Teaching Philosophy Statement

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To complete the AT Program, you are required to write a Teaching Philosophy Statement. To fulfill this task, you will need to:

  • Write your own teaching philosophy statement (see below);
  • Submit your teaching philosophy to a faculty member in your department for feedback, along with the Teaching Philosophy Faculty Verification form.
  • Once you receive feedback from your designated faculty member, submit the following items electronically to atprogram@georgetown.edu:
    1. 1. your original draft;
    2. 2. faculty comments on the original draft;
    3. 3. your revised draft; and
    4. 4. the signed Faculty Verification form.
  • Receive feedback from CNDLS; and
  • If necessary, revise and resubmit final version to CNDLS.

Deadlines

It is recommended that you attend the Teaching Portfolio Workshop before completing your Teaching Philosophy statement. Your teaching philosophy statement must be submitted first to a faculty member in your department and then to CNDLS for review. After review, CNDLS will provide feedback and you will be notified if any changes are required. Remember that if graduating, you are required to submit all teaching task materials no later than the final deadline of your graduating semester (see Submission Schedule).

Suggestions and Expectations 

A teaching philosophy statement is a short narrative (usually two pages or less) that includes reflective commentaries focused on particular teaching episodes. Your teaching philosophy statement should create a coherent picture of your classroom teaching practice. A teaching philosophy statement often includes your conception of teaching and learning, a description of how you teach, and justification for why you teach that way (in particular, you ought to think in terms of evidence). You should draw on concrete examples from your time as a teacher or as a student.

The core AT workshop "The Teaching Portfolio" will be helpful to you as you design the required teaching philosophy statement and optional teaching portfolio. In addition, we strongly encourage you to consult this page from Cornell on teaching philosophies while preparing your statement.

Resources 

Please see our "Resources" page for ideas for composing your teaching philosophy statement, or for thoughts on how to put together a teaching portfolio.

CNDLS