The College Classroom Wi16 Meeting 9: Writing Your Teaching Statement

Step 1
WritingYourTeaching Statement -
collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu1
sit and think
WritingYourTeaching Statement
Step 1
sit and think
Just a thought by gintoxin78 on flickr (CC)

The College Classroom Meeting 9:
Writing Your Teaching Statement
March 1 and 3, 2016
Unless otherwise noted, content is licensed under
a Creative CommonsAttribution- 3.0 License.
Peter Newbury
Center for EngagedTeaching, UC San Diego
pnewbury@ucsd.edu
collegeclassroom.ucsd.edu

Where do you want to go next?
A) faculty position at research university
B) faculty position at teaching-focused institution
with opportunities for (limited) research
C) faculty position at teaching-focused institution with no
research obligations
D) professional career (engineer, medical, journalist...)
E) alternate academic (alt-ac) position
3

Have you applied for academic jobs?
A) not yet, and I won’t until next year
B) not yet, but I will be applying soon
C) yes, for 1 job
D) yes, for 2-5 jobs
E) yes, for more than 5 jobs

Job announcements
Most academic job announcements require applicants to
submit a “Teaching Statement”
 Sociology Instructor - Chicano/a Studies, Mira Costa
http://www.miracosta.edu/administrative/hr/jobopenings.html
 Professor or Associate Professor of Synthetic Chemistry,
Chemistry & Biochemistry, UC San Diego
https://apol-recruit.ucsd.edu/apply/JPF00894

To Apply

“A Teaching what?”
Teaching Portfolio

Purpose of a Teaching Portfolio
 Collect in one place all your evidence of teaching
 teaching philosophy
 teaching statement
 teaching evaluations (like CAPE)
 examples of your work: PPT, assignments, exams
 example of your students’ work
 feedback from students, colleagues, bosses
 partially online
 start collecting NOW

Teaching Portfolio
Teaching Philosophy

Purpose of a Teaching Philosophy
Long (and continually growing document):
 Summary of your teaching portfolio, helps tie together
and synthesize evidence
 Demonstrates that you are reflective about
your teaching
 Communicates your goals and actions
 As you revise, it may shape how you teach
 Help you set goals for professional growth
 A list of all courses you’ve taught with dates,
enrollment, institution, etc.

Teaching Portfolio
Teaching
Statement
also known as…
• Statement ofTeaching
• Statement ofTeaching Philosophy
Teaching Philosophy

Purpose of a Teaching Statement
 Demonstrate you are reflective about your teaching
 Communicate your teaching goals and actions
 Get hired!

Teaching Portfolio
Teaching
Statement
Teaching Philosophy
forYOUforTHEM

A Teaching Statement gives…
 Your conception of how learning occurs
 A description of how your teaching facilitates learning
 A reflection of why you teach the way you do
 The goals you have for yourself and for your students
 How your teaching enacts your beliefs and goals
 What, for you, constitutes evidence of student learning
 The ways in which you create an inclusive learning
environment
 Your interests in new techniques, activities, types of learning
cft.vanderbilt.edu/teaching-guides/reflecting/teaching-statements/

Vanderbilt CfT Teaching Statements:
keywords only
wordle.net

Vanderbilt CfT Teaching Statements:
all words
wordle.net

Count the
number of I,
me, my,…

Step 1
sit and think
Step 1
sit and think
Just a thought by gintoxin78 on flickr (CC)

Sit and think…
Which of these do you feel is your primary role as an
educator?
A) Teaching students facts and principles of the subject
B) Helping students develop basic learning skills
C) Helping students develop higher-order thinking skills
D) Preparing students for jobs/careers
E) Being a role model for students
19

Teaching Goals Inventory (Excerpt) © 1993Thomas A.Angelo and K. Patricia Cross.
tinyurl.com/TeachingGoalsInventory
Please rate the importance of each of the […] goals listed below to the specific course you have selected. Assess each goal's importance to
what you deliberately aim to have your students accomplish, rather than the goal's general worthiness or overall importance to your
institution's mission. There are no “right” or “wrong” answers; only personally more or less accurate ones. Indicate whether each goal you
rate is:
(1) not applicable – a goal you never try to achieve
(2) unimportant – a goal you rarely try to achieve
(3) important – a goal you sometimes try to achieve
(4) very important – a goal you often try to achieve
(5) essential – a goal you always/nearly always try to achieve
Center for EngagedTeaching, UC San Diego
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) Goal
     17. Improve mathematical skills
     18. Learn terms and facts of this subject
     19. Learn concepts and theories in this subject
     20. Develop skill in using materials, tools, and/or technology central to this subject
     21. Learn to understand perspectives and values of this subject
     22. Prepare for transfer or graduate study
     23. Learn techniques and methods used to gain new knowledge in this subject
     24. Learn to evaluate methods and materials in this subject
     25. Learn to appreciate important contributions to this subject
     26. Develop an appreciation of the liberal arts and sciences
20

General Guidelines
 Make your Teaching Statement brief and well
written, typically 1-2 pages in length.
 Use narrative, first-person approach.This allows
theTeaching Statement to be both personal and
reflective.
 Be sincere and unique.Avoid clichés, especially ones
about how much passion you have for teaching.
 Avoid statements about what doesn’t work (because
someone on the search committee might have done
that this morning!)

