Writing Your Teaching Philosophy

Your reasons for writing a teaching philosophy may vary. You might be writing it as an exercise in concisely documenting your beliefs so that you can easily articulate them to your students, peers, or a search committee. It might serve as the introduction to your teaching portfolio. Or, it can serve as a means of professional growth as it requires you to give examples of how you enact your philosophy, thus requiring you to consider the degree to which your teaching is congruent with your beliefs.

Generating ideas

Teaching philosophies express your values and beliefs about teaching. They are personal statements that introduce you, as a teacher, to your reader. As such, they are written in the first person and convey a confident, professional tone. When writing a teaching philosophy, use specific examples to illustrate your points. You should also discuss how your values and beliefs about teaching fit into the context of your discipline.

Below are categories you might address with prompts to help you begin generating ideas. Work through each category, spending time thinking about the prompts and writing your ideas down. These notes will comprise the material you’ll use to write the first draft of your teaching philosophy statement. It will help if you include both general ideas (‘I endeavor to create lifelong learners’) as well as specifics about how you will enact those goals. This Teaching Philosophy - Generating Ideas document is also available to help you get started.

Questions to prompt your thinking

Your goals for students

What knowledge, skills, and attitudes should students obtain as a result of your teaching? What goals do you have for specific classes or curricula and what is the rationale behind them (i.e., critical thinking, writing, or problem solving)?

Positionality

Consider your multiple and intersecting identities. Consider both dominant and marginalized identities. How do they inform your teaching? How might different power dynamics show up?

Your concept of learning

What do you mean by learning? What happens in a successful learning situation? Note what constitutes "learning" or "mastery" in your discipline.

Your concept of teaching

What are your values, beliefs, and aspirations as a teacher? Do you wish to encourage mastery, competency, transformational learning, lifelong learning, general transference of skills, critical thinking? What does a meaningful  teaching situation look like to you and why? How are your teaching  values and beliefs realized in classroom activities (i.e., discuss your course materials, lesson plans, and activities)? 

Your teaching methods

What methods will you consider to reach these goals and objectives? What are your beliefs regarding learning theory and specific strategies you would use, such as case studies, group work, simulations, and interactive lectures? How are these methods appropriate to your discipline? How do you know when you've taught effectively? What new ideas or strategies do you want to try?

Your approach to using Generative AI (GenAI)

How do you think about GenAI in relation to student learning? What are you excited and concerned about related to GenAI and how do you communicate that to students? How does your approach to GenAI align within your discipline?

Your interaction with students

Why do you want to work with students? What are your attitudes towards advising and mentoring students? How would an observer see you interacting with students? 

Creating an inclusive learning environment

How do you create a sense of belonging for students in your classroom? How do you incorporate and engage diverse perspectives in your teaching? How do you establish norms for an inclusive learning environment? What is your approach to promoting student health and well-being? What classroom procedures and structures support the varied needs of your students?

Assessing learning

How will you assess student growth and learning? What are your beliefs about feedback and grading? What different types of assessment will you use (i.e., traditional tests, projects, portfolios,  presentations) and why? Which new approaches to assessment do you want to try and why? 

Professional growth

How will you continue growing as a teacher? What goals do you have for yourself and how will you reach them? How have your attitudes towards teaching and learning changed over time? How will you use student feedback  to improve your teaching? 

Organizing your draft

Now that you've generated ideas for your values, attitudes, and beliefs about teaching and learning, it's time to pare down and organize those thoughts into a brief and coherent form. 

One way of knitting your reflections together is to read through your notes and underscore ideas or observations that come up more than once and that tell the most clear and compelling story. Think of these as "themes" that might point you toward an organizational structure for the essay. For example, you read through your notes and realize that you spend a good deal of time writing about your interest in mentoring students. This might become one of the three or four major foci of your teaching philosophy. You should then discuss what it says about your attitudes toward teaching, learning, and what's important in your discipline.

No matter which approach you choose, make sure to keep your writing succinct. Aim for two double-spaced pages to begin. The final length will vary based on your specific discipline, context, and purpose. Remember to start with a "hook." Your job is to make your readers want to read more; their level of engagement is highest when they read your opening line. Hook your readers by beginning with a question, a statement, or even an event from your past.

