Expressing your teaching philosophy in 10 words can be a short but powerful way to reflect on your teaching values and practices. We asked the recipients of Oakland University’s 2024 Teaching Awards to share their Teaching in 10 Words, plus a little more on those 10 words. Learn more about the awards, which are coordinated through the Senate Committee on Teaching and Learning.

Be a part of Teaching in 10 Words. See dozens of short teaching statements, and share your own.

Take field trips.

Scott Tiegs, Teaching Excellence Award

The educational benefits of field trips are well documented, but the frequency of field excursions has been in a state of precipitous decline in recent decades – especially since the pandemic. My teaching tip is to buck the trend and routinely incorporate field trips into your curriculum. Hands-on learning experiences outside the classroom provide an immediate and impressionistic understanding of the subject matter that can help students develop a personal relationship with it. Beyond their educational benefits, field trips are opportunities to visibly engage the broader OU community (e.g., off-campus service learning), and they can be an antidote to problems with commuter campuses (e.g., by fostering meaningful friendships among students). Because they can be highly enjoyable, field trips are sometimes perceived as lacking in academic rigor, but when positioned in the broader context of the course material they can be powerful educational tools that elevate the quality of our courses.

Inspire student’s drive to acquire knowledge and apply it.

Mary Bee, Excellence in Teaching Award

A professor’s greatest responsibility is to inspire students in a way that makes them open their eyes and see beyond typical conventions. Teaching requires a balance between instruction and observation, lecture and silence, praise and constructive criticism, leading and being led by the students. I strive to not only teach the material, but to nurture wonder and reverence for the subject in all my students. Effectively engaging students and involving them in the learning process stimulates interest in the material and increases their desire to explore. “Real-world” clinical vignettes, for example, enable students to consider what they would do if they were Emergency Room physicians standing before an ailing patient. During a conversation involving the patient, the symptoms and subject matter blossoms, and students become engaged to a degree difficult to attain with a more traditional lecture format. Students eagerly absorb these clinical vignettes, synthesize the anatomical facts and relationships covered in class, and think creatively about the relevance and application of their knowledge that will lead to them saving and bettering the lives of their future patients.

We are all wounded; be tender with each other.

Marshall Kitchens, Online Teaching Excellence Award

The college writing classroom is fraught with self-doubt. We conflate our writing abilities with self-worth, and college students entering the writing classroom agonize over their own sense of identity and value, making themselves vulnerable with multiple overlapping fears about rejection. I’ve latched on to the mantra to be tender with my students -- and for them to be tender with each other. As I developed as a teacher in the computer-writing classroom as well as the online classroom, I focused on the ways that technology can be used to build community and create understanding among classmates and between instructor and students. I focus on encouraging students to treat each other kindly and point out the positive aspects of each other’s works, as well as helping each other to grow as writers. My path has been one of excitement and wonder, and I’ve been privileged to interact with so many engaged students and colleagues.

Save and adapt a Google Doc version of this teaching tip.

Image by Madeline Shea, created for CETL. Others may share and adapt under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC. View all CETL Weekly Teaching Tips.