Teaching statement: [Your name]
Replace the blue placeholders with your own words and delete the grey notes as you go. Aim for one to two pages, or the limit in the job ad.
Position | [job title, department, institution] |
Limit | [pages or words, and spacing, from the ad] |
Courses I could teach | [two or three from the department's catalog] |
Evidence to draw on | [syllabi, evaluations, observation notes, student work] |
Deadline | [date] |
Every belief needs a practice and a proof. For each theme, say what you believe, what you do in class because of it, and how you know it works. If you can't fill in the third part, pick a different theme.
Opening
One moment from your classroom, or one claim about your discipline, that already shows your central belief. No quotations, and no “I have always been passionate about teaching.”
[The moment or the claim, in two or three sentences] [The belief it shows, in one sentence]
See an example opening
On the first day of Social Statistics, I ask every student to bring me a number they don't trust. I believe students learn a method when it settles a question they already have, so the numbers come back in week 9, when each student tests theirs and explains in two sentences whether it holds. Last fall a nursing major brought a letter from her landlord: “Average rent in this building rose only 3 percent.” In week 9 she showed how that average hid the units that rose 20 percent. That is what I want from a statistics course: students who use the method to settle a question they care about, and who can say why the answer holds.
An invented example: the candidate, the course and the figures are made up.
Goals for students
Know: [the ideas students should understand by the end]
Do: [the skills they should be able to use]
Care about: [the habit or value you hope they keep]
How I teach
Two or three themes, one paragraph each. The bold first sentence states the belief; the rest shows the practice and the evidence.
[Theme 1: the belief, in one sentence.] [What you do in class because of it: an assignment, a routine, a policy] [How you know it works: student work, evaluations, results or an observation]
[Theme 2: the belief, in one sentence.] [What you do in class because of it] [How you know it works]
[Theme 3 (optional): the belief, in one sentence.] [What you do in class because of it] [How you know it works]
See an example theme
Make thinking visible, often and at low stakes. Students end each class by writing the least clear point on an index card, and I open the next class with the three most common confusions. Both midterms are two-stage exams: students take the exam alone, then again in groups of three for a share of the grade.
Belief, practice, evidence. The evidence here is the routine itself; add a result if you have one.
Assessment and feedback
[How you find out what students learned] [What you do with what you find] [One example: a rubric, a revision policy, a two-stage exam]
Inclusive teaching
Specific policies for specific students, not a list of values. If this already runs through your themes, delete this section.
[Who your students have been] [What you changed so more of them could succeed] [What happened]
Improving my teaching
[Feedback or an observation you received] [What you changed] [What happened next]
Teaching at [Institution]
Use the department's catalog. Name real courses, and one you would build.
Course | Level | What I would bring |
[course from the catalog] | [intro, upper level or graduate] | [one sentence] |
[course from the catalog] | [level] | [one sentence] |
[new course you would build] | [level] | [one sentence] |
Beyond the classroom: [advising, theses, mentoring or programs here you would take part in]
Closing
Two sentences. Return to the opening, or say what you want students to leave with.
[Closing sentences]
Before you send it
Every belief has a practice and a piece of evidence
The opening is a moment or a claim, not a quotation
No sentence could appear unchanged in another candidate's statement
The last section names this institution's courses and students
Within the page limit and spacing in the ad
First person and present tense; past tense only for stories
Read by someone outside your subfield
Exported to PDF with your name in the file name