What is a teaching philosophy?
A teaching philosophy is a reflective statement that outlines an instructor’s beliefs, values, and approaches to teaching. It is a narrative description of your conception of teaching, as well as your rationale and justification for how you teach and why (Goodyear & Allchin, 1998). It is typically included in a teacher dossier.
An effective teaching philosophy should:
- State your beliefs about teaching and learning
- Provide a rationale for why you hold those beliefs
- Describe your teaching and learning goals
- Provide an overview of methods or strategies you use when teaching
- Reflect the contextual factors of your teaching environment.
Why write a teaching philosophy?
A well-articulated teaching philosophy can enhance professional development and provide a framework for evaluating and improving your teaching practices. It provides a framework for self-assessment and professional development, enabling instructors to align their teaching practices with their core educational beliefs and adapt to evolving pedagogical trends.
Additionally, a teaching philosophy may be required for job applications, promotion or tenure reviews, or awards submissions. In each scenario, a teaching philosophy is viewed as evidence of an instructor’s commitment to effective teaching and continual improvement.
What does a teaching philosophy look like?
Teaching philosophies are highly personalized texts and should reflect your unique teaching identity and contexts. However, there are common traits and features that readers will expect.
Teaching philosophies are written as a first-person narrative (Chism, 1998) and are typically one to two pages long (Kenny et al., 2021). While your teaching beliefs and practices are the focus of your teaching philosophy, you can contextualize your writing by connecting these to relevant scholarly literature (Kenny et al., 2021).
A number of frameworks exist that outline different approaches to writing a teaching philosophy. Drawing on the work of Chism (1998) and Schonwetter et al. (2002), Kenny et al. (2021) propose the following model.
Your teaching philosophy should include the four following components
- Beliefs: What do you think?
- Strategies: What do you do?
- Impact: What is the effect on learners, self, and colleagues?
- Future goals: How will you improve?
Below are a selection of sample teaching philosophies shared with permission by Memorial faculty.
- Dr. TA Loeffler, School of Human Kinetics and Recreation (2008) [PDF file, 31 KB]
- Dr. Geoff Rayner-Canham, Division of Science, Memorial University Grenfell Campus (2007) [PDF file, 52 KB]
- Dr. Georg Gunther, Division of Science, Memorial University Grenfell Campus (2005) [PDF file, 17 KB]
How to write a teaching philosophy
Writing a teaching philosophy is a challenging, reflective, and creative exercise that requires time and effort. Schönwetter et al. (2010) describe developing a statement of teaching philosophy as “a complex process of gathering, assimilating, analysing, reflecting upon, and evaluating and adapting thoughts on effective teaching and learning” (p. 84).
Therefore, you should not expect to produce a teaching philosophy in a single writing session.
To get started writing your teaching philosophy, you can consider:
- Using a quote about teaching and/or learning.
- Telling a story or describing a critical incident related to teaching or learning.
- Developing a metaphor for your teaching.
Guiding questions
Teaching philosophies have similar components contained within the statements The below list identifies the common components and presents some questions to help stimulate your thinking about that component (Chism, 1998; Goodyear & Allchin, 1998; Kenny et al., 2021; Schönwetter et al., 2002). You are not meant to answer all these questions in a teaching philosophy. These guiding questions are provided as a reflective tool only.
What are my beliefs about teaching and learning?
- Why do I teach? What do I value about teaching?
- How do I define effective teaching?
- What does good teaching look like in my discipline?
- How have my beliefs been influenced by my cultural positioning, my past learning experiences, and scholarly literature related to teaching and learning?
- Which aspects of teaching do I enjoy most or find most rewarding? Why?
- How do I believe learning occurs?
- How do I measure student learning?
- What role do students play in my classroom?
- What difference do I hope to make as a teacher?
What strategies or methods do I use in my teaching?
- What learning activities do I use when teaching?
- How do these activities connect to my beliefs about teaching?
- What assessment methods do I use?
- How do my student assessment methods align with my beliefs about teaching?
- How do I make decisions about content, resources, and assessement methods?
- How do my teaching strategies help my students meet learning outcomes?
- How do I create a safe and supportive learning environment for students?
- How do I interact with students in and outside of the classroom?
- How do I motivate students?
- How do I support students in their learning?
- How do I give students feedback?
- What are my strengths as a teacher? What sets me apart?
What is the impact of my teaching on myself, my colleagues, and my students?
- What difference have I made and how do I know?
- How do I prepare students to apply the knowledge, skills, and values developed in class to real-world contexts?
- How does my research influence my teaching?
- How does my teaching influence my research?
- How do I disseminate what I have learned about teaching and learning?
- What have others learned from my teaching and learning approaches? How do I know?
What are my future teaching goals?
- What have I learned about myself as a teacher?
- How has my approach to teaching changed? Why?
- How do I evaluate the effectiveness of my teaching and other interactions with students?
- How do I plan to grow and develop in teaching over the years?
- What goals have I set for myself as a teacher? How will I achieve these goals?
Tips for writing
- Be authentic. Write a first-person narrative in a personal, reflective tone. Avoid too much pedagogical jargon.
- Stick to a few (2-3) key ideas or themes. Don’t try to say too much, and don’t exceed two single-spaced pages.
- Embrace the revision process. You can expect to move through multiple cycles of reflection, drafting, and revision before finalizing your teaching philosophy.
- Seek feedback. Share your draft with a trusted colleague or consult with an Educational Developer.
References
- Chism, N. (1998). Developing a philosophy of teaching statement. Essays on teaching excellence: Toward the best in the academy, 9, 1-3. http://podnetwork.org/content/uploads/V9-N3-Chism.pdf
- Goodyear, G. E., & Allchin, D. (1998). Statements of teaching philosophy. To improve the academy, 17(1), 103-121. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2334-4822.1998.tb00345.x
- Kenny, N., Aparicio-Ting, F., Beattie, T., Berenson, C., Grant, K., Jeffs, C., Lindstrom, G., Nowell, L., & Usman, F. (2021). Teaching philosophies and teaching dossiers guide: Including leadership, mentorship, supervision, and EDI. Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning Guide Series. https://taylorinstitute.ucalgary.ca/resources/teaching-philosophies-and-teaching-dossiers-guide
- Schönwetter, D. J., Sokal, L., Friesen, M., & Taylor, K. L. (2002). Teaching philosophies reconsidered: A conceptual model for the development and evaluation of teaching philosophy statements. International Journal for Academic Development, 7(1), 83-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/13601440210156501
Originally Published: July 12, 2024
