews to glean information on the differences in teaching expectations and conditions among research institutions, comprehensive colleges, liberal arts colleges, and community colleges. We then discussed which type(s) of schools aligned with our own teaching interests and explored opportunities to gain additional teaching experience before going on the job market.

Conducting informational interviews with professionals in a position of interest can be a great way to gain a personal perspective on a particular job. For this workshop we followed the UCD Internship and Career Center model and got written feedback on a number of questions related to the teaching aspect of professors' jobs at a variety of institutions. These informational interviews, along with articles and handouts used in the workshop are available below:


ICC Informational Interviews

LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGE RESOURCES

Liberal Arts College Faculty: Finding The Sweet Spot

LAC Teaching Load Survey

Liberal Arts College Informational Interview
1. What was your discipline in graduate school? 

Population Biology – plant/insect interactions

2. What was the highest degree you completed? Ph.D.

3. Where and when did you complete your degree? 
 UCD, 2006

4. Who is your current employer/academic institution? 

Denison University, OH (small liberal arts college)

5. Employer location? Granville, OH

6. Academic Department/Program? Biology

7. Current Position Title: 
 Asst. Prof.

8. When did you first start this position? Sept 2006

9. Is this a tenure-track position? Yes.

10. What is the balance of research, teaching and service at your institution?

Teaching is primary, probably 60-70%, research 20% or so, service 10%.

11. On average, how many classes do you teach per semester/ quarter?
It alternates, in my heavy load semester I teach 2 courses with 2 labs, in my light semester I teach 1 course and 1 lab.

12. How much departmental support do you receive as a teacher in your position?
A great deal, this is a teaching position so my colleagues are always visiting and giving me feedback. It is really the reason for the whole college.

13. What do you most like about your faculty position?

The department is very caring and supportive, I like everyone on the staff and we feel like a true team and I think we do a good job educating those students who come into our department.

14. What do you find most challenging about your position?

Finding enough time to do research; it is really hard to do at a small school, most of it has to be done in the summer, but it is hard to wait that long sometimes.

15. What advice would you give to a graduate student or postdoc seeking a similar position?

Get actual teaching experience – TAing by itself won’t do it anymore. If you can get a leave position for a year or semester that would be great – we want to see that people have full responsibility for a course – lecturing, giving and grading exams, doing the labs if possible.

16. Is there anything you wished you had done as a graduate student or postdoc to prepare for this position? 

I wish I had actually done a research postdoc before getting this job, it would have given me some time to write and finish some things up that may never see the light of day now.

17. Is there any other advice you would like to share?
I would make sure that you really like teaching for this kind of job as really, truly, most of your time is either teaching, providing support for students, serving on committees that deal with teaching somehow, or preparing for teaching. Your research program should be do-able at a small school with limited time and funds – it can be done, but it has to take some planning and perhaps tough choices about what habitats/organisms you want to work on.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE RESOURCES

MLA Info on Community College Teaching Careers

Science Teaching Careers at Community Colleges

The Community College Job Search

Community College Informational Interview 1
1. What was your discipline in graduate school? 
 Ecology

2. What was the highest degree you completed? PhD

3. Where and when did you complete your degree?
UC Davis Sept 2006

4. Who is your current employer/academic institution? 

American River College, Los Rios Community College District

5. Employer location? Sacramento, CA

6. Academic Department/Program? Biology

7. Current Position Title: 
 Assistant Professor of Biology

8. When did you first start this position? Fall 2008

9. Is this a tenure-track position? Yes

10. What is the balance of research, teaching and service at your institution?

At the community college the focus is entirely on teaching and service, with teaching the most heavily emphasized. There is virtually no institutional support for a research program.

11. On average, how many classes do you teach per semester/ quarter?
Three of four depending on whether there are labs or not.

12. How much departmental support do you receive as a teacher in your position?
There is great departmental support for teaching at the community college. But, there are not TAs or readers or much support in that sense. Essentially all the grading and scheduling and much of the prep work is done by the faculty member.

