I'm David Farmer from the

American Institute of Mathematics.

Today we're going to talk about the

teaching statement, which is one of the

components in an application for a

tenure-track position in mathematics.

Different institutions give different weighting

to the teaching statement in the hiring process.

Not surprisingly, this correlates

to the different weightings they give to the

value of teaching at their institution, and to

the different levels to which they consider

teaching in the promotion and tenure process.

Many teaching statements are permutations of

platitudes such as:

"I like to teach to the 'aha' moment", or

"I want all students to see the beauty of mathematics",

or "I believe all students can succeed".

While those statements may be true,

in this video we'll see that

a good teaching statement is a reflection

upon the teaching process,

showing your growth as a teacher,

supported by specific examples

of what you do in the process of teaching.

Helminck: Teaching statements are more often

read by the Dean than anybody else.

It's something they can understand.

If they read your research statement, they're

probably lost at the first or second sentence.

This is something administrators

will focus on when you talk with them.

It is important for Deans that you are a good

teacher, because they want the students

to be happy because it brings in tuition dollars.

Basor:  When I was on hiring committees,

I did read the teaching statements.

Some of them were very good.

Others said the same thing over and over.

What I was always looking for,

was someone who was going to be a good teacher,

but would also be able to sustain some research

at a place where the teaching load was high.

I was looking for clues in the whole packet.

I do have some thoughts about what should be in it.

Unfortunately, a lot of them sound the same.

People tend to say that their goal is

to motivate students to do mathematics and

to think in a critical way.

Those are not bad things to say,

and we do want that.

But they become repetitive and a bit boring.

My advice is to think about the

teachers that really helped you succeed.

Think about what they did, and to

give very specific examples.  Don't say,

"I want to teach students mathematics

by motivating them to understand why

mathematics solves real-world problems."

First of all, that doesn't work,

and the people reading these statements

are experienced teachers.

But what is really good is to

give examples of what you think helps.

Very specific things.

If you can think back, and think about

people that did that for you, and say why.

That can make a difference

in the teaching statement.

Koutsoliotas: I like that because one thing is,

if you don't have much experience in teaching,

you do have a lot of experience

being in a classroom.

You can talk about that,

even with limited teaching.

Basor: When you do that, even if

you are giving examples, no matter what the

examples are, it makes it seem like you've

given some thought to this.

You have given some thought to what is good,

and you're not just repeating the cliches.

Morrison: I think it's really hard to

avoid making your teaching statement just

a laundry list of platitudes and cliches.

I think it's a chance to be personal.

Maybe there is the danger of being too personal.

Some concrete story in your teaching statement

makes you come across as a person.

It is lot more engaging and interesting

for the people reading the statement.

I like to see that the person

writing the application has given some

thought to the process of teaching,

and maybe reflected on the process of

learning as a student.

Some concrete anecdote or description

helps bring that across.

I worry when I see someone who thought they

had figured out the perfect system for teaching,

whatever that happened to be.

I think seeing some flexibility,

some willingness to learn and adapt,

is a benefit.

I don't think there's any single way to do it.

Basor: But it is a place where your

personality can show through a bit, too.

It can be a real advantage, if you can

do it in a way that brings that out.

Koutsoliotas:  I think that's one of the

biggest criticisms, is that you read them and

you can't tell if a machine just generated

a bunch of random sentences in different order.

Morrison: You can find dozens or hundreds of

examples on the internet!

Koutsoliotas:  Right!  And that's my piece of advice:

don't read any other people's statements.

I think that just puts you in the

wrong frame of mind.

It's truly the thing that distinguishes you.

I think that's the thing that makes it

so hard to write, is that it's not the

actual writing, it's what you want to say.

You have to think about:  when you are in a

teaching setting, in the classroom,

what are the most important aspects you want

the students to take away from the course?

It could be a course in any subject.

20 years from now they may not remember

how to do the chain rule.

But what was it they enjoyed in that class?

What was the technique you gave,

or a perspective,

or something that you worked hard to convey?

Maybe it's a way to approach a problem.

Or maybe it is some skill that goes beyond

the content of what you are teaching,

and is common to many of the courses that you teach.

Probably this will be different for each of you,

and it takes time to think about

and figure out what that piece is.

But once you have it, you can really write

a very personal statement that rings true,

that says there is a human being behind this.

And anecdotes are important.

I can remember, "Oh, that is the person who

gave a lot of office hours and gave the students

step-by-step instructions, and then realized

that was the wrong thing to do,

even though she was getting great evaluations.

She turned it around and has been better at getting

them to learn on their own.  She struggled with

a few things that she has reflected on,

but feels like she is on the right track."

That tells me there's a person there

who's thinking about what they're doing and

is flexible, and is responsive, and

recognizes that teaching isn't a set of steps.

Sometimes you see these statements

(I hate to poison you)

that say 'The steps to good teaching are:

Step 1: do this

Step 2: do this

engage the student

define things clearly'.

It is not a recipe, and it can't be.

It's not how you teach,

it's how you interact with the students.

It is the students who are so different,

and how do you adapt?  That has to come through.

Helminck:  I like that.

It's about you, and not about some philosophy

you picked up from books or tried to reinvent.

It should be about your experiences.

Let me add something to what I said before.

While we don't ask for a teaching statement,

we care enormously about teaching.

It's extremely important that faculty

do well as teachers, but we feel we need

to mentor them to become good teachers.

A lot of people in applied mathematics

have been Research Assistants throughout

grad school and have had postdocs

without any teaching, and might not ever

have stood in front of a classroom.

We care a lot about teaching:

the department has won the university-wide

teaching award, which for a mathematics

department is unheard of. 

We have snapped up most of the teaching

awards for faculty.  We have lots

of faculty excelling in teaching,

but I really feel you don't have yet

the experience to be good teachers,

and so why should we ask you about the

philosophy of something you really

haven't had the time to develop?

So I feel we need to give you the tools to

get there as a faculty,

rather than expecting you're ready

to have invented the wheel.

Koutsoliotas:  In fact at our institution,

we don't look for teaching excellence,

we look for potential for teaching excellence.

We word it carefully in our job description.

We want people who, with enough time and

practice and support,

can actually be excellent teachers,

and enjoy doing it.

[Music]