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Julie Edwards: but we'll take this time to get settled another mayor. Oh.
Julie Edwards: one of Mark's former students.
Julie Edwards: that's a mark, is mark is one of our presenters, who always has a little fan club. so there's always somebody in the chat who who knows?
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Julie Edwards: Well, we are right at the top of the hour. So we're gonna go ahead and get started. So I am Julie Edwards. I'm a librarian and instructional designer with niche Academy, and I would like to welcome you to this webinar on developing a compelling teaching philosophy statement.
Julie Edwards: So we'll get to the webinar in just a bit, but I wanted to start by quickly introducing Niche Academy. We are an easy to use all in one learning platform that helps libraries create and deliver effective training and measure learner's success.
Julie Edwards: So our software is the perfect tool for libraries. Looking to increase your E resource, usage, deliver information, literacy, instruction, and measure student success as well as provide training for patrons and staff, including your student employees. So if you're interested in learning more about our e-learning solution or chatting with a member of our team, or here, hearing what your colleagues and other academic libraries have to say.
I will drop a link in the chat so you can learn more about us.
Julie Edwards: So we are recording this webinar today, I will make the recording, the slides and the chat and audio transcript available to everyone after the presentation. You'll get an email from me in a few days. So be on the lookout for that.
Julie Edwards: If you would like to turn on closed captioning. You're welcome to do that on your zoom screen.
Julie Edwards: Please feel free to talk with each other in the chat, share philosophies, share teaching experiences, but if you have a question for Mark Aaron, please use the question and answer box in zoom. Things can get lost in the chat, and I'll have an easier time moderating the Q. A. When the questions are in the Q. A. Box on zoom.
Julie Edwards: So this webinar series is part of our commitment to solving bigger problems together and providing continuing education in the library space. I am so happy that you've joined us today, and you can see our upcoming webinars, including webinars specifically targeted to meet the needs of academic librarians on our blog. I will include the link to that in the chat as well.
Julie Edwards: So, without further ado. Our presenter today is Mark Aaron Poger. Mark Aaron is an academic librarian and information literacy instructor who has been working in libraries since 1,992. He received his Mlis degree in 2,000 from the University of Western Ontario, and is the coordinator of Library Outreach at the College of Staten Island City, University of New York.
Julie Edwards: His research interests include library marketing, outreach, and Ux design. He's the author of several books, including library marketing, basics and library signage and wayfaring design, communicating effectively with your users. And he is currently working on his Phd. In the Graduate Department of Education at the University of Buffalo, Sunni.
Julie Edwards: With that I am happy to welcome Mark, and I will turn the webinar over to him.
Mark Aaron Polger: Hi, everyone, and good afternoon. Thank you so much for choosing to attend this webinar, developing
Mark Aaron Polger: a compelling teaching philosophy statement. So I will be presenting you with samples and a template and kind of showing you some of the steps and some of the components in developing and composing this awesome, compelling, powerful teaching philosophy statement.
Mark Aaron Polger: So a little bit about myself, although Julie did do an amazing introduction. And hopefully, all of you see the agenda. let me know if you don't see the agenda. So just gonna go in the chat. I want to make sure that all of you can see the agenda.
Mark Aaron Polger: Okay, please let me know in in the chat if you can. But okay, I'm assuming you all can. So I'm going to briefly introduce myself. Really, briefly, also, talk about what a teaching philosophy statement is, I'm going to just call it Tps, but I I will spell it out. I'm not lazy, but sometimes it's just easier to write it out as Tps at teaching philosophy statement.
Mark Aaron Polger: Why bother, you know. Why is it important? What? What's the point in creating a teaching philosophy statement to begin with? And then going through these self reflective questions to ask about what would you
Mark Aaron Polger: want to include in this teaching philosophy statement? Then I'm going to kind of create.
Mark Aaron Polger: I want to make sure to provide some type of foundation by talking about 5 learning theories very quickly. So I'm not. Gonna I don't want to waste your time in talking about learning theories, but just, very, very, very briefly summarize the main. There are so many learning theories. But I'm going to just going to very briefly summarize 5
Mark Aaron Polger: and then talking about breaking down the components or the the parts or pieces of a teaching philosophy statement and then talking about some of the technical or logistical specifications when you're composing this teaching philosophy statement. And then, finally, I have some links to some samples, and I'll show you a link to my own teaching philosophy statement. And then I'm going to conclude.
Mark Aaron Polger: okay, so,
Mark Aaron Polger: okay, I should be wearing my glasses. But yeah, I think I could see. Okay.
Mark Aaron Polger: next.
Mark Aaron Polger: So I I am an academic librarian in the Cuny system. The Cuny is the City University of New York. It's a public university system in New York City, and as an academic librarian, and as any library worker, we can all agree that we wear multiple hats. We we kind of occupy
Mark Aaron Polger: different professional identities. So and and and everywhere I've worked I've always like I've I've had different kinds of roles, and that, and any position that I've had is always been very, very, very different. So in my institution I am the the marketing person. even though marketing is not my background. I am the marketing outreach pr person.
Mark Aaron Polger: I'm also an information literacy instructor. We have one shots. We have one shot sessions as well as full semester credit pairing courses. I'm just gonna go in the chat to make sure that it's all okay. Good. Good. Good.
Mark Aaron Polger: Oh, okay. You like my bio photo? I don't know. It's okay.
