General Guidelines for writing a teaching statement
UCSC Center forTeaching Excellence

A basic framework to use as a starting point:

Philosophy

• How I define learning in my discipline
• Roles of teachers and students
• My goals and values as a teacher

Teaching methods

• What I do in the classroom
• How I know it works
• Challenges and solutions

Growth as a teacher

• How I reflect and grow in my teaching practice
• What I am working on now/would like to investigate further

Note: Your finished  statement will not necessarily follow this outline. Its form will develop out of your ideas.

General guidelines:

• Despite the word “philosophy,” a teaching statement should be a practical document, with a good concrete sense of classroom practice. The philosophy part comes in when you discuss why you teach the way you do, how your classroom practice grows out of certain educational values. In other words, the best teaching philosophy statements discuss how someone teaches, and why they teach that way.

• The statement should evidence a willingness to learn, an awareness that you do not yet have all the answers. While you certainly want to present your strengths as a teacher, it is important to be aware that different kinds of institutions will present unique mixtures of students and of teaching situations. A strong teaching statement might suggest a sensitivity to these differences, and a willingness to adapt and grow as new challenges present themselves.

• Try to keep in mind the fine line between the teaching statement and the cover letter. The role of the cover letter is to promote you as a candidate for a particular job. The teaching statement should give readers a sense of who you are as a teacher. Granted, you hope readers of your teaching statement will see you as a strong job candidate. But avoid direct statements about the position in question, and try not to sound overly self-promotional. A reflective tone is generally best.

• If you do not have a lot of teaching experience, you can relate your teaching philosophy to such things as non-classroom teaching activities you have been involved in, your experiences as a student, and your observations of strong teachers in your recent experience.

• The statement should be short: no more than 2 pages.

Helpful online resources

Brainstorming Questions to help you get started with your teaching statement

Student learning:

• What do I want students to learn?
• What do/can I do to facilitate their learning?
• What are obstacles to student learning?
• How do/can I help students overcome those obstacles?

Classroom methods:

• What do I actually do in class?
• Why do I do that?

Your discipline:

• How is teaching in my field unique, as compared to other fields?
• How is it similar?

Successes:

• What are my most successful experiences as a teacher?
• What made those experiences successful?
• How could those successes be transferred to other teaching situations?
• What “big ideas” about teaching do those successes lead to?
• Conversely, what have I learned from  my least successful experiences?

Feelings about teaching:

• What makes me feel good about teaching?
• What does that tell me about my values as a teacher?
• What would I like to change about my teaching?
• What does that tell me about my values as a teacher?

Think about your teaching from the students’ perspective:

• What do you think it is like to be a student in your class?

If you have limited teaching experience think about:

• As a student, what teaching approaches were most successful in promoting your learning?
• What teaching situations outside of the classroom have you encountered, and what have they taught you about helping others learn? (e.g., mentoring a new colleague, advising/office hours, tutoring, working as a camp counselor)

Metaphors for Teaching

What metaphors capture your approach to teaching? Compare yours to those in the list below.

Helpful web sites

Guidance for writing a teaching statement:

http://chronicle.com/jobs/2003/03/2003032702c.htm

http://www.usask.ca/tlc/portfolios/ (Select Parts of a Portfolio to see the section on teaching statements.)

http://ftad.osu.edu/portfolio/philosophy/Philosophy.html 

To help you think about how you teach:

Teaching Style Inventory (i.e., What kind of teacher are you?)

http://www.iats.com/publications/TSI.html 

Teaching Goals Inventory (i.e., What are your goals for student learning?)

http://fm.iowa.uiowa.edu/fmi/xsl/tgi/data_entry.xsl?-db=tgi_data&-lay=Layout01&-view

Sample Statements on Teaching:

From UCSC Excellence in Teaching Award recipients (faculty)

http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/CTE/awards.html

From award-winning TAs at University of Georgia:

http://www.ctl.uga.edu/teach_asst/ta_mentors/philosophy/index.html