Writing the Teaching Statement
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development/previous_issues/articles/2006_04_14/writing_the_teaching_statement/(parent)/13199/

Austin, Rachel Narehood
Science
2006

Abstract:

Take pity on me and my colleagues. As a faculty member who serves on faculty search committees and a frequent reader of job applications, I dread reading teaching statements. I have even considered asking search committees to stop asking for these essays (in which applicants discuss their teaching philosophies and their anticipated approaches to teaching) because they are so often insipid and painful to read. I've never actually made that suggestion, though, and for now, at my institution (and many others), teaching statements remain a required part of an application for a faculty position. So for every permanent-faculty search I'm involved in, I end up reading as many as several hundred insipid teaching statements. Have mercy.