Mark Aaron Polger: Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so I I am a reference librarian. But I'm also an instruction librarian. I teach one shots. I I do want to mention, and some some some of you might agree. When I when I was in library school I was never taught how to teach. So that's also like a complicated that you know, a lot of us. we have to teach whether they're one shots or or full credit bearing courses, and we have no
Mark Aaron Polger: instructional knowledge. Right? So I I'm not. I'm not a teacher. I I'm not. I am not trained as a teacher, you know. So that was, you know I. So I'm I'm kind of in a way. I feel sometimes that my professional identity is like kind of like imposter syndrome where you know I'm I'm I'm working as as somebody who's teaching, but I I don't have like a teaching background, and I don't have
Mark Aaron Polger: you know, official, you know. I mean I I do now. But I at the time when I obtained my mls, you know I didn't really have any kind of experience or any kind of formal training as a teacher, and I did not receive formal training as a as a teacher in in library school. So so you know, I I have all these kinds of professional identities, and I and and and a lot of you shared this with me that
Mark Aaron Polger: you know you might be a lease, all librarian in a particular academic department that you have no experience, and I I was a I was a hospital librarian, you know, for for for many years, when I was living in Toronto, in in Canada, I was a hospital librarian. I had no background in health sciences. So you know, I definitely felt, you know, quite uncomfortable. So we we were. We were many hats. Sometimes we're experts
Mark Aaron Polger: as we're not. And so, as you can see, we kind of occupy different identities. And we we come to the library classroom from a lot of different academic backgrounds and experiences. We we have, you know, when we when we get the Mls, whether you do
Mark Aaron Polger: at the the the library technician degree, and we have. We have a library technician, a program in Canada, and of course, in the United States. I don't believe there is one I I could be wrong, but when when you come
Mark Aaron Polger: to to the library classroom, when you come to the reference desk, you, you come to to that space with a tremendous amount of life experience, and a different
Mark Aaron Polger: like different academic backgrounds. So my background is sociology. So my my bachelors and masters are in sociology. And then, years later, many, many, many years later, my hospital, the the medical library that I worked in they paid for me to do an education degree, so that I'm very grateful because of that. I had no formal training in teaching.
Mark Aaron Polger: So I I as as many of you we learned how to teach on the job. So I mean, I think that's something that is probably resonates with a lot of people.
Mark Aaron Polger: I'm completing my Ph. D. In education, in the learning sciences, learning about different learning theories. And I'm at the graduate school of education at the University of Buffalo, part of the Sunni system, the State University of New York. Now, what's interesting is that my my Ph. D. Which I'm going into my eighth year? I hope to finish 8 years a long time.
Mark Aaron Polger: My dissertation is a library science dissertation. So my dissertation is all about
Mark Aaron Polger: academic librarians, teacher identity, which is what we're talking about today. And also how faculty perceive that teacher and teacher identity which they don't. So I mean just summarizing what my Phd, my research is that you know, we all encompass this kind of teacher identity. Because we teach, there's no question about it that academic librarians are teachers, their educators, they provide an educational role.
Mark Aaron Polger: However.
Mark Aaron Polger: how do faculty perceive us. How? How do others outside of the university outside of Academia, perceive us? Well, the the short answer is, they perceive us in a clerical position, which is, there's nothing wrong with that. They do not perceive us as teachers. They perceive us as helpers. But that's not what we are. We. We're we're more than helpers. And so that's really a in a nutshell. What my dissertation to research is.
Mark Aaron Polger: and I think, as educators, we have the choice to reveal through storytelling some aspects of our personal cells. in in our teaching. So one of the teaching methods which which is storytelling is, you know, really connecting with your students by disclosing parts of your personal life. You don't have to. It's up to you. what you want to reveal what you do.
Mark Aaron Polger: I don't want to share. But that's just that's one technique that might be part of your teaching philosophy statement that you're using storytelling as as as a method or a device to connect and to engage with your students.
Mark Aaron Polger: okay.
Mark Aaron Polger: so number one, what is the teaching philosophy statement? I would argue, it's it's a, it's a, it's an operational document. It's a living document. And it's kind of like a guide that documents your personal beliefs and values about teaching and learning. It's self reflective in nature.
Mark Aaron Polger: and it is a narrative, and it really gives wonderful examples of how you teach, what you teach, why you teach and what what teaching means to you.
Mark Aaron Polger: So
Mark Aaron Polger: it should be visual. You don't have to include pictures, but it should have. It should be a depiction of again.
Mark Aaron Polger: what what education means to you? What are your goals as an educator?
Mark Aaron Polger: What are your goals for students like? What? What are your, what are your intended goals for what students want, what you want students to accomplish, and also giving as many specific examples of your teaching techniques and methods.
Mark Aaron Polger: A teaching philosophy statement could be. Now again, it's personal. So if you're teaching philosophy statement could be one page that's perfectly fine. Normally, it's between one to 4 pages, and it's written in the first person, and it's written presence tense. I will be repeating that a lot, because repetition is one of my teaching methods. It's the way that I teach. So again, first person narrative, always written in in the present tense
Mark Aaron Polger: and the different parts of your teaching, philosophy, philosophy, statement, include, your your goals and values, as well as the different teaching methods and strategies that you use. And of course you want to conclude it with assessment. And when I'm talking about assessment activities, do you use for students? And what type of assessment do you do to to assess your own teaching?
Mark Aaron Polger: Okay?
Mark Aaron Polger: So why bother? Why, what's the point? well, a teaching philosophy statement is important, because it really guides the why you teach
Mark Aaron Polger: what you're teaching and how you do it. So it really focuses on the why, what and how It also provides a framework, and it informs your teaching, and it informs your teaching techniques. And I, I use the word roadmap or operational document, but it also conveys your teaching goals and your abilities and your values. I'm repeating a lot of concepts over and over because they're very, very important.
Mark Aaron Polger: It also summarizes your personal belief. So I want to emphasize the word personal.
Mark Aaron Polger: A teaching philosophy statement is personal. There is no right or wrong way of writing it, and you can write it. You can write a teaching philosophy statement, for, like, you know, working at the reference desk, because you can argue that you know some reference. Transactions are a form of teaching.
Mark Aaron Polger: You can also write a teaching philosophy statement for a one shot when you're doing a one saw a one-shot information literacy session, or if you're teaching a whole credit bearing semester long course.
Mark Aaron Polger: a teaching. Philosophy statement is specific to what you define as teaching, and it also summarizes your personal beliefs because everybody is different, and they might be informed by different theoretical lenses. That means that every person would have their own unique ideas about teaching and learning.
