In this context, what would be the best explanation of the statement of the need or opportunity?

Índice Show

Why a Research Statement?
Formatting of Research Statements
Organization of Research Statements
Writing Research Statements
Describe Your Future Goals or Research Plans
Identify Potential Funding Sources
Be Realistic
Consider Also Preparing a Longer Version
Samples of Research Statements
What is a Teaching Statement?
What Purposes does the Teaching Statement Serve?
What does a Teaching Statement Include?
General Guidelines
Reflection Questions To Help You Get You Started:*
Exercises to Help You Get You Started:*
Evaluating Your Teaching Statement
Further Resources:
General Information on and Guidelines for Writing Teaching Statements
Articles about Teaching Statements

The research statement (or statement of research interests) is a common component of academic job applications. It is a summary of your research accomplishments, current work, and future direction and potential of your work.

The statement can discuss specific issues such as:

funding history and potential
requirements for laboratory equipment and space and other resources
potential research and industrial collaborations
how your research contributes to your field
future direction of your research

The research statement should be technical, but should be intelligible to all members of the department, including those outside your subdiscipline. So keep the “big picture” in mind. The strongest research statements present a readable, compelling, and realistic research agenda that fits well with the needs, facilities, and goals of the department.

Research statements can be weakened by:

overly ambitious proposals
lack of clear direction
lack of big-picture focus
inadequate attention to the needs and facilities of the department or position

Why a Research Statement?

It conveys to search committees the pieces of your professional identity and charts the course of your scholarly journey.
It communicates a sense that your research will follow logically from what you have done and that it will be different, important, and innovative.
It gives a context for your research interests—Why does your research matter? The so what?
It combines your achievements and current work with the proposal for upcoming research.
Helps hiring committees assess:
- areas of specialty and expertise
- potential to get funding
- academic strengths and abilities
- compatibility with the department or school
- ability to think and communicate like a serious scholar and/or scientist

Formatting of Research Statements

The goal of the research statement is to introduce yourself to a search committee, which will probably contain scientists both in and outside your field, and get them excited about your research. To encourage people to read it:

make it one or two pages, three at most
use informative section headings and subheadings
use bullets
use an easily readable font size
make the margins a reasonable size

Organization of Research Statements

Think of the overarching theme guiding your main research subject area. Write an essay that lays out:

The main theme(s) and why it is important and what specific skills you use to attack the problem.
A few specific examples of problems you have already solved with success to build credibility and inform people outside your field about what you do.
A discussion of the future direction of your research. This section should be really exciting to people both in and outside your field. Don’t sell yourself short; if you think your research could lead to answers for big important questions, say so!
A final paragraph that gives a good overall impression of your research.

Writing Research Statements

Style:

Avoid jargon. Make sure that you describe your research in language that many people outside your specific subject area can understand. Ask people both in and outside your field to read it before you send your application. A search committee won’t get excited about something they can’t understand.
Write as clearly, concisely, and concretely as you can.
Keep it at a summary level; give more detail in the job talk.
Ask others to proofread it. Be sure there are no spelling errors.

Content:

Convince the search committee not only that you are knowledgeable, but that you are the right person to carry out the research.
Include information that sets you apart (e.g., publication in Science, Nature, or a prestigious journal in your field).
What excites you about your research? Sound fresh.
Include preliminary results and how to build on results.
Point out how current faculty may become future partners.
Acknowledge the work of others.
Use language that shows you are an independent researcher.
BUT focus on your research work, not yourself.
Include potential funding partners and industrial collaborations. Be creative!
Provide a summary of your research.
Put in background material to give the context/relevance/significance of your research.
List major findings, outcomes, and implications.
Describe both current and planned (future) research.
Communicate a sense that your research will follow logically from what you have done and that it will be unique, significant, and innovative (and easy to fund).

Describe Your Future Goals or Research Plans

Major problem(s) you want to focus on in your research.
The problem’s relevance and significance to the field.
Your specific goals for the next three to five years, including potential impact and outcomes.
If you know what a particular agency funds, you can name the agency and briefly outline a proposal.
Give broad enough goals so that if one area doesn’t get funded, you can pursue other research goals and funding.

Identify Potential Funding Sources

Almost every institution wants to know whether you’ll be able to get external funding for research.
Try to provide some possible sources of funding for the research, such as NIH, NSF, foundations, private agencies.
Mention past funding, if appropriate.

Be Realistic

There is a delicate balance between a realistic research statement where you promise to work on problems you really think you can solve and over-reaching or dabbling in too many subject areas. Select an over-arching theme for your research statement and leave miscellaneous ideas or projects out. Everyone knows that you will work on more than what you mention in this statement.

Consider Also Preparing a Longer Version

A longer version (five–15 pages) can be brought to your interview. (Check with your advisor to see if this is necessary.)
You may be asked to describe research plans and budget in detail at the campus interview. Be prepared.
Include laboratory needs (how much budget you need for equipment, how many grad assistants, etc.) to start up the research.

