BROD Cycle: Mapping your Teaching Philosophy

This article talks about my journey in updating my teaching philosophy. To date, this is my eighth year of teaching as a university lecturer. In my first year of teaching, my philosophy was “to organize and simplify the lessons to my students”. After 3 years of working guided with this simple teaching philosophy, I revisited and expanded it into one paragraph (see below).

Learning is never committing the same mistakes again. With this, teaching plays a role by providing inputs for continuous improvement to an individual. Committing mistakes and actually learning from it are the two powerful facilitators of continuous improvement. Thus, learning by doing and teaching by providing realizations go hand-in-hand for an individual’s holistic development. This is my teaching philosophy.  

This year, in response to the drastic changes in the learning landscape and in-line with my study in the adult education program, I decided  to elaborate my teaching philosophy. I hope that my experience in elaborating my teaching philosophy will inspire you to start creating or updating your own teaching philosophy. 

I call this process the BROD Cycle of Mapping a Teaching Philosophy. There are 4 stages (brainstorming, reflection, organization, development) and each stage has specific tasks. It is a cycle, hence, an educator goes repeatedly throughout the 4 stages at any point in his/her teaching career. It does not occur in a linear fashion – one can start with brainstorming then go directly to developing the teaching philosophy statement. Nevertheless, I suggest that you follow the 4 stages at your own pace to get the most out of the task in each stage.

Stage 1. Brainstorming

Read resources that will broaden your knowledge about teaching and learning theories. One book that I recommend is that of Merriam and Bierema (2013). In my case, I read the entire book. However, if you lack the time, I suggest you read the chapter on teaching and learning theories (chapter 2), then read another chapter that interests you.

In this stage, take note of those ideas that interest you and somehow reflect who you are and what you do as a teacher. You can create a table with two columns – the first column represents the contents you took note of and the second column represents your rationale for taking note of that idea. It will be helpful if you include the author and year so you can also have a timeline of the development of these ideas. As a brainstorming stage, learn as much as you want and just let your thoughts flow. 

This is where you cluster similar ideas. To facilitate alignment with a teaching-learning theory or philosophical perspective, add another column and label it teaching philosophy. In this column, write the theory or philosophical perspective that aligns with your reflection. You will notice that the theory/philosophical perspective reflects the idea in the contents column. Hence, the 4 columns represent the process of mapping your teaching philosophy by examining the dynamics of teaching-learning theory or philosophy and your preferences and/or experiences.

There may be different theories/perspectives that you will be able to write in the teaching philosophy column. To reconcile this, you just need to count how many times the theory/philosophical perspective appears throughout this column. The theory or philosophical perspective that has the most number of counts represents your dominant teaching philosophy. The remaining theory or philosophical perspective also represent your teaching philosophy but may be less representative of who you are as a teacher. In this case, it is your decision if you stick with your dominant teaching philosophy or be eclectic in your approach by incorporating other perspectives written in the teaching philosophy column.

Contents	Rationale	Reflection	Teaching Philosophy
John Dewey principle of continuity – learning is a lifelong process involving applying and adapting previous experience to new situations (1963/1938)	This is my concept on committing mistakes in order to learn and not commit the same mistake in the future.	In my research class, I let the students express their ideas in written form and support it with what is found in the literature. During the process, I provide feedback in terms of how to improve their written ideas. Committing mistakes from both the teacher and the student is welcome as both parties learn throughout the process.	Humanistic perspective: The learner has the capacity to direct his/her growth and the teacher facilitates that growth by providing resources and opportunities to learn.

Stage 4. Development

Start creating a draft of your teaching philosophy statement (TPS). TPS is a “systematic and critical rationale that focuses on the important components defining effective teaching and learning in a particular discipline and/or institutional context”  (p. 84, Schönwetter, Sokal, Friesen, & Taylor, 2002).

