Teaching philosophies reconsidered:A conceptual model for the development and evaluation of teaching philosophy statements

Increasingly, the requirements of applicants to academic faculty positions, promotion and tenure procedures, nominations for teaching awards, or other application processes for innovative teaching grants worldwide include a teaching portfolio or dossier or a statement of teaching philosophy. Current literature provides a spectrum of approaches to constructing a teaching philosophy statement. While these resources provide practical utility, this literature generally lacks conceptual models that provide clear operational definitions and comprehensive frameworks for the process of generating or evaluating a teaching philosophy statement. However, this literature does illustrate the complexity of the task. Each teaching philosophy statement reflects not only personal beliefs about teaching and learning, but also disciplinary cultures, institutional structures and cultures, and stakeholder expectations as well. This synergy among self, discipline, and institutional context guided the development of a conceptual model for constructing a teaching philosophy statement. Based on the authors’ survey of the literature, a conceptual model was developed, and then refined in a series of three workshops that included input from graduate students, academic faculty, faculty developers, and academic managers (administrators). The resulting conceptual framework includes the six dimensions commonly found in a survey of faculty teaching philosophies: the purpose of teaching and learning; the role of the teacher; the role of the student; the methods used; evaluation and assessment of teaching and learning; and also includes two framing devices – a metaphor or a critical incident and a device for acknowledging the impact that contextual factors have on teacher decision making. This paper describes the development of this conceptual model, and provides an evaluation rubric that can be applied to assess teaching philosophy statements generated using the proposed framework. The International Journal for Academic Development ISSN 1360-144X print/ISSN 1470-1324 online © 2002 Taylor & Francis Ltd http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals DOI: 10.1080/13601440210156501 IJAipost 20/11/02 2:37 pm Page 83 D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f So ut h Fl or id a] a t 1 0: 50 0 7 M ay 2 01 3 not generated teaching philosophy statements in their own academic careers. While many articles focus on teaching portfolio or dossiers, less is known about statements of teaching philosophy. Even articles describing the teaching portfolio or dossier frequently fail to describe how to develop a teaching philosophy statement (Day, Robberecht & Roed, 1996). Current literature provides a spectrum of approaches, together with the reasons for utilizing, and the processes required for developing, a teaching philosophy statement. Articles that do provide readers with guidance on how to create a statement of teaching philosophy often do so with few clear operational definitions, or little analysis of the components identified in a definition. In some cases, the definitions have to be derived indirectly from a larger definition of a teaching portfolio or dossier. As a result, even though these resources provide practical utility, they often lack the academic rigour provided by strong conceptual underpinnings. What is missing in the current literature is a conceptual model that provides the user with a clear operational definition and comprehensive guidelines for the processes of generating and evaluating teaching philosophy statements. In order to provide effective guidance for creating a teaching philosophy statement, it is imperative to provide a clear operational definition and an analysis of its key components. Once a clear definition is articulated, specific guidelines can be developed for both the writers (e.g., future and current faculty) and the evaluators (e.g., students, colleagues, and academic managers) of the teaching philosophy statement. This paper presents a working model that will provide the guidance, academic rigour, and practical utility required to generate and evaluate teaching philosophy statements in contemporary hiring, tenure and promotion contexts. The description of this working model provides an operational definition, identifies key functions of teaching philosophy statements from the literature, sets forth a conceptual model, demonstrates the model’s practical utility, and poses some questions for future development. Operational definition Based on a comprehensive literature review, the following operational definition is proposed: A teaching philosophy statement is a systematic and critical rationale that focuses on the important components defining effective teaching and learning in a particular discipline and/or institutional context. Several components of this definition are elaborated below. First, a teaching philosophy statement is systematic, connecting the writer’s thoughts on teaching and learning in a logical fashion. Given that the development of a teaching philosophy statement involves a complex process of gathering, assimilating, analysing, reflecting upon, and evaluating and adapting thoughts on effective teaching and learning, it is helpful to express this thinking in some organized fashion for both the writer and the reader. Second, a teaching philosophy statement is a critical rationale. At its centre is a distinctive set of aims, values, beliefs and convictions that provide an organizing vision of the teacher’s direction and a rationale towards which his or her efforts are geared (Ebel, 1983; Symth, 