Documenting and Evaluating Teaching: Teaching Philosophy Statement

A statement of teaching philosophy documents a professor's beliefs, values, and approaches to teaching. Writing this reflective statement helps a professor articulate the philosophy and goals that underly his or her approach to the classroom, which can then be shared with students, colleagues, and administrators. The following links provide guidelines and examples for writing a teaching statement.

Developing a Teaching Portfolio (University of Washington Center for Instructional Development and Research)
Guidelines, suggestions, writing prompts, and tips for writing your teaching statement, plus links to other useful sites, including one with sample philosophy statements.
Link: http://depts.washington.edu/cidrweb/resources/portfoliotools.html

Writing a Philosophy of Teaching Statement (Ohio State University)
Another site with guidelines and examples of philosophy statements.
Link: http://ftad.osu.edu/portfolio/philosophy/Philosophy.html

"Statements of Teaching Philosophy" by Gail E. Goodyear and Douglas Allchin (The Center for Effective Teaching and Learning at the U. of Texas at El Paso).
Discussion of the roles, composition, and evaluation of teaching philosophy statements.
Link: http://academics.utep.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=32483

Document Teaching/Teaching Portfolios (Boston University Center for Excellence in Teaching)
Prompts for brainstorming a teaching philosophy statement.
Link: http://www.bu.edu/cet/portfolios/philosophy.html

Engineering Teaching Portfolio Program (sponsored by the National Science Foundation)
A group process for developing a teaching statement. Contains useful links to strategies for writing your own statement and a sample teaching philosophy statement.
Link: http://www.engr.washington.edu/caee/etpp-sessions.htm

"How to Write a Teaching Philosophy for Academic Employment" (American Chemical Society)
Although this site is written for scientists, this article (in PDF format) provides an in depth discussion of approaches to developing a teaching statement, setting goals, and selecting practices for achieving these goals. It is liberally interspersed with excerpts from teaching statements.
Link: http://portal.acs.org:80/portal/fileFetch/C/CTP_005351/pdf/CTP_005351.pdf