13. What do you most like about your faculty position?

I love the diversity of students you get to interact with in the community college. In a single classroom you will often have three generations of students together, from advanced high school students to grandparents returning to get a college degree. There is good support for new curriculum development as well. The other faculty members are talented and dedicated educators and very willing to help out new faculty.

14. What do you find most challenging about your position?

The teaching load can be quite overwhelming at first depending on how many preps you have. In the worst case scenario, you could be expected to teach three (or more) new classes all in your first semester. There are also a significant proportion of the students that lack basic skills in math, reading, writing and studying, and can make teaching challenging. In addition, because the community college has a fairly wide open door for student enrollment, there are occasional behavioral issues that students bring to the classroom that can be challenging to resolve.

15. What advice would you give to a graduate student or postdoc seeking a similar position?

Take advantage of any and all opportunities for teaching during graduate school. Teach a freshman seminar, lead a 290, apply to work as an adjunct at all of the local community college districts and CSUs. When applying for positions, the hiring committees want to see more than TA positions on your CV.

16. Is there anything you wished you had done as a graduate student or postdoc to prepare for this position? 

Not really, other than probably begin teaching earlier during graduate school. There are great opportunities to teach during graduate school, night classes and weekend classes etc, that I would suggest students interested in pursuing this path try to get hired to teach.

17. Is there any other advice you would like to share?
Before you have interviews for adjunct or full time positions at the community college or for teaching internship programs, talk to folks that are currently faculty to get a sense of what the interview process is like, because it is idiosyncratic. I would be happy to share my experiences with the interview process with any folks that have upcoming interviews.

Community College Informational Interview 2

1. What was your discipline in graduate school? Animal Behavior Graduate Group

2. What was the highest degree you completed? PhD

3. Where and when did you complete your degree? 
 UC Davis, 2003

4. Who is your current employer/academic institution? 

Sacramento City College, Los Rios Community College District

5. Employer location? Sacramento, CA

6. Academic Department/Program? Biology

7. Current Position Title: 
 Professor of Biology

8. When did you first start this position? August 2005

9. Is this a tenure-track position?
Yes, earned tenure in 2008 (a 4 year process that began in 2004 for me)

10. What is the balance of research, teaching and service at your institution?

100% teaching, but service to the department and college is expected.

11. On average, how many classes do you teach per semester/ quarter?
1-2 different preparations. Most semesters I teach 2 sections of a 5 unit animal biology course (each section has 3 hours lecture and 6 hours of lab per week).

12. How much departmental support do you receive as a teacher in your position?
Our department is full of incredibly supportive faculty and administrators. We are very supportive of our teachers who wish to implement new courses, and I believe that we work well with each other to meet each other’s needs as instructors, to compromise where necessary, etc.

13. What do you most like about your faculty position?

I truly love my position, so I can’t narrow it down to just one thing. I appreciate having colleagues who are excellent and rigorous teachers; I feel fortunate to get to teach, nearly exclusively thus far, the courses that I wish to teach; I enjoy having interesting, diverse, and generally well-prepared students.

14. What do you find most challenging about your position?

Funding always is tight, and we can’t always get the teaching technology or materials that we want, or not in a timely manner.

15. What advice would you give to a graduate student or postdoc seeking a similar position?

If you are interested in a teaching career (as opposed to research) in higher education, please consider the community colleges. We have many very high quality students, many of whom transfer to UCs (and from our research, in upper division classes often outperform their fellow UC-grown students), and you have the benefit of being in a supportive and close-knit community of colleagues while working for an institution in which your teaching skills and dedication to teaching are truly valued.

16. Is there anything you wished you had done as a graduate student or postdoc to prepare for this position? 

No.

17. Is there any other advice you would like to share?
Get as much teaching experience as possible while in graduate school. TAships are important, but whenever possible gain experience as the teacher of record. Teaching summer school is a good way to get this initial experience. Community colleges also look to hire tenure-track professors who already have experience teaching at community colleges (and therefore have a better understanding of community college students). If you are interested in this career path, try to get a foot in the door as part-time faculty.