Do your students know why you teach, how you approach teaching, and what is most important to you, as an educator?
Posted February 8, 2016
Do you?
By Analea Brauburger
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
As a firm believer in “show me, don’t tell me”, I always find it difficult to write about my teaching philosophy. However, teaching, to me, is not a career, vocation, or an occupation; it is a LIFESTYLE. Caring about students, connecting with them, providing guidance and support, and acting as a role-model is insurmountably important to me. I believe a true teacher walks the walk and lets her actions talk the talk.
For instance, in this course, you will receive feedback on your work promptly, you will not hear ANY excuses from me, and I will continuously admit when I do not know enough about a topic to provide sufficient information or advice (but I will always come back and provide more information in the next Module or Announcement). I do not make things up as I go along and I do not allow my personal life to interfere with your learning. Of course, that means I expect the same from my students. It’s not sufficient for me to ask you to do as I say, but instead, I ask that you follow my lead and meet me at that level and encourage me to elevate my game as well.
Student relationships are important in my course, not only relationships with me, but with other students. I believe we learn more as a group than as individual heads separately bobbing along and taking notes. It is important that everyone respects one another in this on-line classroom and keeps information within our group, especially when it is shared in confidence.
As a life-long learner, I will constantly share with you my new ideas, teaching tools I am discovering, and I will talk about classes I take to better my teaching practice. I share with you in hopes that you see that all of us can make the decision and dedicate the time to becoming better at what we do. I owe it to you and myself to always improve.
All of this being said, I look forward to an amazing experience in this course with you and look forward to learning as much from each of you as you can learn from me.
Perhaps you’ve moved away from focusing on the syllabus during the first day of your new quarter/semester, but if you are like most, you haven’t….and even if you have….you probably still try to ensure your students read the syllabus and take it seriously. It is your contract with them, right? As if the length of your syllabus isn’t already daunting, I’m going to ask you to think about adding a bit more, a Teaching Philosophy, geared towards students. Believe it or not, the Teaching Philosophy example above was created as a FAILED attempt at an assignment. Yes, one of my biggest successes in the classroom to date was actually a complete failure when I turned it in! Let me explain.
I was taking a year-long graduate seminar focused on the Community College student and best practices around teaching Community College students when an assignment came around to create a TEACHING PHILOSOPHY. The assigned teaching philosophy was supposed to be geared towards an audience of prospective hiring agents like Deans, Vice Presidents of Instruction, etc. Unfortunately, as I was reading all of the resources and thought I was following assignment directions, I created a teaching philosophy that didn’t quite earn me the grade I was expecting (yes, an A, just like our students expect when they do not follow directions, duh!). To my instructor’s dismay, I narrowly focused on the audience that REALLY matters to me (no offense to my Dean, of course): my students. Specifically, the students who just walked or clicked into my classroom or course. My teaching philosophy told them who I am, what I’m all about as an educator, specific ideals I expect from them and myself, and how I approach my own learning.
Yep, I failed the assignment. However, the teaching philosophy that I created for my students has become one of my greatest successes as an educator.
My teaching philosophy is not a template to follow, nevertheless, it is an example of the TYPE of thing that might just speak to your students about who you are as an educator and what they can expect from you and vice versa.
There are MANY examples of teaching philosophies out there (see resources below); however, most are directed towards employers and not students. I include my teaching philosophy on my syllabus and also include a graded syllabus quiz as part of my first week of work for students. In that quiz I always ask them the following question: What part of Analea’s Teaching Philosophy stood out to you? Why?
I’ve learned so much from their responses:
“The part of Analea's teaching philosophy that captured my attention was in regards to being a life-long learner. In particular the statement, "I owe it to you and myself to always improve." I find this very motivational and I also agree that learning does not stop with finishing school or this class in general. Learning for me is a lifestyle. I have chosen a career path that comes with a dedicated lifestyle and I look forward to learning new things daily. I apply the same philosophy to my hobbies as well. I am excited for this course and happy to have a teacher focused on the big picture of life in general. I look forward to learning more in regards to the psychology of the human experience. “
“I was impressed by the concept of teaching as a lifestyle. I appreciate this and think it shows a great deal of commitment. I’m glad that teaching feels like a natural and appropriate lifestyle to you, rather than a burden that might interfere with the rest of your life.”
“The part of the philosophy that stood out to me was about not letting personal problems interfere with my learning and how my problems should not interfere with Analea's class. What she expects from me should be what I expect from her.”
I hope you will consider adding a teaching philosophy to your syllabus and heck, maybe even a little low stakes quiz on your syllabus content with one question surrounding your new addition!
Bio
Analea Brauburger earned her B.S. in Psychology from the Barrett Honors College at Arizona State University. She then entered a Ph.D. program at The Pennsylvania State University where she focused on research related to emotion regulation in the workplace. She left PSU after the events of 9/11 to volunteer in the Peace Corps as a Water and Sanitation Technician. Upon return to the U.S.A, Analea joined Teach for America and taught in rural Louisiana at Northwest High School in Opelousas during hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Ike, and Gustav. She moved to Seattle, Wa, in 2009 and works at South Seattle College as a part-time psychology instructor as well as the school's Assessment and Continuous Improvement Coordinator. She has recently begun teaching for Tacoma Community College, as well, because their dedication to Open Educational Resources (OER) drew her in and now allows her to provide textbook free courses at two colleges in Washington State.
Additional Resources:
http://ucat.osu.edu/professional-development/teaching-portfolio/philosophy/guidance/
http://www1.umn.edu/ohr/teachlearn/tutorials/philosophy/samples/