General Guidelines
 Make it specific rather than abstract. Ground your
ideas in 1-2 concrete examples, whether
experienced or anticipated.This will help the reader to
better visualize you in the classroom.
 Be discipline specific. Do not ignore your research.
Explain how you advance your field through teaching.
 Avoid jargon and technical terms, as they can be off-
putting to some readers.

General Guidelines
 Try not to simply repeat what is in your CV.
Teaching Statements are not exhaustive documents and
should be used to complement other materials for the
hiring or tenure processes.
 Be humble. Mention students in an enthusiastic, not
condescending way, and illustrate your willingness to
learn from your students and colleagues.

General Guidelines
 Customize for the department you’re applying to:
“I would be excited to teach introductory courses
like your MATH 10A and MATH 20B.”
“With my research background, I would be able
to teach graduate-level courses in European
history like HIST 554.”
 “How will you teach our students?”
 Remove UCSD-specific acronyms like UCSD,
CAPE, SIO, SE, MAE, HIEU, SSPPS,…

General Guidelines
 Formatting: do everything you can to make it easy for
the hiring committee members to read your doc:
 Add a header with your name, so that the reader
can easily associate your awesome words with your
name
 full justification gives your doc a polished look
 check your PDF very carefully for .docx to .pdf
conversion problems (esp. with bullet points)
 Metadata: be sure to check your documents’
metadata (especially author)

www.crlt.umich.edu/tstrategies/tstpts
Teaching Statement rubric:
Write, rubric, revise, rubric, revise…
Goals for student learning
Enactment of goals (teaching method)
Assessment of goals (measuring student learning)
Creating an inclusive learning environment
Structure, rhetoric and language
Excellent
Needs
Work Weak

KEY Guideline: you need a
kick a** first paragraph!
 What distinguishes you from everyone else applying?
Give them something to remember you by!
 Imagine the hiring committee only reads the first
paragraph carefully and skims the rest. Hit‘em with
your best stuff right away – don’t save it for the
concluding paragraph.
 Spend extra time on the first paragraph:
opening paragraph = abstract in an article
 Provide detail and evidence in the rest of the teaching
statement.

First paragraph rubric:
Write, rubric, revise, rubric, revise…

Try the first paragraph rubric
Work with your neighbor. Use the colored dots to evaluate
the sample opening paragraph.

Score the first paragraph
1 point for each Weak
2 points for eachAcceptable
3 points for each Strong
A) 1 – 6 points
B) 7 – 8 points
C) 9 – 10 points
D) 11 – 12 points

Try the first paragraph rubric
Work with your neighbor. Use the colored dots to evaluate
the sample opening paragraph.

Score the first paragraph
1 point for each Weak
2 points for eachAcceptable
3 points for each Strong
A) 1 – 6 points
B) 7 – 8 points
C) 9 – 10 points
D) 11 – 12 points

You’ve drafted it. Now what?
1. Ask someone you trust INYOUR DISCIPLINE to read it.
 Their familiarity with the subject may catch errors
specific to your field (eg, field work in geophysics)
2. Ask someone you trust NOT in your discipline to read it.
 When they ask you what something means, it forces you
to think carefully and concisely about the concept.
 People beyond the hiring-Department may read it
(eg, Dean, Provost, Head Librarian, etc.)

The Interview…
When you visit your potential employer for a 24 – 48 hour
interview, you’ll probably
 have breakfast with the host
 attend meeting after meeting after meeting
 give a “research seminar” about your work
 teach a demonstration class
 meet with the “teaching committee”  bring your
teaching portfolio!

Resources
Center for Research on Learning andTeaching
University of Michigan
www.crlt.umich.edu/tstrategies/tstpts
Teaching statement samples: www.crlt.umich.edu/tstrategies/tstpum
Center forTeaching
Vanderbilt University
McGraw Center forTeaching and Learning
Princeton University
www.princeton.edu/mcgraw/library/for-grad-students/teaching-statement
Center for theAdvancement ofTeaching
Ohio State University
ucat.osu.edu/teaching_portfolio/philosophy/philosophy2.html

The College Classroom Wi16 Meeting 9: Writing Your Teaching Statement

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