Using specific examples

Remember to provide concrete examples from your teaching practice to illustrate the general claims you make in your teaching philosophy. Below are example statements where one is more general and the other is more specific and concrete. Note how the second statement describes what happens in the writer’s classroom and brings the scene to life. 

General

"I enjoy lecturing, and I'm good at it. I always make an effort to engage and motivate my students when I lecture."

Specific

I enjoy lecturing, and from informal and formal student feedback, my lectures are effective. I am mindful to lecture no longer than 20 minutes at a time, before I pause and do a Class Assessment Technique (CAT), which gives me real time feedback on the students’ learning. I use various techniques to engage and motivate students.

General

"It is crucial for students of geology to learn the techniques of field research. An important part of my job as a professor of geology is to provide these opportunities."

Specific

From those I know hiring in the field, it is crucial for students of geology to learn the techniques of field research. An important part of my job as a professor of geology is to provide these opportunities. For example, one assignment in GEOL XXXX, students select and try a technique of field research on campus. Last year, a student observed their peers at the campus dining hall.

General

I believe that peer feedback is important in one’s writing journey. I facilitate students finding their voice together with their peers.

Specific

"As a teacher of writing, I am committed to using peer review in my classes. By reading and commenting on other students' work in small cooperative groups, my students learn to find their voice, to understand the important connection between writer and audience, and to hone their editing skills. Small group work is indispensable in the writing classroom."

Go back to the notes you made when getting started and underline the general statements you’ve made about teaching and learning. As you start drafting, make sure to note the specific approaches, methods, or products you use to realize those goals.

According to a survey of search committee chairs by the University of Michigan Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (Meizlish & Kaplan, 2008), there are five elements that are shared by strong teaching philosophy statements:

• They offer evidence of practice with specific examples
• They are student-centered
• They demonstrate reflectiveness
• They communicate that the writer values teaching
• They are well written, clear, and readable

Now that you’ve completed an initial draft, ask whether your statement captures these elements and how well you articulate them.

You might find it useful to compare your draft to other teaching philosophies in your discipline. It can also be useful to have a colleague review your draft and offer recommendations for revision. Consider printing out a teaching philosophy rubric from our “Rubrics and Samples” tab to provide your reviewer with guidelines to assess your draft. These exercises will give you the critical distance necessary to see your teaching philosophy objectively and revise it accordingly.

Reference

Meizlish, D., & Kaplan, M. (2008). Valuing and evaluating teaching in academic hiring: A multidisciplinary, cross-institutional study. The Journal of Higher Education, 79(5), 489–512.

Rubrics

Here are links to three teaching philosophy rubrics to help you assess your statement. We have included four different rubrics for you to choose from. These rubrics cover similar elements, and one is not necessarily better than the other. Your choice of which to use should be guided by how comfortable you feel with the particular instrument and how usable you find it. 

• Teaching Philosophy Rubric 1 This rubric allows a reader to rate several elements of persuasiveness and format on a scale of 1 to 5.
• Teaching Philosophy Rubric 2  This rubric contains prompts for assessing purpose and audience, voice, beliefs and support, and conventions.
• Teaching Philosophy Rubric 3  This rubric contains prompts for assessing content, format, and writing quality.

Samples

Below are two teaching philosophy samples from former students in our Preparing Future Faculty Program along with a variety of samples from the University of Michigan. In the second sample, Dr. Jamie Peterson shares their teaching philosophy from the initial job search stage and also provides a revised philosophy after twelve years of teaching and post-tenure. 

• Marisol Brito – philosophy
• Jamie Peterson – psychology
• The University of Michigan has a wide variety of samples organized by field of study.

The following articles and resources offer additional information on writing a teaching philosophy:

Kaplan, M., Meizlish, D. S., O’Neal, C., & Wright, M. C. (2008). A research-based rubric for developing statements of teaching philosophy. Volume 26, 1–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.3998/tia.17063888.0026.020

Kearns, K. D., & Sullivan, C. S. (2011). Resources and practices to help graduate students and postdoctoral fellows write statements of teaching philosophy. Advances in Physiology Education, 35(2), 136–145. https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00123.2010

VoiceThread teaching philosophy presentation (adapted from a workshop presented by Bill Rozaitis, CEI; 30 min.)