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The most useful website I've seen on what departments are looking for in an applicant's teaching philosophy. Teresa Mangum at IHE summarizes:

After surveying a number of department chairs and reviewing countless examples, authors Chris O’Neal, Deborah Meizlish, and Matthew Kaplan found that the best teaching statements offer clear learning objectives, which detail what you hope students will learn in your class and why. These ambitions are balanced by "evidence of practice." In contrast with the formality of the dissertation abstract, the authors voice a strong preference for an accessible, conversational narrative.

Intriguingly, the authors found that chairs prefer personal examples and anecdotes, couched in a short, reflective, self-aware account of what you have taught or hope to in the future. Statements should offer clear evidence of a teacher’s interest in how diverse students learn. Simply listing the texts or concepts you plan to teach is uninformative and unconvincing. As the examples on the Web site illustrate, some applicants write in an almost intimate tone and describe very particular strategies and assignments. Other writers (you’ll note a predictable humanities/social science split) assume a crisper professional air, but they still offer visceral, persuasive vignettes that show as well as tell what happens in a classroom and what approaches work best with one type of student or another.

The teaching statement should also be the love story of an intellectual life. Some undertow in this profession often sucks pleasure and passion out of our descriptions of teaching. While you don’t want to be the Barbara Cortland of academe, if you don’t find joy in teaching, this might not be the career for you. Search committees want to know not only what and how you teach your subject, but that you genuinely value helping students learn.

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