Presenting yourself as a scholarly teacher

In the review of your teaching practice you have described yourself as a teacher in terms of what you do. Now think about why you work the way you do. What guides you to teach as you do. What is your philosophy of teaching? What do you believe are the elements of good teaching and how do you prioritize them? What is unique to your teaching? What makes you the teacher that you are.

Scholarly dissertations begin with an hypothesis or statement, an argument which the writer then goes on to argue or defend. Your portfolio will begin in the same way, you are presenting the evidence of your practice as a scholarly teacher.

The literature says that, "Good teachers demonstrate an ability to transform and extend knowledge, rather than merely transmitting it; they draw on their knowledge of the subject, their knowledge of their learners, and their general pedagogical knowledge to transform the concepts of the discipline into terms that are understandable to their students. In other words, they display their pedagogical content knowledge. ... Good teachers show respect for their students; they are interested in both their professional and their personal growth, encourage their independence, and sustain high expectations of them" Ramsden, Margetson, Martin & Clarke. (1995)

The authors of this report could take a statement such as this, personalize it and use it as in introductory statement to their teaching portfolio.

Your introduction will outline the discipline specific aspects of your approach to teaching and your response to your students these two elements provide the context for your reader. In this section will explain your basic pedagogical philosophy and how you put that philosophy into practice. This is where you make your argument (your case) about the nature of your teaching; what follows will be the evidence to support your claims and illustration of the context in which your teach. The following headings are a guide to the type of material you may wish to include. They were not designed for a teaching portfolio they were developed by the CAUT Project, Reflecting on University Teaching. These CAUT headings will help you identify the elements that constitute your teaching framework or teaching philosophy. See Sample Portfolio Guidelines for ideas in relation to portfolio headings.

This project has now been published; Roy Ballantyne, John Bain and Jan Packer, (1997) Reflecting on University Teaching: Academics' Stories, DEETYA, Canberra. The report contains the stories of 48 academics. As part of the project a database was created of the responses to this set of headings by 700 academic staff and it was from these that the 4 8 were chosen. You can browse this data base Reflections to see for yourself the variations and similarities between Australian university teachers chosen by their institutions as exemplary teachers.

Developing a teaching philosophy

Use these headings and questions to explore your own approach to teaching. Write out your answers as these will provide a useful bank of ideas upon which to develop your final presentation.

Describe:-

• your nominated teaching practice:
• Describe and explain what you do when you teach and why you do it in this way. What aspects of the teaching process do you perceive to be important? What type of learning do you aim to achieve and how do you go about accomplishing this? Refer to the aspects of teaching practice you have indicated above.
• the context in which you undertake your teaching practice.
• With what level of students have you used this approach? Is it relevant to a particular size or type of student group? Does it require special equipment? Have you developed this approach in response to a specific need or problem? What aspects of your institutional environment have facilitated or hindered your use of the approach? What problems have you encountered with teaching in this context and how have you overcome these?
• the effectiveness of your teaching.
• How do you monitor student practice - by formal assessments and or other methods? If you use these methods other than formal assessment, what do you do and what do you look for? How do you determine that the desired learning is taking place? What formal assessments do you prefer? Why? What aspects of learning are they suited to and why are those aspects important?
• the processes you use to review and improve your teaching.
• What type of feedback have you received from students and or colleagues about your teaching? Have you altered your approach in the light of that feedback? If so how and why? What other information or analysis do you use to guide improvements to your teaching. Why is that information/analysis helpful?
• how scholarship informs your teaching.
• What factors or experiences have influenced your general ideas and approaches to teaching and learning. What has influenced or informed your teaching, reading, workshops, staff development activities, conferences attended. What is the most significant change you have made as a result of this learning? Is this discipline related or arises from the student learning literature?
• how you have contributed to the scholarship of teaching.
• Have you shared your ideas with other university teachers? If so, with whom, how and with what results? or workshops you have presented; mentoring or peer review activities in which you have been or developmental discussions in which you have participated.
• your general views on teaching and learning?
• What are your general aims in teaching? What do you believe constitute effective teaching and effective student learning in your discipline or teaching area? What do you hope your students will gain or accomplish from attending your courses?

References:

Ballantyne, R. Bain, J. and Packer, J. (1997) Reflecting on University Teaching: Academics' Stories, DEETYA, Canberra

Ramsden, P. Margetson, D. Martin, E. & Clarke, S. (1995) Recognizing and rewarding good teaching in Australian higher education, Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching, Canberra.