Lesson 2: State your teaching philosophy

Now that you know what a teaching dossier is and have explored some examples, you can begin the process of stating your teaching philosophy statement.

A teaching philosophy statement is:

• a reflective narrative of how your experiences have informed your values, goals and beliefs regarding both teaching and learning
• a thesis around which the dossier is built
• a framework that is aligned to the presentation of evidence and exemplary materials
• the foundation of a teaching dossier
• one to two pages long
• written as a first-person narrative

It is useful to structure your teaching philosophy statement around 4 key components:

• Beliefs (what do you think?)
• Strategies (what do you do?)
• Impact (what has been the impact?)
• Goals (how will you improve?)

Reflect:

• What resonates with you - what inspires you about the format or content?
• What do you notice about the philosophy statement structure? (e.g., length, format, alignment, tense, person)
• What components of the dossier are included? What do you notice about the length, format, etc?
• How is the stated philosophy aligned throughout the document?
• Find the reflective comments
• What surprises you?
• What are you curious about?

• Recognize the role of the philosophy statement in the teaching dossier
• Identify your beliefs about how students learn and how these beliefs inform how you teach
• Complete the first draft of your philosophy statement