The Teaching Portfolio E-Book

Peter Seldin

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 508

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

Praise for The Teaching Portfolio "This new edition of a classic text has added invaluable, immediately useful material. It's a must-read for faculty, department chairs, and academic administrators." --Irene W. D. Hecht, director, Department Leadership Programs, American Council on Education "This book offers a wealth of wisdom and materials. It contains essential knowledge, salient advice, and an immediately useful model for faculty engaged in promotion or tenure." --Raymond L. Calabrese, professor of educational administration, The Ohio State University "The Teaching Portfolio provides the guidelines and models that faculty need to prepare quality portfolios, plus the standards and practices required to evaluate them." --Linda B. Nilson, director, Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation, Clemson University "Focused on reflection, sound assessment, and collaboration, this inspiring and practical book should be read by every graduate student, faculty member, and administrator." --John Zubizarreta, professor of English, Columbia College "All the expanded and new sections of this book add real value, but administrators and review committees will clearly benefit from the new section on how to evaluate portfolios with a validated template." --Barbara Hornum, director, Center for Academic Excellence, Drexel University "This book is practical, insightful, and immediately useful. It's an essential resource for faculty seeking promotion/tenure or who want to improve their teaching." --Michele Stocker-Barkley, faculty, Department of Psychology, Kishwaukee Community College "The Teaching Portfolio has much to say to teachers of all ranks, disciplines, and institutions. It offers a rich compendium of practical guidelines, examples, and resources." --Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Associate Provost for Faculty Development, University of Massachusetts Amherst "Teaching portfolios help our Board on Rank and Tenure really understand the quality and value of individual teaching contributions." --Martha L. Wharton, Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs and Diversity, Loyola University, Maryland

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Foreword

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION

WHY A NEW EDITION?

HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED

CONCLUSION

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

PART ONE - THE WHAT, WHY, AND HOW OF TEACHING PORTFOLIOS

CHAPTER ONE - AN INTRODUCTION TO THE TEACHING PORTFOLIO

WHAT IS A TEACHING PORTFOLIO?

PORTFOLIO USES

CHAPTER TWO - CHOOSING ITEMS FOR THE TEACHING PORTFOLIO

MATERIAL FROM ONESELF

MATERIAL FROM OTHERS

PRODUCTS OF GOOD TEACHING AND STUDENT LEARNING

THE APPENDIX

THE MECHANICS

CHAPTER THREE - PREPARING THE TEACHING PORTFOLIO

THE NEED TO DISCUSS EXPECTATIONS

GETTING STARTED WITH PORTFOLIOS

GAINING ACCEPTANCE OF THE CONCEPT

CHAPTER FOUR - STEPS TO CREATING A TEACHING PORTFOLIO

STEP 1: PLANNING

STEP 2: SUMMARIZE TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

STEP 3: DESCRIBE YOUR APPROACH TO TEACHING

STEP 4: SELECT ITEMS FOR THE PORTFOLIO

STEP 5: PREPARE STATEMENTS ON EACH ITEM

STEP 6: ORDER THE ITEMS

STEP 7: COMPILE THE SUPPORTING DATA

STEP 8: PRESENT THE PORTFOLIO

STEP 9: INCORPORATE THE PORTFOLIO INTO THE CURRICULUM VITAE

CHAPTER FIVE - THE IMPORTANCE OF COLLABORATION

WORKING WITH A MENTOR

SELF-MENTORING

CHAPTER SIX - SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING THE TEACHING PORTFOLIO

HOUSE THE PORTFOLIO IN A BINDER WITH TABS FOR APPENDICES

INCLUDE THE DATE OF THE PORTFOLIO

INCLUDE A DETAILED TABLE OF CONTENTS

INCLUDE A LIST OF APPENDIX ITEMS

CROSS-REFERENCE THE NARRATIVE TO THE APPENDIX

NUMBER THE PAGES IN THE PORTFOLIO

BRING THE TEACHING PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT TO LIFE