Mark Aaron Polger: Now, here's the practical. A teaching philosophy statement is really good when you're applying for tenure or promotion, or if you want to include it in your teaching portfolio. I wrote up my teaching philosophy statement for one of my doctoral courses, and I wrote it. And I I have it on my website like, years after I got tenure. But I think it would have been a really good document to include. And in your 10 year packet.
Mark Aaron Polger: Okay? So here's some questions for self reflection. When you're starting to plan to write out your teaching philosophy statement. So what are your general beliefs about education in general? So what do you think is the purpose of education? And what are your general and specific teaching goals and objectives.
Mark Aaron Polger: and you have to decide how much of your personal life do you want to reveal? So if if one of your teaching methods is storytelling which I happen to love. I love using storytelling as a way of connecting to students.
How much of your personal life do you want to reveal?
Mark Aaron Polger: And how much do you not want to reveal? And that is personal, and what theories? And I'll talk very briefly about the 5 what theories are informing your teaching and provide the theoretical backdrop to how you teach. What does your ideal classroom look like? So classroom management is really important. I'll talk very briefly about classroom management and what types of different learning activities do you use in the class?
Mark Aaron Polger: And I want to mention the in person class, or the virtual class that you have on zoom. So whether you teach synchronously or asynchronously, or whether you teach in person there might be different activities that you're going to be using in an in person class versus a virtual class. And of course, the last is what types of assessments do you use for students? And what types of assessments do you do to kind of measure your own teaching?
Mark Aaron Polger: Okay, so we're going to go through this really quickly. And I will go back and forth in the chat, just to make sure that you can all hear me. Don't have to see me, but as long as you can hear me. So I just want to make sure.
Mark Aaron Polger: Okay, okay, so people are chatting with each other. That's a good thing. Okay? So I I want to mention that learning theories are borrowed from other disciplines. outside of education. So learning theories are borrowed from like philosophy, the word from education, the work from psychology. They they don't only come from from education, they're bored from different disciplines. So I'm going to talk very briefly about 5 learning theories.
Mark Aaron Polger: and and I want to mention that you can mix and match you don't have to like. Commit to one of them. You can think like it could be kind of like a Smorgasbord where you're like. Oh, well, I think my teaching is kind of a mix of this and a mix of that it could be kind of a mix of different theoretical perspectives. So cognitive constructivism. one of the theorists that is connected to that is, is, jeop pigee.
Mark Aaron Polger: and sometimes it's known as co cognitivism. Or again, or cognitive constructivism, which basically means is learning is constructed through cognitive processes, right? So that relates a lot to to the environment. It doesn't relate to interacting with people. It relates to like living your life in in the environment and kind of learning by
Mark Aaron Polger: by kind of taking in all of these mental processes. So learning is constructed through interacting with your setting. And you're constructing meaning based on your pre existing knowledge, living the world and taking it all in, and what I mean by taking it all in it. It's absorbing information through your senses right? So seeing and hearing, and smelling and tasting and touching, and making sense
Mark Aaron Polger: of all the different senses in how you're taking it. Information and how you are mentally processing that information is known as cognitiveism, and so knowledge is in in your brain is a series of mental maps, and those maps are making sense of what your kind of all that information that you're taking in through the different senses.
Mark Aaron Polger: So one of the things about about this, that I, that I know is the concept of memorizing which I don't believe memorizing is learning. But you know memorizing might be on the way to learning. I don't. I don't think it's. It's an example of learning, memorizing. It just means you're remembering something. But I would say that memorizing something is is sort of in in alignment with cognitive
Mark Aaron Polger: constructivism. Because you're using a concept, and you're you're kind of repeating it over and over and over again with the intention of making sure that it kind of goes into your long term memory. And so I think memorizing is something that would be more in the line in the area of cognitivism.
Mark Aaron Polger: now the another another one, which is one that I am more connected with is known as Social Constructivism. Social constructivism is aligned with the theorists of love, the Gutsky and Jerome Bronner. So learning.
Mark Aaron Polger: learning through social constructivism, is all about constructing meaning and learning through interacting with people. So that means that social constructivism comes from the word social. So it means that it's very collaborative. And then you're learning by like, for example, learning with group work. Right? So in a classroom, if you if you have like.
Mark Aaron Polger: teams or group work, that is an example of social constructivism that you're learning by interacting with other people. They're learning from you. You're learning from them. And that exchange is is part of social constructivism. And in this particular theory. The teacher is not depositing information right in in that kind of in another theoretical way. In this way
Mark Aaron Polger: the teacher is the facilitator who is providing this kind of access to information. And instead of just kind of disseminating or depositing information, they facilitate learning through an interactive social process. So learning is social, it's interactive. It involves many people meaning you're not learning alone. Right? So self directed learning is more connected to hydrogeny. I judge A,
Mark Aaron Polger: it's at a learning. So at alerting. 30 is. It's a drag, a tragedy. I I'm not pronouncing it correctly. I apologize, but I'm going to get to it very soon, so for me. A lot of my own philosophy is based on social constructivism, because that's part of what I believe. My teaching
Mark Aaron Polger: and my teaching methods and my goals are based on this particular theory. Levigotsky is very famous for the zone of proximal development. You can Google that and the
Mark Aaron Polger: the Z z z z zone of proximal development. Z. Pd.
Mark Aaron Polger: Is part of constructivist theory. So you have theories which are very big and grandiose. And then you've got concepts right? So instructional scaffolding that also might be part of social constructivism as well as the zone of proximal development that is theorized by Lev. So you got theories. And you've got concepts. I would say, concepts kind of go under theories.
Mark Aaron Polger: Okay.
