Your Teaching and Learning Philosophy--Do you have one?

One common assignment throughout the ECE-EDU program is to have students write their Teaching Philosophy. While being an important assignment for both beginning teachers and seasoned veterans alike to critically think about how they teach, why and what they can do better, I’ve heard through my faculty that this is a difficult assignment for many. So I decided to do a little research and put together a few ideas for my faculty to use to help their students construct this philosophy statement.

Along the way, I stumbled upon several good resources geared toward writing a teaching philosophy statement for college faculty. It occurred to me that we don’t ask our faculty and prospective faculty for their statements, unlike other institutions of higher learning (especially the four years). Why not? Our job is to teach so that students will learn particular subject content. Wouldn’t it be appropriate to ask prospective faculty what their philosophy/attitude/ideas are toward teaching and learning, especially in an online environment? Or do you do this in the interview process?

I understand that many programs at our level of the educational spectrum do not require instructors to have taken any methods of teaching, adult learning or other education courses. We want our faculty to be SMEs or Subject Matter Experts. This does not guarantee that anyone who is knowledgeable in a certain subject can effectively impart this knowledge to anyone else, let alone assess the effectiveness of that process. I am lucky to have been trained as an educator and have taken many methods and theory courses and my faculty group are also trained educators. But what about the rest of the faculty? Shouldn't SME's have some idea about how they teach and why they do what they do?

What is a Statement of Teaching and Learning Philosophy? It’s a brief (about 1 page) statement presenting personal ideas of the teaching and learning process and the instructor’s role in these processes. It is important to give examples from your own experience, either your teaching experience or your learning experience as a student over the years. Some areas that could be addressed in this statement include answers to the following questions:

• What are my or views on how adults learn and how can I facilitate that learning?
• What goals do I have for my students and why?
• How do I transform my concepts about teaching and learning and goals for my students into classroom practices?
• How do I know that my classroom practices are effective? What assessments do I use?
• What qualities do you believe an effective teacher should have?
• What should your students expect from you?

Another interesting idea I found for college instructors was a “syllabus version” of the Teaching Philosophy which is a much shortened version of the larger philosophy. We do have a general expectation statement in every course but that was written by someone else and most of us probably haven’t read that in years. Why not write your own “syllabus version” of your philosophy? Really think about how you teach our adult and non-traditional students, why you teach in that fashion, what you expect of students, what they can expect from you and how all this relates to your goals (and the students goals) for the course. This will help you clarify the teaching process for you and inform your students of your general ideas and goals.

For more information see:

• Step-by-Step Tutorial U of Minnesota
• Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement: Ohio State Univ Center for Adv of Teaching