DESCRIBE HOW THE PHILOSOPHY IS TRANSLATED INTO ACTION

EXPLAIN THE EVIDENCE IN THE PORTFOLIO

CONSIDER INCLUDING THE OCCASIONAL DISAPPOINTMENT IN TEACHING OR LEARNING

INCLUDE SPECIFIC INFORMATION, NOT GENERALITIES

FORMAT THE NARRATIVE FOR READER INTEREST

ENHANCE THE STUDENT EVALUATION SECTION

LIMIT THE NUMBER OF STUDENT OR COLLEAGUE COMMENTS

INCLUDE NAMES AND POSITIONS OF PEOPLE TO WHOM YOU REFER

SEEK COHERENCE AMONG PORTFOLIO SECTIONS

MAKE BULKY ITEMS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST

UPDATE THE PORTFOLIO EACH YEAR

CHAPTER SEVEN - EVALUATING THE TEACHING PORTFOLIO

KEY REQUIREMENTS

THE IMPORTANCE OF MANDATED PORTFOLIO ITEMS

AVOIDING PITFALLS IN THE EVALUATION OF TEACHING PORTFOLIOS

GENERAL ITEMS TO CONSIDER IN EVALUATING PORTFOLIOS

SPECIFIC QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER IN EVALUATING PORTFOLIOS

CHAPTER EIGHT - ANSWERS TO COMMON QUESTIONS

IS THE TEACHING PORTFOLIO CONCEPT IN ACTUAL USE TODAY?

IS THE PORTFOLIO RESTRICTED TO TRADITIONAL CLASSROOM TEACHING?

HOW DOES THE TEACHING PORTFOLIO DIFFER FROM THE USUAL FACULTY REPORT TO ...

IF PROFESSORS DESIGN THEIR OWN PORTFOLIOS, HOW CAN THEY BE SURE THEY ARE ...

CAN AN IMPRESSIVE-LOOKING PORTFOLIO GLOSS OVER WEAK TEACHING?

WHY ARE PORTFOLIO MODELS AND MENTORS SO IMPORTANT TO PROFESSORS WHO ARE ...

HOW ARE MENTORS RECRUITED?

MUST THE MENTOR BE FROM THE SAME DISCIPLINE AS THE PROFESSOR WHO IS PREPARING ...

WHO OWNS THE PORTFOLIO?

DON’T ALL PORTFOLIOS LOOK ALIKE?

DO CERTAIN ITEMS SEEM TO APPEAR CONSISTENTLY IN MOST PORTFOLIOS?

HOW TIME-CONSUMING IS PREPARATION OF A PORTFOLIO?

HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE TO PREPARE A PORTFOLIO?

HOW LONG IS THE TYPICAL PORTFOLIO?

SHOULD ADMINISTRATORS DEVELOP THE TEACHING PORTFOLIO PROGRAM AND THEN TELL ...

CAN GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANTS DEVELOP WORTHWHILE PORTFOLIOS?

THE PORTFOLIO CONCEPT SEEMS USEFUL FOR JUNIOR FACULTY, BUT WHY WOULD SENIOR ...

SHOULD AN INSTITUTION SEEK OFFICIAL FACULTY ENDORSEMENT OF THE PORTFOLIO?

SHOULD ALL EVIDENCE IN THE PORTFOLIO BE EXPLAINED?

HOW WOULD YOU SUGGEST ENCOURAGING RESISTANT FACULTY TO PREPARE PORTFOLIOS?

HOW OFTEN SHOULD THE PORTFOLIO BE UPDATED?

IS THE SYLLABUS ACTUALLY INSERTED INTO THE PORTFOLIO? ARE STUDENTS’ RATINGS? ...

HOW DO TEACHING PORTFOLIOS IMPROVE TEACHING?

HOW IMPORTANT IS STRONG ADMINISTRATIVE BACKING?

WHAT SEEMS TO SURPRISE FACULTY AS THEY PUT TOGETHER THEIR PORTFOLIOS?

WHO SHOULD INTRODUCE THE PORTFOLIO AT A COLLEGE OR UNIVERSITY?

ARE THE TIME AND ENERGY REQUIRED TO PREPARE A PORTFOLIO WORTH THE BENEFITS?

CHAPTER NINE - E-PORTFOLIOSFOR TEACHING IMPROVEMENT

THE E-PORTFOLIO

CREATING AN E-PORTFOLIO

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER TEN - CLINICAL EDUCATION PORTFOLIOS

SOME BACKGROUND

GETTING STARTED

THE NARRATIVE

THE EVIDENCE

CONCLUSION

PART TWO - HOWPORTFOLIOS ARE USED

CHAPTER ELEVEN - TEACHING PORTFOLIOS AT LOYOLA UNIVERSITY MARYLAND

METHOD

FINDINGS

IMPLICATIONS

CHAPTER TWELVE - EXPLORING THE FUTURE OF TEACHING PORTFOLIOS WITHGRADUATE ...