Mark Aaron Polger: behavioralism. I'm sure you've all heard of Bf. Skinner. So this one is also interesting, because I also I also
Mark Aaron Polger: resonate with this type of theory, too. Behavioralism is that you're L when you've learned something, it changes you. And I think it changes your behavior, and I think that it's very powerful. So one of the things that that is really key part of behavioralism is motivation and positive reinforcement. Now, this is the small thing that I do in my class. I try to remember everyone's name.
Mark Aaron Polger: I smile.
Mark Aaron Polger: and I thank them for coming to come into class if you try to remember their name, especially if you have something like more than a one shot like a a whole semester class, and you really try to to smile. Thank them for being in class.
Mark Aaron Polger: telling them how how their presence is a valuable addition to being in class, I can tell you that changes their whole behavior. So in this particular theoretical perspective.
Mark Aaron Polger: behaviorism is all about. When you learn something, it changes your whole mindset. It changes your behavior. So learning is a reaction and a response to stimuli. And that means that some of the teaching methods that I use that really that are aligned with behavioralism are is repetition.
Mark Aaron Polger: Sometimes it drives students crazy, but sometimes it makes students more relaxed because they know that I'm going to repeat myself, and they're happy because they forgotten something, and they're happy that I'm repeating it. So they're actually like relieved. It actually decreases their anxiety. Some students. It drives them crazy, and they don't like that. I repeat myself. providing motivation and positive reinforcement provides a sense of encouragement.
Mark Aaron Polger: So providing a safe space and a safe community and providing a welcoming class environment emotionally changes their behavior. To make students feel more motivated, makes them feel more welcome. It makes them feel more included.
Mark Aaron Polger: So I kind of like, take a little bit of behavioralism. And I definitely applied in some of my in my teaching philosophy statement as well. Now, Connectivism is a little bit newer. Connectivism is using a lot of different prior kind of older theories. And it it basically argues that learning is done
Mark Aaron Polger: piecemeal through different connections. So I, I haven't really invested a lot of time in connectivism. But basically what it is is using technology, technology is a tool that connects different pieces of information together.
Mark Aaron Polger: and that means that those connections known as nodes, those nodes are pieces are including, you know, for example, like learning, by reading, watching a video going on the Internet going on a web page going on a podcast go being involved in in a, in a group like group collaboration. All of those pieces or nodes
Mark Aaron Polger: together really help the learning process, and those types of nodes or pieces connect together in forming a whole learning experience. So that means that
Mark Aaron Polger: Connectivism relates to using multimedia, so not only relying on text, but also using different forms of multimodal experiences to teach a particular concept, so that those pieces. And in this case, I'm thinking, multimedia, they kind of come together and converge, and they form like a more holistic.
Mark Aaron Polger: complete learning experience. I do. I try this a little bit. I do include videos because students always complain. They don't like to read, and I don't know why, but in in in, you know, higher education, they they should read, and they don't want to read, and this is both undergraduate and graduate level
Mark Aaron Polger: classes that I teach. I teach. I teach in 2 Mls programs, and I teach undergraduate students, and they all complain that they want to read. So I'm I've included different multimedia that would not replace a textbook, but that would supplement a textbook. And so I'm just giving them different options, and that is also aligned with Connectivism.
Mark Aaron Polger: Finally, and Dragoji not pronouncing it my, my bachelors of education that I did like almost 18 years ago
Mark Aaron Polger: my bachelors of education was an adult education. So this is the type of theories that I learned that adult learning theories are all about being self directed, being intentional, being proposive, meaning adults want to learn be for practical reasons. They they learn for the purposes of problem solving. And they ask why they're learning something.
Mark Aaron Polger: What is the reason why they have to learn something? So I I would always say that adult learning theory is all about practicality. And it's all about relevance, right? They they're learning for a particular reason, and that all of their their learning needs to be self directed and proposive.
Mark Aaron Polger: One of the things that relates to Adult learning is known as experiential learning, experiential learning styles learning styles is another theory on its own. It's been It's been criticized as as is not being legitimate. But I you know I don't want to get into that. But
Mark Aaron Polger: David Cole. David Cole developed the experiential learning styles the learning styles inventory, so that kind of goes under adult learning. It also goes under experiential learning, which experiential learning is just learning by doing right.
Mark Aaron Polger: And and I I believe I believe that in all my classes my learning activities are all about doing right. It's very much about experimental learning that the best way of learning. So this is my example, and this is a very practical example. You could learn how to write a bicycle by reading a manual right? So you can read a manual. You could read instructions.
Mark Aaron Polger: You can watch somebody teach you how to write a bicycle. You can watch a Youtube video, right? So there's all different ways of learning how to ride a bicycle. But I think, and this is just my thought that the the best way of learning how to ride a bicycle is to practice writing a bicycle right? So like, in other words, do it. but I I don't want. I don't want to dismiss other ways that I think like learning how to write a bicycle by reading reading a guy
Mark Aaron Polger: or watching Youtube video or watching your friend or relative do. It is perfectly fine, too, but I think that for me my philosophy would be The best way of learning how to do something is to actually go and do it. So that relates to like database searching, doing a Google search kind of exploring the references on Wikipedia.
Mark Aaron Polger: going and kind of evaluating a citation, and and so th the best way is is practicing. So for for me, of course, everyone is different.
Mark Aaron Polger: So here are the components of a teaching philosophy statement. So again, I'm just. I'm just kind of abbreviating as Tps. But I will be spelling out teaching philosophy statement. So in your teaching philosophy statement, you want to include your teaching values and beliefs which, again, are very personal
Mark Aaron Polger: and what to you is the the meaning of education? What is what is the meaning of education? According to you? Remember always right in first person.
Mark Aaron Polger: and always right in the present tense.
Mark Aaron Polger: Also, your teaching philosophy statement could change right? So it is a living document, and you definitely can update it.
Mark Aaron Polger: Another thing to you want to include? Are your teaching methods right? How you teach? Right? So what are some of the teaching methods that you use in the classroom, whether it's the in person classroom, or the online classroom. What theories have informed your teaching? I just mentioned 5 of them. There's many more. What are what are the teaching goals at the end of the lesson at the end of the semester at the end. So what? What? What are your end? Teaching goals?
