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[smbriver]

I've got a campus interview at an R2(?) (top state and research school in a small state) at the end of the month.  In addition to a 40 min. research talk, I have to give a 20 min. presentation on my teaching philosophy.  The latter will be attended by faculty, grad students, and undergrads.  The presentation will conclude with Q&A from undergrads only after faculty and grad students leave the room.

First, in my field I don't think this is normal.  Is this Teaching Philosophy presentation just a regurgitation of the statement I submitted with my application?  Are they expecting something more?  Is there a way to juice it up, and include something new that I couldn't put in my statement? I think that reiterating what I had in my statement would be fine, but including something new would catch they eye of the SC.

Have any of you had to give something similar?  Are there guidelines for such a talk? My Academic Job Search Handbook is in the office, and I want answers ASAP - I'm already starting to fret. 

Any info in experiences or sources would be greatly appreciated!

[endy70]

Why don't you teach something that applies your philosophy to the classroom situation? That way, you can SHOW how you embody your teaching philosophy rather than TELL about it.

[helpful]

I agree with the previous poster. Do the teaching philosophy. Don't talk about it! So you would do it, then you would refer to it as you talked about the philosophy afterwards.

What is your (general) discipline?

[smbriver]

What is your (general) discipline?

I'm in ecology

[helpful]

Is that ecology in Biology or Environmental Studies?

[smbriver]

Aquatic/fish ecology.  The interview is with a Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Department

[offthemarket]

This is uncommon enough that you should ask your contact on the search committee.  I am sure they have some expectations about format, content, and so on.  You might want to have an idea what those expectations are.

I typically have questions about a normal job talk - length, technical breadth of audience, academic level of audience.  These are always greeted with detailed answers.  So, feel free to say "I've never seen a teaching philosophy presentation and it would be useful to know something about your expectations."

[not_a_gradstudent1]

I had to do something like this (but at a SLAC). I used about half the time to expound on things I said in my teaching philosophy statement and the other half to speak more practically about how I put that philosophy into practice when I design/teach courses. For that, I used one of my sample syllabi as a visual aid (I brought hand-out copies, but overhead transparancies would have worked as well), which went over well. The Q&A was pretty tough - they asked about a lot of things I hadn't really thought about before and went back and forth between philosophy and practice - but not at all hostile.

[smbriver]

I was told by the SC chair that this 20min Teaching Philosophy seminar was supposed to be just that, an overview of my teaching philosophy so that faculty and students who haven't read my statement can get a feel for it.  It is not supposed to be a lecture.  FYI.

[anon99]

I've never heard of this and I am in a very similar field.  If they don't want you to do a lecture, could you bring a sample syllabus and use it to discuss examples of how you would apply your teaching philosophy to that course?

[soylentgreen71]

grad student 1,

Hard questions like what?  I have the same thing to prepare for this Thursday!

[not_a_gradstudent1]

I posted some of the questions I got in another thread...IIRC, it was on teaching-related interview questions.
Some of the questions were about specifics of particular classes or "how would you handle" scenarios, which just called for quick thinking. The harder questions were the "big picture" ones - why do you like teaching college students/what's your favorite part of college teaching; what is the #1 lesson you want your students to take from your classes and remember 10 years down the line; if you had a budget for bringing outside speakers into your classes, who would your top three choices be and why; can you tell us about professors you've had who've inspired your teaching philosophy; etc.

[smbriver]

I've never heard of this and I am in a very similar field.  If they don't want you to do a lecture, could you bring a sample syllabus and use it to discuss examples of how you would apply your teaching philosophy to that course?

I've never heard of this before either, until this interview.  I plan on citing and explaining some examples in the seminar.

grad student 1,

Hard questions like what?  I have the same thing to prepare for this Thursday!

In this specific case, only grad and undergrad students will remain in the room to ask questions (weird).  Since I will have had individual meetings with most faculty prior to then, most won't really have a chance to ask questions - the only meetings I have after this seminar are with grad students, the search committee, and an individual meeting with the SC Chair.  So, I guess faculty on the SC will be able to ask questions.