On November 8, 2012, the Teaching Assistant Consultants Kelly Neil, Miki Mori, and Philip Matern ran a second Statement of Teaching Philosophy workshop. Approximately 15 graduate students and postdocs from a wide variety of disciplines such as engineering, psychology, history, chemistry, geography, and physics attended and spent two hours together brainstorming, discussing, and collaborating on what makes a strong Statement. We started our workshop with a discussion about the purpose of the Statement and some of the nuts and bolts about this genre of writing. Next, participants worked through a step-by-step worksheet that invited them to reflect on their goals and beliefs about teaching as well as how they assess learning. We also took time to read through sample statements and sample introductions, reflecting on issues of content, organization, audience, and style. Finally, we situated the Statement in a broader conversation about teaching portfolios and job applications.
Even though some participants were not really sure what a Statement consisted of and others had polished drafts, the open dialogue and interaction between everyone proved to be stimulating and productive. As a group we talked through some challenging questions: how do we know if the search committee wants to see technical language in our Statements? How discipline-specific will your audience be? If you begin your Statement with an anecdote about a teaching experience you’ve had, does that spark readers’ interest or does that get in the way of the Statement’s ultimate purpose? What are the benefits and drawbacks of electronic teaching portfolios? Though these questions don’t have easy answers, we had a great time laughing, grimacing, and thinking our way through this puzzling part of the academic job application. In the end, even if the job application process remains a daunting task, participants, and the facilitators, left with a clearer of just what makes our individual Statements of Teaching Philosophy represent who we are as instructors.
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