Mark Aaron Polger: And what are the goals for your students? Because you want to have your own personal teaching goals, and you want to have goals for your students, and then types of assessment. Whether you're choosing summative or formative assessment. I'll talk about that in a few minutes. So I I will talk about some examples of summative and formative assessments. And then, of course, what are the types of assessments that you're using for students? And then what are they all? What are the assessments that you're using to
Mark Aaron Polger: to evaluate your own teaching effectiveness. And then, finally, how do you visualize your ideal classroom environment?
Mark Aaron Polger: Okay, so here's just a an example. So in your now again, your teaching philosophy statement could be like one pages 2 big. It could be up to 4 pages. Right? You don't. It doesn't have to be 20, you know. it could be anywhere between one and 4 pages. So what are your general beliefs about education? And
Mark Aaron Polger: why did you pursue teaching? And how is teaching a fundamental part of your job? Right? So as an academic librarian teaching is part of my job, it's not my whole job. It's part of my job. However, I do identify as an educator. Right? I don't have
Mark Aaron Polger: you know. I, at the time of of graduating from my library science degree. I did not have an education
Mark Aaron Polger: background. It didn't have an education. It didn't have any formal education in in in education.
Mark Aaron Polger: but over the years. I did so, you know, you might want to reflect, you know. Why did you become, you know, an academic librarian? How? Because again, I I do believe that, you know, even like public librarians teach, it's a little bit different. But you know, I think that you know librarians are natural educators.
Mark Aaron Polger: maybe maybe more so, more formally in in an academic environment where we do classes and but but definitely public library, all librarians of all different
Mark Aaron Polger: fields teach, but teaching might look different in a public library, or a special library, or a museum, or archives, or in in my experience as a as a hospital librarian. It might be different.
Mark Aaron Polger: you might want to document like, what is your unique teaching style? So you know part part of my teaching style, and and you might want to identify it, as you know. Like I I use repetition, you know. It's just. It's part of my thing, and I know that before the pandemic every week that I taught
Mark Aaron Polger: my handouts are multicolored. So it was. It was expensive and a little bit crazy, because my, my my University didn't pay for it, but I would every week would be like color coded. So that means that every week students expected different handouts in a different color. So they knew that. Oh, if I was teaching this particular concept, go to the orange paper because the orange paper would be focused. So again.
Mark Aaron Polger: color coded handouts is, you know, whatever it's just, it's it's my, it's it's part of my my teaching philosophy. I want everything to be colorful and fun and memorable. So, in other words, how do you make your teaching memorable? What is something unique about yourself, about your teaching style? Now there are a lot of books published on, you know, like some librarians use humor. I don't. Some librarians use sarcasm, I don't, you know. So
It's like, what do you use in the classroom that is indicative of your personality and is indicative of your unique teaching style.
Mark Aaron Polger: You may not have the answers today, and that's perfectly fine. And, of course, what part of your personal life do you share? And what do you not share? So you know, just as as an example, as an example. When I when I lost my spouse over 10 years ago. Obviously I did not share that with my with the class. it was private was personal, you know, and
Mark Aaron Polger: you know you you might. You might agree with me. Teaching is a performance. So, even though I might have had a horrible few years in a horrible, crappy years. No one knew right? And so you you might have a rough time in your life, you know we all of us experience, you know, happiness and sorrow.
Mark Aaron Polger: but you don't always have to share it. So you know, just at, you know, for and I. I'm sharing this with you today in a webinar. But I definitely didn't share that with my students. I I it was just. It was not appropriate. So creating some boundaries of what you want to share
Mark Aaron Polger: and what you don't. So you know, I'll share my age, you know. That's fine. I'll I'll share that I'm Gen. X. I'm you know. I I I'm from Canada. I I should let me run from Canada. I grew up with the original de grassy from the seventies and eighties, not not the one with Drake. So, in other words, you know, I'm trying to connect with students now. my students are Gen. Z.
Mark Aaron Polger: And and there was a time when students were Gen. Y. Millennials. But you know millennials are close to 40 now, so you know, millennials are not my students anymore. But you know I so most of my students are Gen. Z. So you know some of them may not. To grassy, you know some of them may not. So you know, you want to connect with them by having some common cultural kinds of connections.
Mark Aaron Polger: I'm from Canada. Canada is not that different than United States? but you know some some students and I, I live in New York City, some students. my pick up. I have a slight accent. I don't think I have an accent. I've been living in New York City for
Mark Aaron Polger: 15 years. but you know so so they might pick up something. So find some common pop culture references that you might want to share like, maybe you want to share your music tastes
Mark Aaron Polger: nothing wrong with that. You don't necessarily want to share all aspects of your personal life, but you want to share some things because you want to be able to connect with students on, you know, on a deeper level. That is kind of beyond the course, right? So you might want to reveal some things and some things you you might not want to reveal, because it's not appropriate professionally, it's not appropriate. So you know I I have a one of a rules is is
Mark Aaron Polger: I, I will add students on Linkedin, but not like Facebook or Twitter or Instagram. So that's like something in my mind. It's like, okay, so it's okay. And and also I also have another another kind of thing where? I have a student. And you know, I know one of one of the one of the participants. It knows me from Seneca College. I I I taught at Seneca College, I would say like 18 years ago.
Mark Aaron Polger: and I have a student from 18 years ago who I'm still in touch with. So she she text me and and we text each other. And we, we email each other. But I I wouldn't do that with the current student. I would. Because this is from like, 18 years ago, actually, it's actually going on 19 years ago.
Mark Aaron Polger: So that's okay. I. I've been away from Canada for like 15 years, and I haven't worked at Santa Cruz, you know, like since the early 2,000. So it it's it's okay. So you know. So in other words, establish your own parameters of like what you want to be able to reveal in terms of okay? Well, you know.
