Teaching Portfolios
·
Portfolios
provide documented evidence of teaching from a variety of sources—not just
student ratings—and provide context for that evidence.
·
The process
of selecting and organizing material for a portfolio can help one reflect on
and improve one’s teaching.
·
Portfolios
are a step toward a more public, professional view of teaching as a scholarly
activity.
·
Portfolios
can offer a look at development over time, helping one see teaching as on
ongoing process of inquiry, experimentation, and reflection.
·
Teaching
portfolios capture evidence of one’s entire teaching career, in contrast to
what are called course portfolios that capture evidence related to a single
course. For more on course portfolios, see the Peer Review of Teaching Projects’s page
on course portfolios.
Portfolios
can serve any of the following purposes.
·
Job
applicants for faculty positions can use teaching portfolios to document their
teaching effectiveness.
·
Faculty
members up for promotion or tenure can also use teaching portfolios to document
their teaching effectiveness.
·
Faculty
members and teaching assistants can use teaching portfolios to reflect on and
refine their teaching skills and philosophies.
·
Faculty
members and teaching assistants can use teaching portfolios, particularly ones
shared online, to “go public” with their teaching to invite comments from their
peers and to share teaching successes so that their peers can build on them.
For more on going public with one’s teaching, see the CFT’s
Teaching Guide on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
·
Start now! Many of the possible components of a teaching portfolio (see list
below) are difficult, if not impossible, to obtain after you have finished
teaching a course. Collecting these components as you go will make assembling
your final portfolio much easier.
·
Give a fair
and accurate presentation of yourself. Don’t try to present yourself as the absolutely perfect teacher.
Highlight the positive, of course, but don’t completely omit the negative.
·
Be selective
in which materials you choose to include, though be sure to represent a cross-section of your teaching and not
just one aspect of it. A relatively small set of well-chosen documents is more
effective than a large, unfiltered collection of all your teaching documents.
·
Make your
organization explicit to the reader. Use a table of contents at the beginning and tabs to separate the
various components of your portfolio.
·
Make sure
every piece of evidence in your portfolio is accompanied by some sort of
context and explanation.For
instance, if you include a sample lesson plan, make sure to describe the
course, the students, and, if you have actually used the lesson plan, a
reflection on how well it worked.
1.
Your Thoughts
About Teaching
·
A reflective
“teaching statement” describing your personal teaching philosophy, strategies,
and objectives (see Teaching
Philosophy).
·
A personal statement
describing your teaching goals for the next few years
2.
Documentation
of Your Teaching
·
A list of
courses taught and/or TAed, with enrollments and a description of your
responsibilities
·
Number of
advisees, graduate and undergraduate
·
Syllabi
·
Course descriptions
with details of content, objectives, methods, and procedures for evaluating
student learning
·
Reading
lists
·
Assignments
·
Exams and
quizzes, graded and ungraded
·
Handouts,
problem sets, lecture outlines
·
Descriptions
and examples of visual materials used
·
Descriptions
of uses of computers and other technology in teaching
·
Videotapes
of your teaching
3.
Teaching
Effectiveness
·
Summarized
student evaluations of teaching, including response rate and relationship to
departmental average
·
Written
comments from students on class evaluations
·
Comments
from a peer observer or a colleague teaching the same course
·
Statements
from colleagues in the department or elsewhere, regarding the preparation of
students for advanced work
·
Letters from
students, preferably unsolicited
·
Letters from
course head, division head or chairperson
·
Statements
from alumni
4.
Materials
Demonstrating Student Learning
·
Scores on
standardized or other tests, before and after instruction
·
Students’
lab books or other workbooks
·
Students’
papers, essays, or creative works
·
Graded work
from the best and poorest students, with teacher’s feedback to students
·
Instructor’s
written feedback on student work
5.
Activities
to Improve Instruction
·
Participation
in seminars or professional meetings on teaching
·
Design of new
courses
·
Design of
interdisciplinary or collaborative courses or teaching projects
·
Use of new
methods of teaching, assessing learning, grading
·
Preparation
of a textbook, lab manual, courseware, etc.
