Personal Statement of Teaching Philosophy

Your Personal Teaching Philosophy (PTP) is a powerful guide to defining how you think about yourself, your teaching, and your role in the lives of your students. It helps you to understand what you want to achieve and how. It provides you with inspiration and a guide to action when faced with difficult choices in how to treat your students. It fills many important purposes in your life: Your Teaching Goals – What do you want to achieve through your teaching? Is your primary goal to transfer knowledge to your students, or do you also want them to learn certain transferrable skills and competencies? Which ones? Do you also want to inspire in them a passion for the subject? Do you want to be a role model for how to communicate or how to live a great life? Do you want to help your students take control of their lives and motivate them to be the best they can be? Guide to Action – How are you going to achieve these goals? How will you act in and outside the classroom to model the behaviors you want to see in your students? What assignments will you design to help your students achieve the desired learning outcomes? How do you assess the results? Your Relationship with Your Students – How active a role should you play in determining what your students learn and how to learn it? How well do you want to get to know your students, their issues, problems and dreams? Is a certain amount of aloofness required or do you want to be on a first name basis? Are you the “Sage on the Stage” or the “Guide from the Side”? Personal Inspiration – Your PTP is designed to motivate you to be your best, to help you when you feel low, to give your dreams shape and focus. Do you want to be an average, above average or great professor? What does being a “great” professor look like to you? Click here to download a copy of Prof. Steven Gedeon’s Personal Teaching Philosophy Click here to download an extended copy of Prof. Steven Gedeon’s Personal Teaching Philosophy with side comments, examples and discussion.