Six components of a teaching philosophy statement (Schönwetter et al., 2002):

1. Definitions of teaching and learning – clear definition of teaching and learning based on the literature and one’s personal reflection

2. View of the learner – characteristics and experiences of the individual which he/she brings in the learning environment

3. Goals and expectations of the student-teacher relationship – description of the evolving dynamics between the student and the teacher in the learning process

4. Teaching method and evaluation – description of the teaching-learning strategies which should be consistent with the first 3 components

5. Personal context of teaching – description of one’s personal goals and teaching style, and how it fits in a particular setting

6. Organization – well-structured teaching philosophy statement with its ideas consistent across all the components

I created my personal teaching philosophy taking into consideration the 6 elements of TPS. Developing TPS is an ongoing process and represents one’s progress throughout his/her teaching career. It is ideal to see your TPS as a continuous draft subject for revision; thus, the BROD cycle continues. At any point in one’s teaching career, the teacher engages in brainstorming, reflection, organization, and development of his/her teaching philosophy. In this process, I spent approximately 40 hours in the brainstorming stage, 40 hours in reflection, 40 hours in organization, and 40 hours in writing my TPS draft. In general, it took me 1 week to finish the task for each stage. My TPS is a draft, it will be subject for revision and updating as I gain more experience.

Sharing my teaching philosophy helps others generate their ideas for their own TPS while also providing me the opportunity to refine mine through exchange of ideas (Beatty et al., 2009). So, here you go – let me present to you my teaching philosophy statement.

My Teaching Philosophy Statement

Teaching and learning are inseparable components of the cycle of continuous meaningful experience [definition of teaching and learning]. Learning starts when an individual asks questions and embarks on finding answers to these questions [view of the learner]. Teaching occurs by articulating these questions into a personally relevant goal, systematically providing the learner opportunities and avenues to actualize the goal [teaching method and evaluation]. The teacher and learner collaborate to reach a goal [goals and expectations of the student-teacher relationship] with the learner monitoring his/her progress [view of the learner] and the teacher providing timely and evidence-informed feedback to the progress [teaching method and evaluation] while scaffolding towards the path of being a self-transformative learner [personal context of teaching].

Definition of teaching and learning

The definition of teaching and learning as inseparable components of the cycle of continuous meaningful experience reflects my eclectic approach borrowing from cognitivist, humanist, and constructivist perspectives. In a cognitivist sense, teaching and learning as inseparable components represents the goal of developing the capacity of the teacher and the student in learning how to learn –  teachers learn and learners also teach. In a humanistic sense, the cycle of continuous experience represents the drive of the individual for personal growth (Rogers, 1969) and the constant process of seeking knowledge – called in terms like scanning (Clardy, 2000), lifelong learning (European Commission, 2001), and principle of continuity (Dewey, 1963/1938). Finally, in a constructivist view, teaching-learning is a meaningful experience such that the individual makes sense of the teaching-learning experience by situating it into his/her own perspective and experiences.

View of the learner

The capacity of the individual to ask and find answers to his/her questions reflect the idea of self-directed learning – a learning process that the learner initiates and  evaluates (Knowles, 1975). The individual is aware of his/her learning needs and thus can deliberately engage in efforts to satisfy it. In this deliberate process, the individual regularly evaluates whether he/she is able to satisfy his/her learning needs and adjust accordingly – demonstrative of the capacity of the learner to monitor his/her progress. 

Teaching method and evaluation

Learning is heavy when there is a lack of the elements of (at least minimal) organization and structure. Without these 2 elements, the learner may experience cognitive overload (Kirschner, Sweller, & Clark, 2006). Hence, the role of the teacher is to articulate the learner’s questions into an organized structure so that the process of learning becomes visually available to the learner – a scaffolding strategy referred to as metacognitive thinking aloud (Brandt, 2020). The goal has to be personally relevant so as to activate a teachable moment (Havighurst, 1952/1972) – the facilitator connects the importance of the goal to the learner’s perspective and experiences in order to draw out intrinsic motivation (Ryan & Deci, 2000). Then, in consultation with the learner, the facilitator outlines the tasks, suggest resources, present the different avenues of actualizing the goal, and provide opportunities to test what has been learned – all these represent systematic ways of supporting the learner. Finally, the facilitator engages in timely and evidence-informed feedback to the learner’s progress through the use of online monitoring tools (e.g., progress forms, real-time sharing of outputs, automated reminders to the learner).