·
Description
of instructional improvement projects developed or carried out
6.
Contributions
to the Teaching Profession and/or Your Institution
·
Publications
in teaching journals
·
Papers
delivered on teaching
·
Reviews of
forthcoming textbooks
·
Service on
teaching committees
·
Assistance
to colleagues on teaching matters
·
Work on
curriculum revision or development
7.
Honors,
Awards, or Recognitions
·
Teaching
awards from department, college, or university
·
Teaching
awards from profession
·
Invitations
based on teaching reputation to consult, give workshops, write articles, etc.
·
Requests for
advice on teaching by committees or other organized groups
The website
from University of Virginia provides sample teaching portfolios from a variety
of disciplines. As you look at these portfolios, ask yourself,
·
“What
components did the author choose to include and which ones are most effective
at describing their teaching?” and
·
“What
structural and organizational decisions did the author make as they assembled
their portfolio?”
How do
electronic portfolios differ from print portfolios?
·
Increased
Accessibility: Teaching portfolios
are intended, in part, to make teaching public. Distributing a portfolio on the
web makes it even more accessible to peers and others.
·
Multimedia
Documents: Technology allows for inclusion
of more than just printed documents. For example, you can include video footage
of yourself teaching, an audio voiceover providing context and reflection on
the portfolio, or instructional computer programs or code you have written.
·
Nonlinear
Thinking: The web facilitates nonlinear
relationships between the components of your teaching portfolio. The process of
creating a portfolio in this nonlinear environment can help you think about
your teaching in new ways. For example, since readers can explore an
e-portfolio in many different ways, constructing an e-portfolio gives you an
opportunity to consider how different audiences might encounter and understand
your work.
·
Copyright
and Privacy Issues: While
examples of student work can be compelling evidence of your teaching
effectiveness, publishing these examples online presents legal copyright and
privacy issues. Talk to someone at the VU
Compliance Program before
doing so.
·
585 include
the words “teaching philosophy,”
·
27 include
the words “teaching statement,” and
·
28 include
the words “teaching portfolio.”
·
According to
an October 11, 2005, search on Chronicle.com, of the 2,978 ads for faculty/research jobs…
·
388 include
the words “teaching philosophy,”
·
5 include
the words “teaching statement,” and
·
8 include
the words “teaching portfolio.”
·
While these
data indicate that teaching portfolios are not frequently requested of job
applicants to faculty positions, it is not just the physical document that
plays a role. The process of constructing a teaching portfolio—and reflecting
on your teaching—will prepare you to…
·
write a
meaningful teaching philosophy statement and
·
to discuss
your teaching more effectively during interviews.
The
following books on teaching portfolios are available for check-out in the
Center for Teaching’s library.
·
Seldin,
Peter, The Teaching Portfolio: A Practical Guide to Improved Performance
and Promotion/Tenure Decisions, 3rd edition, Anker, 2004.
·
Cambridge,
Barbara, Electronic Portfolios: Emerging Practices in Student, Faculty, and
Institutional Learning, American Association for Higher Education,
2001.
·
Hutchings,
Pat, ed., The Course Portfolio: How Faculty Can Examine
Their Teaching to Advance Practice and Improve Student Learning,
American Association for Higher Education, 1998.
·
Murray, John
P., Successful Faculty Development and Evaluation: The Complete
Teaching Portfolio, ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education, 1997.
·
Anderson,
Erin, ed., Campus Use of the Teaching Portfolio:
Twenty-Five Profiles, American Association for Higher Education,
1993.
The
following web sites offer additional resources and strategies for creating
effective teaching portfolios:
·
Developing a Teaching Portfolio, from the Center for Instructional Development and Research at the
University of Washington
·
Developing
a Teaching Portfolio, from the
Office of Faculty and TA Development, The Ohio State University
·
The
Teaching Portfolio, an
Occasional Paper from the University of Michigan’s Center for Research on
Learning and Teaching
·
Assembling Your Teaching Portfolio, from the Center for Teaching Effectiveness at the University of
Texas-Austin
·
“The
Teaching Portfolio,” an
article published by the Professional and Organizational Development (POD)
Network in Higher Education
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