1986). These aims should show literacy in, as well as an alignment with or commitment to, teaching and learning theories that are appropriate to the students’ characteristics (such as age, goals and motivation), the institutional context (such as the specific discipline culture and the institutional mission), and to oneself (one’s teaching identity, manifested in particular teaching strengths and natural ‘fits’). As well, a critical rationale will exhibit congruence between these various components of the teaching philosophy statement, demonstrating the significant amount of assimilative, analytical and evaluative thought that precedes the articulation of it. Third, a teaching philosophy statement focuses on specific components that the writer defines as critical to the teaching and learning processes in a particular post-secondary setting. Different theoretical perspectives on teaching and learning identify a broad range of possible components. For teaching, they could include teaching behaviours, teaching methods, content structure, and assessment (Feldman & Paulsen, 1998; McKeachie, 1999). For learning, these important dimensions could include student learning styles, learning contexts, cognitive structures, learning strategies and student motivation (Bruning, 1994; McKeachie, Pintrich, Lin, & Smith, 1986; Svinicki, 1991). An explanation of the writer’s conception of the teaching and learning dynamic will provide insights about how they teach and how their teaching has an impact on student learning. Subsequently, the criteria for judging the extent to 84 IJAD 7:1 IJAipost 20/11/02 2:37 pm Page 84 D ow nl oa de d by [ U ni ve rs ity o f So ut h Fl or id a] a t 1 0: 50 0 7 M ay 2 01 3 which a teacher’s practice exhibits features that are essential to good teaching should be considered in the context of this critical rationale. Finally, a teaching philosophy statement needs to be sensitive to contextual factors such as the particular discipline in which the teaching and learning takes place and the ‘organizational necessities, student experiences, and political climates’ (Brookfield, 1990, p. 196) that characterize an institution. The context within which one works presents both opportunities and constraints, and one’s teaching will to some extent reflect the characteristics of an individual situation. Just as disciplinary culture influences teaching beliefs and conventions (Stark & Latucca, 1997), so do institutional contexts. For example, teaching sociology in an undergraduate denominational college will manifest itself differently from teaching sociology in a graduate research institution, as the environment sets parameters for the teacher. These parameters include institutional mission and the role of teaching within the institution; the expectations of students and the goals for graduates of the programme; faculty academics’ workload; the physical, financial, and human resources; the support available for teaching; and the worldview of the institution. Effective teaching results from a synergy among learning principles, personal characteristics, and discipline and institutional cultures. A teaching philosophy statement can be critical to illuminating this complex interaction. The purposes of a teaching philosophy statement A review of the literature demonstrates that a teaching philosophy statement has been assigned many purposes: • clarifying what good teaching is; providing a rationale for teaching; • guiding teaching behaviours; organizing the evaluation of teaching; • promoting personal and professional development; • encouraging the dissemination of effective teaching. Together, these components support the importance of a teaching philosophy statement and contribute to the development of a comprehensive model. Clarifying ‘good teaching’ A teaching philosophy statement provides a conceptualization of a teacher’s approach to teaching by laying the foundation for articulating and clarifying teaching and learning beliefs, student learning goals, and personal development (Brookfield, 1990; Day et al. 1996; Goodyear & Allchin, 1998; Kreber, 2001; McKeachie, 1999; McLoughlin, 2000; Murray, 1995). Articulating a conceptualization of how teaching and learning processes occur and how they contribute to one another is fundamental to the teaching philosophy (Chism, 1998). This function of the teaching philosophy statement involves a good understanding of current teaching and learning theories and can include values important to a teacher’s beliefs about education (Atkinson, 2000). Next, defining teaching excellence takes into account student learning goals such as ‘content goals, process goals, and career and life-long goals’ (Chism, 1998, p. 2). Finally, this perspective frequently describes both teaching intentions and personal development goals. Providing the rationale for teaching and guiding teaching behaviours The teaching philosophy statement can also provide the rationale for the writer’s teaching behaviour (Brookfield, 1990; Goodyear & Allchin, 1998; Kreber, 2001). As a broad philosophical statement of teaching practice, it translates the conceptualization of teaching into action by providing a set of principles that justifies how one teaches (Chism, 1998). For instance, this can include how teachers conduct classes, mentor students, develop instructional resources, or grade performances . . . instructional strategies used . . . display creativity, enthusiasm, and wisdom . . . what they want a student to experience in their classroom, the labs they oversee, the independent projects they supervise . . . their energy level, the qualities they try to exhibit as a model and a coach, the climate they try to establish in the setting in which they teach (Chism,