Search committees around the country are asking:  "What's your philosophy?"  Research shows that a majority of academic search committees, at all kinds of institutions, ask for a statement of teaching philosophy at some point during the application process--sometimes as a part of the initial application, and sometimes later, after the selection committee has narrowed the field of candidates.  Whether you're in the humanities, social sciences, or natural sciences, odds are good that you'll need such a statement as part of your dossier if you're planning an academic job search.  

What can you do to make sure your teaching philosophy is an asset in your application? CRLT has many resources to help you develop and refine your statement. 

• An occasional paper by CRLT's Matt Kaplan and Deb Meizlish highlights their research on the importance of teaching philosophy statements to search committees, provides tips for getting started writing, and includes a rubric to evaluate your statement. 
• Our collection of teaching philosophies written by graduate students and post-docs at U-M includes examples from humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and engineering. 
• Additional resources on writing your teaching philosophy can be found here. 

I've written it -- what's next?

If you have a solid draft and would like to make it more effective, you may be interested in attending "Revising Your Teaching Philosophy," a CRLT workshop on November 7, 2012. This workshop is especially useful if you are headed for the academic job market within the next year.

The teaching philosophy statement is one requirement for completing the Graduate Teacher Certificate. To complete this requirement, submit your statement on the certificate website. A CRLT consultant will provide detailed feedback.

CRLT can also consult with you about writing and revising your teaching philosophy statement. 

image credit: Oliver Hammond on flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)