Writing a Teaching Statement for a Liberal Arts College

Writing a teaching statement was one of the hardest parts of putting together my first set of job applications. Fresh out of graduate school, I found it difficult to decide what the “right” teaching statement would look like. I am fortunate, after two years in a post-doc and three years as a visiting professor, to have ended up in a tenure-track job that includes close interaction with my students and a department full of wonderful colleagues. I teach in a joint mathematics and computer science department at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, a small liberal arts school in western New York. During my seven years at HWS we have hired three times for visiting professors (two math and one computer science) and once for a tenure-track computer scientist, which has given me experience on both sides of the hiring process. While I now know that there is no magical “right” way to put together a teaching statement, I do have some advice to share for someone writing a teaching statement for a job at a liberal arts college like HWS.

In my view, the teaching statement is the most important part of an application to a liberal arts school. The truth is that any posting for a mathematics position gets hundreds of applicants. On a first pass through reading applications, I focus most of my time on the cover letters and teaching statements. Partially this is due to time constraints, but it also reflects the values of an institution like mine. I care very much, if you are going to be part of my department, that you are an effective and thoughtful teacher. Here are some guidelines to keep in mind as you put together a teaching statement

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Be yourself. You know the advice that your mom gave you about making friends when you were in elementary school: “Just be yourself”? This is my number one piece of advice for writing a teaching statement for a liberal arts college as well. You are applying for jobs where you will be working closely with a small number of people. These future colleagues are trying to get to know you through your application materials to see if you would be someone they would like to work with for the next twenty years. There’s not a lot you can get about someone’s personality from a CV or a research statement, but the teaching statement is more personal. Let your personality show through.

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Be honest. Your goal with your application is to get an interview, sure, but your ultimate goal is to find a position where you will be happy. Don’t put things in your teaching statement because they are trendy or you think it is what people want to hear. Only put something in there if you truly believe in it and want to implement it in your classroom. If you have no interest in doing undergraduate research, for instance, then you don’t want to sell yourself on your great student research plans and end up in a job that expects you to spend every summer mentoring students.

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Be honest (part 2). It is easy for teaching statements to come off as generic—filled with platitudes about teaching that all sound the same. Your best defense against this is to write about the things that you are actually passionate about. Don’t worry about what you think the school will want to hear—you can’t know that anyway. Write about what actually gets you excited about teaching.

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Be specific. Wherever possible, back up your statements with anecdotes from your own teaching experiences. Include stories of successes you’ve had in the classroom or challenges that led to changes in the way you teach. This shows that you are reflective—that you have really thought about how you teach, and it is another way to avoid sounding too generic. If you have some activity or classroom technique that you are particularly proud of, make sure to highlight that.

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Be enthusiastic. What excites you about working at a liberal arts college? This one is often addressed in a cover letter, but it could also have a place here. What about your teaching is specific to the liberal arts environment? Maybe you have ideas for cross-disciplinary classes. Maybe you are excited about teaching a class on voting theory to non-majors. In any case, there is a reason you are applying to jobs at a school like mine and I want to know what that is. We are concerned that a candidate knows what they are getting into with this job because we want them to be happy and to stay with us. This is especially true if you did your undergraduate and graduate training at large public institutions, and so have no first-hand experience with a liberal arts school. What excites you about this type of job, specifically?

The main point is that the teaching statement is your chance to show the person reading your application what kind of colleague you will be. Use the space to express your values about teaching and about education in general—specifically the education on offer at a liberal arts college. Be your wonderful self. You’re going to do great, I believe in you.

Jennifer Biermann is an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Her email address is biermann@hws.edu.

Article DOI: 10.1090/noti2730

Credits

Photo of Jennifer Biermann is courtesy of Chris Scheper.