Here are some examples of what a written Philosophy of Teaching and Learning might look like in the context of a fellowship application. Example phrases have been highlighted.
Associate Fellow (AFHEA) example
Note that at 191 words, this text is rather short. You can write up to 400 words!
Key motivators driving me as a tutor are my own memories of teachers who made a difference, and my concern for the pressures that today’s students have to work under. I had a wonderful high school teacher who always gave me feedback in a great way, even when I was not really producing to my capacity.
I also had a really tough lecturer when I was a first-year student, who wouldn’t let us slack off as learners, but always reminded us of why we were studying. In my approach as a tutor today I have both those teachers often in mind, and that makes me work hard to treat each student as an individual wanting to become a professional in my field rather than as a ‘knowledge machine’.
I am also conscious that most students pay very high fees to study at university, so I try to make sure that at least my students receive ‘value-for-money’, and are really treated like individuals with different needs and strengths. My tutoring is also driven by my constant desire to learn more about what I am researching, because teaching helps me do that.
Fellow (FHEA) example
This text counts 292 words, which is an adequate length. However, you can write up to 400 words if you like!
Key motivators driving me as a teaching academic are my own memories of teachers who made a difference, and my concern for the pressures that today’s students have to work under. I had a wonderful high school teacher who always gave me feedback in a great way, even when I was not really producing to my capacity. I also had a really tough lecturer when I was a first year student, who wouldn’t let us slack off as learners, but always reminded us of why we were studying.
In my approach as an academic today I have both those teachers often in mind, and that makes me work hard to treat each student as an individual wanting to become a professional in my field rather than as a ‘knowledge machine’. I am also conscious that most students pay very high fees to study at university, so I try to make sure that at least my students receive ‘value-for-money’, and are really treated like individuals with different needs and strengths.
My teaching is also driven by my constant desire to learn more about how to communicate what I am researching, because I am passionate about my discipline and want my students to feel the excitement of primary research. A compelling influence on me as I have moved into running my own courses has been the notion of ‘servant leadership’, as discussed by Robert Greenleaf and Larry Spears (2002) in ‘Servant Leadership: A journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness’.
It seems to me that in our courses, every convenor is a ‘leader’ and yet also a ‘servant’ in terms of making sure their students are well supported as learners. I try to remember this when students ask the ‘same old question’.
Senior Fellow (SFHEA) example
Author: Dr Chris Browne, SFHEA, written in 2021
I believe that education is the single most important endeavour that I can contribute to to improve society for the next generation.
The types of problems that today’s students will encounter over their professional lives will be—as we have seen with the generations before them—increasingly complex, increasingly fragmented, highly uncertain, require a critical imagination to comprehend, and not limited to any domains of knowledge.
My teaching philosophy is based on approaches that provide agency to students to discover for themselves the ways of knowing required to navigate the unseen problems of tomorrow.
..agency… Critically important to the development of a safe and inclusive learning environment is to develop a student’s sense of agency within their context of learning . Agency within the classroom or within 1 the parameters of course activities is required to allow students to tailor their learning to their interests and draw connections between the academic knowledge and the real-world application.
..discover for themselves… Learning only occurs in the learner’s mind. The higher-level thinking skillsof integration, sense-2 making and design required to navigate complex problems are best handled through a probe-senserespondprocess of learning. Learning this process is more important than the knowledge 3 gained through any one iteration, and empowers students to become life-long learners.
..ways of knowing… No one discipline or set of experts owns exclusive rights to the solution space of problems in the ‘swampy lowlands’. These problems require deep technical expertise to comprehend, and then an 4ability to interface with and integrate alternative ways of knowing: from the arts, to the sciences; from the ancient to the future. Developing an evolving repertoire of inclusive mental modelsof 5 understanding is a key skill for students to develop.
..unseen problems The education that students today receive typically has a useful half-life of about 10 years; 6however, so much of our education effort is geared towards transferring this content. Developing transferrable process skills such as navigating unknowns, overcoming ignorance, and managing uncertaintywill allow students to better navigate unseen problems over their professional and 7 research careers.
ie as seen in the maker movement, Papert’s constructivism, and Martinez & Stager
1 ie Bloom’s Taxonomy; Biggs’ SOLO taxonomy
2 ie Snowden & Boone’s Cynefin Framework
3 ie Schon’s swampy lowlands of professional practice
4 ie Argyris & Schon’s double-loop learning 5 ie Arbesman’s half-life of facts
6 ie Bammer’s Integrative and Interdisciplinary Sciences (i2s) 7