Goals and expectations of the student-teacher relationship

It is the goal of the learning process to arrive at a collaborative relationship between the teacher and the learner to reach the goal. Anchoring on the idea of self-directed learning continuum (Grow, 1991/1996), the teacher facilitates the student from being a dependent consumer of knowledge to being a self-directed learner leading his/her own project to generate knowledge. In this sense, the teacher and the learner honor each other’s knowledge and experiences which makes the learning process meaningful to both. 

Personal context of teaching

Beyond self-directed learning, I want to scaffold the learner towards the path of being self-transformative. It is my goal to cultivate their potential by presenting confronting ideas to challenge their existing knowledge, skills, and beliefs as a way to self-transformation. In self-transformative learning, the learner sees himself/herself as part of the community and thus learns and makes use of his/her knowledge and skills to transform himself/herself as a contributor (Moran, & Gardner, 2018) to the positive growth of society and culture. Self-transformation takes time and I envision that the learner finds meaning walking in this path.

Batara, J. B. (2020, September). BROD Cycle: Mapping your teaching philosophy. Available at https://flowjame.com/2020/09/03/brod-cycle-teaching-philosophy

References

Beatty, J. E., Leigh, J. S. A., & Dean, K. L. (2009). Finding our roots: An exercise for creating a personal teaching philosophy statement. Journal of Management Education, 33(1), 115–130. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562907310642 

Brandt, W. C. (2020). Measuring student success skills: A review of the literature on self-direction. Dover, NH: National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment. Retrieved August 18, 2020 from https://www.nciea.org/library/measuring-student-success-skills-review-literature-self-directed-learning  

Clardy, A. (2000). Learning on their own: Vocationally oriented self-directed learning projects. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 11(2), 105–125. https://doi.org/10.1002/1532-1096(200022)11:2<105::AID-HRDQ2>3.0.CO;2-5  

Dewey, J. (1963). Experience and education. New York: Collier Books. First published 1938.

European Commission (EC). (2001). Making a European area of lifelong learning a reality. Brussels: European Commission. Retrieved September 3, 2020 from http://www.acc.eu.org/uploads/LifeLongLearningCom.pdf 

Grow, G. O. (1991/1996). Teaching learners to be self-directed. Adult Education Quarterly, 41(3), 125-149. Expanded version available online at http://longleaf.net/wp/articles-teaching/teaching-learners-text/ 

Havighurst, R. J. (1972). Developmental tasks and education (3rd ed.). New York: McKay. First published 1952.

Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. E. (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching. Educational Psychologist, 41(2), 75–86. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep4102_1

Knowles, M. S. (1975). Self-directed learning: A guide for learners and teachers. New York: Association Press. https://doi.org/10.1177/105960117700200220

Merriam, S. B., & Bierema, L. L. (2013). Adult learning: Linking theory and practice. John Wiley & Sons.

Moran, S., & Gardner, H. (2018). Hill, skill, and will: Executive function from a multiple-intelligences perspective. In L. Meltzer (Ed.), Executive function in education: From theory to practice (p. 25–56). The Guilford Press.

Rogers, C. (1969). Freedom to learn. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25(1), 54-67. https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.1999.1020

Schönwetter, D. J., Sokal, L , Friesen, M., & Taylor, K. L. (2002): Teaching philosophies reconsidered: A conceptual model for the development and evaluation of teaching philosophy statements, International Journal for Academic Development, 7(1), 83-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/13601440210156501