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CTE - Reflective Teaching

This guide provides resources and best practices for fauclty engaged in reflective teaching. These include resources on creating a teaching portfolio and teaching philosophy.

 

A Statement of Teaching Philosophy is a brief, reflective essay that includes your approach to teaching and learning and specific examples that illustrate your approach.  The statement usually describes

  • your pedagogical methodology
  • your understanding of student and faculty roles
  • the key characteristics that define your teaching. 

You may conclude with areas of continued growth and development or with teaching goals you have for the future.  In a teaching portfolio, it is usually the first document the reader encounters in order to establish a framework for the other teaching artifacts. 

Purpose

A Statement of Teaching Philosophy serves the following purposes:

  • develop a reflective teaching practice.
  • communicate your goals and development as an educator.
  • describe your theorization of pedagogy and its application in the classroom.
  • contextualize other elements of the teaching portfolio or professional dossier.

 

A Statement of Teaching Philosophy may be necessary in the following circumstances:

  • graduate students who intend to work in academia
  • faculty members who are preparing for rank and promotion review
  • faculty members who are competing for teaching awards and honors
  • faculty members who are writing or revising their profiles for Blackboard and the website

 

Thinking about Student Engagement

When thinking about your approach to student engagement, you might want to think about the variety of ways students learn in the classroom:

 

Instructional scaffolding.  This refers to the resources, templates, guides, and materials you provide students to help them engage in the course materials and assignments.  

 

Process over product. This refers to the engagement of students as active participants in their classroom where learning is emphasized over the assessed products.

 

Hands-on learning. This refers to ‘learning by doing’ and can involve project-based assignments, group activities, and activities that favor application of skills.

 

Meet them where they are.  This refers to understanding the skills and knowledge of the students in the course and tailoring course materials and assignments to help them meet the objectives.

 

Collaborative learning. This refers to approaching the class as a co-authored space where students help to build the course schedule, materials, and assignments.

 

Project based learning.  This refers to the teaching approach where students work on a sustained engagement of a complex problem.  

 

Active learning.  This refers to the role of students as participants in the learning environment through thoughtful and critical engagement with the subject(s).

 

Classroom environment.  This refers to the expectations set by the faculty, usually on the first day, about interactions and roles.

General Guidelines

While there are no set rules for writing a teaching philosophy, there are some generally accepted guidelines:

 

One page, single-spaced. Extended descriptions may be necessary in some circumstances, but it is also important to remember that you have other teaching artifacts in your portfolio. 

 

Use first-person, present tense.  As a reflection, you will want to use the first-person perspective to discuss your specific practice of teaching.  Present tense will keep your writing clear and concise.

 

Avoid jargon.  Not everyone who reads your narrative will be from your discipline and using jargon may obscure your audience’s understanding of your teaching methodology.  Instead, you should use pedagogy as the common language you share with your audience.

 

Be specific.  You want to provide specific examples of your teaching to demonstrate your approach.  These might be descriptions of assignments, activities, discussions, or course materials that speak to who you are in the classroom.

 

Avoid describing your curriculum vitae.  Your teaching philosophy is a way to bring life to the course names and numbers listed on your vitae.  

 

Reflection and Writing Process

Step 1. Begin with some basic reflection questions.

As a reflective narrative, you will want to capture some of the foundational elements of teaching and learning.

  • What was your most memorable professor or course?  What made it memorable? 
  • What are your goals and expectations for the students in your courses? Why?
  • What should students know and/or be able to accomplish at the end of your courses?
  • What methods do you use to engage students in learning?  Why?
  • What ways do you ensure that students are learning?  What assessment methods do you use?
  • What are some ways you explain difficulty concepts?  Why?

 

Step 2. Determine patterns or trends.

When reviewing at your reflection answers, look for patterns or trends in your answers.  You might notice that many of your answers tend toward collaboration, mutual respect, engagement or trust. 

You may want to choose one of these characteristics as the basis for your teaching philosophy and select examples that speak to the way you apply this characteristic in the classroom.  You may decide to focus on three characteristics and tackle one in each of the supporting paragraphs.

 

Step 3. Select specific examples.

Using your reflection questions, you should select specific examples to illustrate your stated teaching approach.  It is important that you select a variety of examples that can speak to the way you integrate own research, experiences, and knowledge as well as your development as an educator.  While it may be tempting to only include your teaching triumphs, you should also choose an example where your methodology was challenged and how you learned from that experience.    

You could incorporate the following types of examples:

  • descriptions of assignments or course materials.
  • anecdotes about classroom experiences and interactions.
  • quotes from your students observations surveys.

 

Step 4. Apply the essay structure.

For many teaching philosophies, you will use the basic essay structure, which will include

  • an introduction to your approach and methodology.
  • supporting paragraphs describing examples of this approach in the classroom.
  • a conclusion where you outline future teaching goals or other developmental areas.

If you are speaking to a specific theme, characteristics, or set of characteristics, you can highlight them throughout the essay to draw the reader’s attention to them.

 

Trying to get started? Use our Creating a Writing Philosophy Worksheet to help with your self-reflection and assessment. 

 

Have a teaching philosophy already? Use our Revising a Teaching Philosophy Worksheet to help you target areas of improvement.