Workshop - guiding current and future faculty to develop an effective teaching philosophy

A teaching philosophy is vital to conveying one´s beliefs about teaching and learning. Moreover, the act of writing a philosophy is a reflective act imperative for educators because it engages them in the process of critically analyzing and articulating their teaching beliefs. Yet current and future faculty are not often taught how to effectively write their own philosophies, despite the literature and resources available on the development, use, and evaluation of teaching philosophies. We have found that a workshop format in which we guide current and future faculty to develop effective teaching philosophies challenges them to think critically about their core teaching beliefs and provides a forum for them to write their philosophy. Our workshop is dedicated to not only promoting teaching and learning as a scholarly endeavor to current and future faculty, but serves as a guide for others to use in creating such workshops at their institutions. In our highly interactive three hour workshop we model innovative techniques in which to promote reflective teaching practices as well as disseminate our experiences in creating and running this workshop for six semesters.