Writing your values-based teaching philosophy
This blog post is one of a three-part series about how to write a values-based teaching philosophy. In this blog post, we (April Love and Laurel Hitchcock) cover tips for writing and presenting a values-based teaching philosophy. The first post offers a process for identifying your teaching values and in the third post, we share our own values-based teaching philosophies. This post is cross-published on April’s Blog – Genuine Curiosity: Navigating Nursing Education Now.
If you are reading this blog post, then you have already done some work to identify your teaching values – see our first blog post – How to define your Teaching Values. We know you’ve worked hard and put in the time to truly identify teaching values that speak to the heart and practice of your professional identity. You’ve reviewed, compared, and reflected on various teaching values and now feel confident that those you’ve selected represent you well and that you’re ready to share them with others.
In addition to identifying your teaching values, you’ve also spent some time collecting “evidence” as to how these values are showing up in your work. Maybe you have a special process that encourages students to speak freely in your classroom, which is a great example of how you’re living the value of “safety” or “inclusion.” Maybe it’s a new technology that you’ve introduced to your department that has you leading the charge for “innovation” or “creativity.” Whatever those examples are that showcase how you’re walking the walk and talking the talk, you’ll want to display them in your teaching philosophy. Actions often speak louder than words.
Now is the time to transform your values and evidence into a two-page written statement of teaching philosophy that you can share with others in a variety of ways depending on your audience and other environmental considerations.
Align your “Why” with your “How”
Now that you have your teaching values (why) and your evidence for how these values show up in your teaching, your next step is to align your values with evidence. The goal is to find a structure or outline for your teaching philosophy where you can tell the story of your teaching that is shaped by your values.
The first way to think about aligning your values to your evidence is to start with common teaching practices or theories of learning that support your values and ideal teaching. For example, you might consider Chickering & Gamson’s seven practices for undergraduate education, which focuses on activities such as giving prompt feedback and setting high expectations, or the approach of trauma-informed teaching and learning, which encourages such practices as building student choice into a course or creating class routines to support trustworthiness. Here is a partial list of teaching principles and practices to get you started:
- academic integrity
- innovation in the classroom
- contact with faculty
- collaboration among students
- assessment
- effective feedback
- time on task
- communication of expectations
- delivery of instruction
- fairness
- accessibility
- organization and preparation of instructor
- engagement of learners
- respect for diverse ways of learning
Most likely, you will want to mention a few practices within your teaching philosophy statement to give it structure, providing “evidence” as to how your preferred teaching practices can be generalized to the classroom for student success. Once you identify the teaching practices that are most important to you, align these practices to your values and fill in the concrete examples from your own teaching strategies. Here are some examples:
| Value | Teaching Practices | Example |
| Innovation | Teaching with Multimedia | Students create a podcast on a topic instead of writing a paper |
| Safety | Brave Spaces for class discussions | Incorporates Opps/Ouch Protocol as group norms for class discussions |
Another way to think about aligning your teaching values to how you teach is to consider the context of your discipline or field of expertise, and how you can show your passion for it within your teaching philosophy. For example, April is a nurse educator and Laurel is a social work educator. Integrity is a core value for both professions, but social work uses different words and actions to describe integrity as compared to nursing. For example, while both April and Love might promote academic honesty in their courses as a way to help students transfer ethical decision-making to professional settings, Laurel might demonstrate another aspect of integrity by incorporating social and emotional learning (SEL) theory to teach her students about self-care. In contrast, April might infuse her courses with team-based learning to promote open communication skills as a form of integrity. Check to see if your field or discipline has any defined competencies or professional values.
| Definitions of Integrity | Sample Teaching Practices |
| Social Work: Social workers are continually aware of the profession’s mission, values, ethical principles, and ethical standards and practice in a manner consistent with them. Social workers should take measures to care for themselves professionally and personally. Social workers act honestly and responsibly and promote ethical practices on the part of the organizations with which they are affiliated. | Promotes academic honesty through values-based learning activities Applies theory of social and emotional learning by teaching students to self-regulate with grounding exercises |
| Nursing: A culture of integrity is evident when organizational principles of open communication, ethical decision-making, and humility are encouraged, expected, and demonstrated consistently. Not only is doing the right thing simply how we do business, but our actions reveal our commitment to truth-telling and to how we always see ourselves from the perspective of others in a larger community. | Promotes academic honesty through values-based learning activities Applies team-based learning to improve students’ communication skills with other healthcare professions |
Once you have completed this step (i.e. aligning your teaching values with your teaching practice/evidence), it is now time to start writing your teaching philosophy. Your values and aligned teaching practices can serve as an outline or bullet points to structure your written statement. Strive for the 1-2 page, formally written document that can look and read a lot like a legal briefing. It’s professional and effective and offers a foundation that can be adapted for different situations and audiences. In the next section, we offer fresh ways to present your teaching philosophy.
Get creative with your Teaching Philosophy
You’ll want to be able to share your teaching philosophy in various ways with different audiences. If you value creativity or innovation, or even humor, let that shine in your representation. It should be a living, usable document, not just something you dig out when it’s time for a career makeover.
Challenge yourself to make it work for you and your needs, and look for opportunities to get the most out of the work you’ve done by avoiding limiting yourself to any specific format. Our students, our colleagues, and our audiences are diverse groups with diverse needs. So, once you’ve identified the key components of your teaching philosophy, be prepared to mold it, morph it, and stretch it into different packages that meet the needs (and the attention span) of your viewers.
As the old adage suggests, a picture can paint a thousand words. Consider creating an infographic to breathe life into your thoughts and ideas for others to see. Here are some awesome examples that use art, famous quotes, and pop culture references to introduce themselves and their approach to education.
Could you sum up your teaching philosophy in 30 seconds or less? A good elevator pitch concisely describes the what, or the objective, and the how, or the actions taken to accomplish the goal, in 20-30 seconds. Anyone who’s listened to a 4-hour lecture for 4 minutes of content knows that educators can take the scenic route to present their point. The elevator pitch forces you to drill down to the selling point of your values and teaching philosophy, generating a snapshot of the information that’s essential to teaching. For example, create a pitch that you can share with students on the first day of class to introduce your vision for their experience. For quick tips on Crafting an Elevator Pitch, check out this Mind Tools article.
The multipurpose nature of a teaching philosophy means it can speak to you, helping you to prioritize and align your approach to education, AND to your audience, helping them understand your vision and motivation for their experience. It’s a fantastic communication tool. Regardless of the format you choose – the most tech-savvy innovation or the stone tablet, consider posting your teaching philosophy in your course syllabus. Use this platform to share your priority values with your students, and encourage them to explore their own values as learners, identifying how they might align and how you can collaborate for success.
Plan for revisions
Now that you have your values-based teaching philosophy done, share it with others – your colleagues, department chair, and even your students. Ask for feedback, and even ask others to share their teaching philosophies with you. Having other samples to review will give you new ideas.
It is a good reflective practice to reassess your teaching philosophy every year. With technology, it’s easy to add layer upon layer of edits to an electronic document and never look back. Whether you keep hard copies or simply create separate dated documents, resist the temptation to just update and delete. Being able to look back, compare, and identify your own professional progression will be one of the most informative aspects of the teaching philosophy journey.
How to cite:
Love, A.J. & Hitchcock, L.I. (2021, August 5). Writing your values-based teaching philosophy. Teaching and Learning in Social Work. https://laureliversonhitchcock.org/2021/08/05/writing-your-values-based-teaching-philosophy/