Mark Aaron Polger: no Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram. But maybe okay for Linkedin. That's okay, you know. So again establish those types of boundaries.
Mark Aaron Polger: Okay, other components of a teaching philosophy statement, what are your methods? So this part is fun, because these are all about methods. So some teach some teachers. They they they teach more in a monologue, you know, some that it's more of a dialogue. It's more like a lot of a lot of discussion some people use a Socratic method over. They constantly ask questions. Some teachers use instructional scaffolding where? I I use. I use scaffolding with. For those of you who don't know.
Mark Aaron Polger: Instructional scaffolding is a technique where you're you're
Mark Aaron Polger: supporting students. And it's sort of like handholding. You're supporting students through a learning process, and then you let go right? So so, for example, you know, I might kind of guide them through the process of citing a citation and Apa. But then I test them and they can't use scribber. They can't use citation machine. They can't use
Mark Aaron Polger: any like automatic citation generator. They have to do it on their own, so scaffolding is all about supporting them through the process and then letting go critical pedagogy is really part of a teaching philosophy where you are. I'm kind of identifying the
Mark Aaron Polger: The inequity is the racial and gender and different inequities in in education and teaching from a lens of being critical of
Mark Aaron Polger: everything. So I am not an expert in critical pedagogy or critical librarianship or critical information Literacy. so I'm not an expert on it. So I just, you know. But that might be your lens of teaching right? So that might be the way that you teach where you're, you know, being very aware of capitalism and systemic racism and homophobia and
Mark Aaron Polger: all of the different structures in our society that will press people and using different teaching methods to really unpack and dismantle some of the inequities. that really separate people. And yeah, so that it that's a whole webinar in itself. So
Mark Aaron Polger: Now, part of your teaching methods may also include self directed learning that you're learning on your own or group work. I do a mix of both. I like using team based learning and group work as well as having students work on their own. I also use a lot of multimodal compositions. So that means that I create weekly lessons, not only using text. I use video
Mark Aaron Polger: podcasts. I use infographics. I use a variety of non text type of media, and that is known as multi modal compositions. You're you're using multimedia technology to teach because you want to be inclusive, that not all students like text. In fact, a lot of my students don't like text at all. They they don't want.
I like to read
Mark Aaron Polger: now. Game based learning. I haven't used game based learning. You're using games as an educational strategy to teach something. So using the principles of games, the rules of games, policies of games as a way to teach more complex concepts.
Mark Aaron Polger: experiential learning. I do this constantly. I always want students to learn by doing it themselves, not just listening to me talking about it, not just, you know, watching like a demonstration. But the best way of learning, in my opinion, is to actually practice to actually do it.
Mark Aaron Polger: And I just want to mention that your teaching methods might change in an in person versus an online environment, right? So whether you're teaching online synchronously or asynchronously. Your teaching methods might shift a little bit because you're in a different. You're kind of in a different format.
Mark Aaron Polger: Okay, so theories. So I talked about 5 basic theories. There are so many more. and you don't. You don't have to use the theory. You can use a concept. You can use concepts. You don't have to use theories. You can also mix different theories together. So, for example, you know, I like a little bit of behaviorism. I like a little bit of social constructivism, and I kind of like to mix them in my teaching. So you
you you're allowed to mix different theories together. You don't have to commit yourself to one theory.
Mark Aaron Polger: and your theoretical l lens may change. You're not committed, and you have to stick to one specific type of learning learning theory, and also your learning theories might change in in different environments. So, for example, one of the frameworks that I use when I'm teaching online is the Coi. The Coi stands for the community of inquiry. It's an instructional design framework that I use specific
Mark Aaron Polger: for my online classes. And I would say that it's sort of a mix of cognitiveism where there's 3 concepts of the social presence.
Mark Aaron Polger: the kind of like the the the the teacher presence, and I think there is, an there's there's 3. There's the teacher presence, the social presence. I think there's there's another presence. There's 3 different presence, and they're all very cognitive in nature, and they kind of merge together, and what they inter they intersect to kind of form a really, hopefully, a very positive
Mark Aaron Polger: online learning experience. When you combine the the, the, I think it's the teaching presence, the course presence and the social presence being social meaning how students interact with each other online, how students interact with the course content and how students interact with the teacher, those types of presence? which is a social presence really, really
Mark Aaron Polger: contributes to a very positive, engaging, online learning experience, but also the teaching presence. What does the teacher do? What do? What do they do to really facilitate a welcoming, you know positive learning, experience. And then you have the the, the presence of the course management system, whether you use blackboard or sakai or moodle, or you use canvas? how is that?
Mark Aaron Polger: course management system or Lms learning management system? How is that designed? How is that? How is it structured to really promote and foster? a positive learning experience with students?
Mark Aaron Polger: So I I just want you to think about how does teaching in person and online shift or change. And if you have to kind of use, a different theoretical lens when you're teaching in person versus teaching online, you may not have to. Okay. I want to make sure I'm not running at a time.
Julie Edwards: Yeah, I was just gonna jump in and let you go in time. Check. Okay, okay, fine. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, okay, I'm gonna go really quickly. Okay, you need to set yourself your own goals as a teacher. So what do you want your students to learn? What are your learning out outcomes and learning objectives? Set your own teaching, your your own teacher goals, realistic goals. That's number one.
Mark Aaron Polger: And then, of course, you want to set goals for your students. Right? So, for example, I want to, I want students to develop critical thinking skills. Always, I want them to to question information. I want them to be better researchers. And I also, most importantly, I want them to really avoid plagiarism. So sat really quantifiable identical goals that you want to set up for your students in each of your classes, whether it's a one shot, or whether it's a credit bearing course.