Samples of Research Statements

To find sample research statements with content specific to your discipline, search on the internet for your discipline + “Research Statement.”

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What is a Teaching Statement?

A Teaching Statement is a purposeful and reflective essay about the author’s teaching beliefs and practices. It is an individual narrative that includes not only one’s beliefs about the teaching and learning process, but also concrete examples of the ways in which he or she enacts these beliefs in the classroom. At its best, a Teaching Statement gives a clear and unique portrait of the author as a teacher, avoiding generic or empty philosophical statements about teaching.

What Purposes does the Teaching Statement Serve?

The Teaching Statement can be used for personal, professional, or pedagogical purposes. While Teaching Statements are becoming an increasingly important part of the hiring and tenure processes, they are also effective exercises in helping one clearly and coherently conceptualize his or her approaches to and experiences of teaching and learning. As Nancy Van Note Chism, Professor Emerita of Education at IUPUI observes, “The act of taking time to consider one’s goals, actions, and vision provides an opportunity for development that can be personally and professionally enriching. Reviewing and revising former statements of teaching philosophy can help teachers to reflect on their growth and renew their dedication to the goals and values that they hold.”

What does a Teaching Statement Include?

A Teaching Statement can address any or all of the following:

Your conception of how learning occurs
A description of how your teaching facilitates student learning
A reflection of why you teach the way you do
The goals you have for yourself and for your students
How your teaching enacts your beliefs and goals
What, for you, constitutes evidence of student learning
The ways in which you create an inclusive learning environment
Your interests in new techniques, activities, and types of learning

“If at all possible, your statement should enable the reader to imagine you in the classroom, teaching. You want to include sufficient information for picturing not only you in the process of teaching, but also your class in the process of learning.” – Helen G. Grundman, Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement

General Guidelines

Make your Teaching Statement brief and well written. While Teaching Statements are probably longer at the tenure level (i.e. 3-5 pages or more), for hiring purposes they are typically 1-2 pages in length.
Use narrative, first-person approach. This allows the Teaching Statement to be both personal and reflective.
Be sincere and unique. Avoid clichés, especially ones about how much passion you have for teaching.
Make it specific rather than abstract. Ground your ideas in 1-2 concrete examples, whether experienced or anticipated. This will help the reader to better visualize you in the classroom.
Be discipline specific. Do not ignore your research. Explain how you advance your field through teaching.
Avoid jargon and technical terms, as they can be off-putting to some readers.
Try not to simply repeat what is in your CV. Teaching Statements are not exhaustive documents and should be used to complement other materials for the hiring or tenure processes.
Be humble. Mention students in an enthusiastic, not condescending way, and illustrate your willingness to learn from your students and colleagues.
Revise. Teaching is an evolving, reflective process, and Teaching Statements can be adapted and changed as necessary.

Reflection Questions To Help You Get You Started:*

Why do you teach the way you do?
What should students expect of you as a teacher?
What is a method of teaching you rely on frequently? Why don’t you use a different method?
What do you want students to learn? How do you know your goals for students are being met?
What should your students be able to know or do as a result of taking your class?
How can your teaching facilitate student learning?
How do you as a teacher create an engaging or enriching learning environment?
What specific activities or exercises do you use to engage your students? What do you want your students to learn from these activities?
How has your thinking about teaching changed over time? Why?

*These questions and exercises are meant to be tools to help you begin reflecting on your beliefs and ideas as a teacher. No single Teaching Statement can contain the answers to all or most of these inquiries and activities.

Exercises to Help You Get You Started:*

The Teaching Portfolio, including a section on teaching statements, Duquesne University Center for Teaching Excellence. This website includes five effective exercises to help you begin the writing process

Teaching Goals Inventory, by Thomas A. Angelo and K. Patricia Cross and their bookClassroom Assessment Techniques. This “quiz” helps you to identify or create your teaching and learning goals.

Evaluating Your Teaching Statement

Writing A Statement Of Teaching Philosophy For The Academic Job Search (opens as a PDF), The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching at the University of Michigan.

This report includes a useful rubric for evaluating teaching philosophy statements. The design of the rubric was informed by experience with hundreds of teaching philosophies, as well as surveys of search committees on what they considered successful and unsuccessful components of job applicants’ teaching philosophies.

Further Resources:

General Information on and Guidelines for Writing Teaching Statements

Writing a Philosophy of Teaching Statement, Faculty and TA Development at The Ohio State University. This site provides an in-depth guide to teaching statements, including the definition of and purposes for a teaching statement, general formatting suggestions, and a self-reflective guide to writing a teaching statement.

Writing a Teaching Philosophy Statement, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Iowa State University. This document looks at four major components of a teaching statement, which have been divided into questions—specifically, to what end? By what means? To what degree? And why? Each question is sufficiently elaborated, offering a sort of scaffolding for preparing one’s own teaching statement.
Writing a Meaningful Statement of Teaching Philosophy, McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning at Princeton University. This website offers strategies for preparing and formatting your teaching statement.

Articles about Teaching Statements

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