Mark Aaron Polger: here are some of it. Some types of student assessments, so formative assessments take place during the course and summative assessments take place at the end of the course. Right? So design. Decide whether you want to choose formative or summit of assessments, and in your assessments do you prefer, you know, multiple choice questions which again easy to grade. But
Mark Aaron Polger: I would argue, students aren't learning from them. But again, multiple choice questions want to to repeat myself. They're super easy to grade, but I don't think that they actually measure learning. So whether you want to choose short answer questions, open-ended questions, close, close-ended multiple choice. What types of assessments do you want to use? So just as one example, I don't. I don't have a research paper because students plagiarize so instead for my courses, I have an ad.
Mark Aaron Polger: No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Bibliography is much easier, because it's because students, just the plagiarism is just like less of a problem when you're doing an annotated bibliography as opposed to kind of writing a research paper. I strongly believe in flexible deadlines. I never, ever, ever give firm deadlines, and whenever students submit their assignments late, I never did that grades ever, ever ever so, because I don't believe in deadlines.
Mark Aaron Polger: I believe that the deadline is the end of the course. Right? So I'm just very, very flexible, because I want students to have a positive learning experience. So those are
Mark Aaron Polger: some of the things now assessing my own teaching. So when you want to assess your own teaching, you might want to video, record yourself. You might want to ask for student evaluations. You might want to ask peers or your supervisor to observe you in class. So you want to be able to to kind of reflect in your own teaching. But you also want to have feedback from other other people, specifically peers. And also your supervisor.
Mark Aaron Polger: Okay? So your ideal? No, this is also interesting, too. okay, I'm gonna go really quickly for classroom management. The only policy I have is They can eat what they want like in person. I don't care if they eat. They just can't be on their phone right? Because I think it's just it's beyond obnoxious. But it's also it's also like rude. And and it's just it's inconsiderate. So they can take as many cell phone breaks as they want
Mark Aaron Polger: right as long as they, as long as they're not on the phone. No texting, no talking on the phone, but they can eat what they want. I don't care what they eat. Some teachers they don't like food right? Like food is a distraction. I I think I think students should eat so I'm very much about. Eat like they can eat what they want. They can interrupt me. I don't care. As long as it's related to the class they can interrupt me, but they can't be on their phone like that's a No, no.
Mark Aaron Polger: And I also want to make sure that my the class environment allows everybody to ask questions. Every question is a smart question.
Mark Aaron Polger: and they should never feel embarrassed to ask a question, and I always repeat that every question is a smart question. Students should never be afraid, and I want to be able to foster interaction amongst learners, and I don't want somebody to dominate the conversation, because that is a problem. And I also want to make sure that it's an inclusive and respectful class environment, and that everybody feels respected and they feel they feel comfortable and they feel safe.
Mark Aaron Polger: And I want to balance both independent students who want to work independently in a self, directed manner and teamwork. So I want to be able to to have that type of balance, and of course, incorporating udl universal, diverse done design for learning to make the learning experiences. accessible to all students, students with disabilities, students, just students. I want to make sure that there is equitable access to
Mark Aaron Polger: to to accessing the the the learning activities. Okay, I'm going to finish
Mark Aaron Polger: technical specifications. Always write in first person. Always write in the present tense, avoid jargon, use plain language and also use specific examples to illustrate your teaching philosophy, your teaching methods and your teaching values. You could compose a teaching philosophy statement for a one shop session for a reference desk, cons for research, consultation.
Mark Aaron Polger: for reference desk interactions as well as credit bearing courses. So you can write different types of teaching philosophy, statements. And whenever you can always cite learning theorists who have informed your teaching practices.
Mark Aaron Polger: Okay? So you were, you were going to be getting this hand out which is going to be sent as a Pdf.
Mark Aaron Polger: And there are some links to some teaching philosophy statements. So you'll be getting this. I I've included some links to actual sample teaching philosophy statements. And I want to conclude I'm going to actually also include my own teaching philosophy statement on my website, which I'm going to show you. But here's how I want to conclude, because I can't believe I finished on time. Your teaching philosophy statement is a living document that needs to be continuously updated.
Mark Aaron Polger: It articulates your views, your values, your goals, and your objectives on the purpose of education.
Mark Aaron Polger: And it also outlines your teaching methods. You're teaching practices and your assessments. But I want to mention a teaching philosophy statement. Is not your Cv.
A teaching philosophy statement talks about why you teach.
Mark Aaron Polger: what are you teaching and how you teach? It's not listing things like a Cv, and it describes your unique teaching personality, your Ne unique teaching practices and your unique teaching characteristics. Okay, so my teaching philosophy is right here. It's Mark Aaron polder.com forward slash teaching hyphen philosophy.
Mark Aaron Polger: I'm sorry that I ran out of time. I was rushing the last few slides. I apologize. I'm sorry, Julie. and I just want to look at the Q. A
Mark Aaron Polger: okay? Someone answered.
Mark Aaron Polger: okay. So Julie answered that. Okay, you're welcome.
Julie Edwards: Okay? So yeah. Oh, sorry. Go ahead.
Mark Aaron Polger: No, no, no, no. You go ahead because I wasn't there any questions? But you go ahead. I was going to encourage people to put questions in the Q. A. If you have any for Mark Aaron. okay, and I want to thank you for this wonderful presentation. I have a question to start off with. So do you recommend, with the steps or the pieces that you include in the teaching philosophy statement.
Julie Edwards: Do you recommend chunking those into discrete sections or making sort of a one-flowing narrative document?
Mark Aaron Polger: Oh, that's a good question. okay. So I I love. I'm going to answer Cynthia's question.
Mark Aaron Polger: I love chunking text into like bullets. But I think that the best practice is that you're teaching philosophy. Statement should be should be a narrative. It should be a narrative. mine is a narrative, but I also like bullets like I. I like bulleted lists like I'm a fan of of chunking text into bullets. So I it's it's it's very personal. It's up to you?
Did I answer your question?
Mark Aaron Polger: Yes, that's great. Thank you. And you're seeing. Yeah. So you're new to teaching. Okay? And come to education of corporate. Where would I find more information on learning theorist theories? so
Mark Aaron Polger: I I hate to say, like a like a A, a Google search. But I could, I could definitely email you, if you want to email me, I could recommend some some books that would give an overview of some learning the theories for sure.
Mark Aaron Polger: I, I, yeah, I'm just an I'm literally an email away. I'm really good with email and very reliable. I'm very good with email. But yeah, I have a lot of books in my mind. that I can recommend to give you a basic overview of different learning theories. But I think it's also personal, like, in other words, like thinking about. You know. What does teaching mean to you? What does education mean to you? And and I've provided you with 5 main like major
Mark Aaron Polger: theories. It. It also depends on your students. Right? Like, who are are they traditional students? Are they non traditional students. I think it just depends. But you know, I I I to say a simple Google search would do But I think that you know that might
Mark Aaron Polger: be helpful of someone's distance. Okay, hold on a second. Okay. So to me, I hope I answered your question, just email me, email, me, I'm I'm so good with the email. It's simple to build because I am in a what no, Gabriela Gabriel. you can. You can build a teaching philosophy statement in a one shot. I I I promise you, can, I promise you, can a teaching philosophy statement is not only for credit bearing courses.
Mark Aaron Polger: you can use it for a one shot, because a one-shot you have a lesson. You have a learning objectives, you have. You have goals in a one shot, whether you're one. Try to 60 min, 45 min or 90 min. So I would say, you can definitely definitely, yeah. Yeah. So, Gabriella, you can definitely build a Tps on a one shot and anonymous attendee. Should a Tps always include citations at the end, I would say yes.
Mark Aaron Polger: I would say yes.
Mark Aaron Polger: you should include citations at the end of your teaching loss fee statement
Mark Aaron Polger: you're using, my my understanding would be you're using cited literature that you're citing the particular theories, particular methods. So I would say, yes.
Mark Aaron Polger: What is the benefit of building a T for a one shot? Because I think it informs and forums how you would go about teaching a one shot that like what? What are the important components that you must include in a one shot. So I think having a Tps for a one shot informs, informs how you would build that one shot. You only have like 45 min. Some people have 60 at my school. We have 90 min, but you know you want to be able to create a one shot that is not generic. And so I think a Tps, a teaching philosophy statement.
Mark Aaron Polger: What? What kind of help you on, what? What concepts you need to include, what teaching methods you need to include, what you're not going to include.
Mark Aaron Polger: So I would say that there's a lot of benefits. I think it. It informs, especially especially a one shot, because a one shot you have such you. Time is not on your side. So therefore, ha! Having a teaching philosophy statement would help focus on what you need to include in that particular one shot lesson.
Mark Aaron Polger: Okay?
Julie Edwards: Fantastic. Any other questions from Mark Aaron.
Mark Aaron Polger: Oh, and yeah, you you could do it. A teaching velocity statement. For like for for for each one shot that it's a lot of work, or you might just do like as a as a general for general, one shot in person a general one shot
Mark Aaron Polger: online through zoom synchronous. You might. You might. So you might do a more generalized teaching philosophy statement, or you might do something specific. It's all personal. Some teaching philosophy statements are very, very specific, and some of them are more or more general.
Julie Edwards: Would you recommend including this in a job application packet, even if it wasn't asked for
Mark Aaron Polger: That's a good question.
Mark Aaron Polger: probably probably not. I'll tell you why, because I think that employers don't really read in depth
Mark Aaron Polger: like narratives. I think they they scan a Cv.
Mark Aaron Polger: And they look for keywords to see if you if you've had that experience. When I think about a teaching philosophy statement, I think about you included in your in your teaching per portfolio you included in your 10 year packet. But I don't know if you don't. If you would want to include it in a job application. I think I I'm worried that it might be they. Your employer might not look at it.
Mark Aaron Polger: Great! It's just my, it's my fantastic. And I think we have time for one more question.
Julie Edwards: There's one in the chat, or the what obstacles have you encountered being a Tps, if any.
Mark Aaron Polger: Okay,
Mark Aaron Polger: they're they're lofty goals, and I can't. Always. I can't always reach them. So that's it's more like a disappointment, I guess. that. I think I think that a teaching philosophy statement you have these these like lofty, you know, big picture kinds of goals.
Mark Aaron Polger: but I think the obstacle is you can't always achieve all of those, because, you know you have very limited time and a one shot, and sometimes your your classes are not successful. Right? There's a lot of other external factors that might affect the success of a class, and it's not about your teaching. It might be about the weather. It might be about the fact that the classroom has no Internet, you know. So
Mark Aaron Polger: when would you need to build a TV or a one shot for an evaluate purposes?
Mark Aaron Polger: I I would say you would. You would build the Tps, purely as a as a self, a self, reflective exercise. It's all for you, I would say that a teaching philosophy is all about you. It's all for you. It's not, you know. Yeah, you you would include it for 10 year and promotion.
Mark Aaron Polger: I didn't. But you could. But I think that a teaching philosophy statement is is all about you. It's all about helping you become a better teacher. And just reflect on on your teaching.
Julie Edwards: mit Ctl, and thank you so much, Mark Aaron. This was fantastic. You're getting some. Thank yous in the chat. We really appreciate your expertise and experience and your time and sharing this with us. One.
Mark Aaron Polger: of course.
Julie Edwards: Thank you so much for taking the time to come. Thank you for for choosing to come to this webinar. So thank you.
Julie Edwards: Yeah, there's been a great no, no, no, not at all. There's been great responses in the chat, great conversation, just as a reminder to everyone. I will be sending the recording and the slides and the chat and audio transcripts in just a few days. Thank you all for joining us. Check out our blog for future upcoming academic library webinars. I think we've got Mark Aaron coming again. I don't remember if late this year, early next year. But
Mark Aaron Polger: keep your eyes open for that, and we'll see you all in the next. Webinar. Have a great day, everybody?
Mark Aaron Polger: Okay, thank you, Julie.
Mark Aaron Polger: Thank you.