TEACHING DOCUMENTATION PROGRAM

E-PORTFOLIOS

THE E-PORTFOLIO PILOT EFFORT

ASSESSMENT

LESSONS LEARNED

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER THIRTEEN - DEVELOPING TEACHING PORTFOLIOS AT ELGIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE

CHAPTER FOURTEEN - IMPLEMENTING THE TEACHING PORTFOLIO AT FLORIDA GULF COAST UNIVERSITY

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

THE TEACHING PORTFOLIO INSTITUTE

LESSONS LEARNED, FEEDBACK, AND NEXT STEPS

CHAPTER FIFTEEN - REVIEWING THE TEACHING PORTFOLIO

THE STATEMENT ON TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

OUTCOMES-BASED SUPPORT

PORTFOLIO REVIEWERS

WHAT TO PUT IN AND WHAT TO LEAVE OUT

WHEN FAILURE CAN BE A GOOD THING

NOT A TIME TO BE MODEST

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS

CONCLUSION

PART THREE - SAMPLE PORTFOLIOS FROM ACROSS DISCIPLINES

CHAPTER SIXTEEN - BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

TEACHING METHODS AND STRATEGIES

COURSE MATERIAL AND STUDENT ASSESSMENT TOOLS

ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION OF TEACHING

TEACHING AWARDS AND RECOGNITION

EVIDENCE OF STUDENT LEARNING

TEACHING OUTREACH

FUTURE TEACHING GOALS

APPENDICES

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY

TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

TEACHING OBJECTIVES, STRATEGIES, AND METHODOLOGIES STRATEGIES, AND METHODOLOGIES

DESCRIPTION OF TEACHING MATERIALS

EFFORTS TO IMPROVE TEACHING

TEACHING-RELATED GRANT WRITING AND SERVICE

TEACHING EVALUATIONS AND AWARDS

EVIDENCE OF STUDENT LEARNING

TEACHING GOALS

APPENDICES

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - CHEMISTRY AND MATHEMATICS

TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY, METHODOLOGY, AND OBJECTIVES

SYLLABI

STUDENT LEARNING

EVALUATION OF TEACHING

STEPS TO IMPROVE TEACHING

CLASSROOM OBSERVATION

REMAINING UP-TO-DATE

GOALS (ONE TO TWO YEARS)

APPENDIX

CHAPTER NINETEEN - COMMUNICATION AND PHILOSOPHY

TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

TEACHING OBJECTIVES, STRATEGIES, METHODOLOGIES

DESCRIPTION OF COURSES

EFFORTS TO IMPROVE TEACHING

STUDENT ASSESSMENT OF INSTRUCTION

SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM GOALS

APPENDIX

CHAPTER TWENTY - ENGLISH AND COMMUNICATION

TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

TEACHING OBJECTIVES, STRATEGIES, AND METHODOLOGIES

REPRESENTATIVE DETAILED COURSE SYLLABI

EVIDENCE OF STUDENT LEARNING

STUDENT EVALUATIONS

CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS BY FACULTY PEERS AND ADMINISTRATORS

REVIEW OF TEACHING MATERIALS BY COLLEAGUES

TEACHING IMPROVEMENT

TEACHING GOALS

APENDICES

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - FAMILY AND CONSUMER SCIENCES

TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

TEACHING METHODOLOGY, COURSE ASSIGNMENTS, AND MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUES

EVALUATION OF TEACHING

HONORS RELATED TO TEACHING

TEACHING IMPROVEMENT ACTIVITIES

ADVISING RESPONSIBILITIES AND COMMITTEE WORK

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

MOST SIGNIFICANT TEACHING ACCOMPLISHMENTS

APPENDICES

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - FISH, WILDLIFE, AND CONSERVATION ECOLOGY

1 . INTRODUCTION

2. TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

3. TEACHING AND ADVISING PHILOSOPHY AND OBJECTIVES

4. TEACHING AND ADVISING STRATEGIES AND METHODOLOGIES

5. STUDENT EVALUATIONS

6. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, SERVICE, AND PRESENTATIONS

7. TEACHING RECOGNITIONS, AWARDS, AND GRANTS

8. TEACHING GOALS

9. APPENDICES

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE - GOVERNMENT

PREFACE

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY AND STRATEGIES

TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS

TEACHING-RELATED AWARDS AND HONORS (SINCE 2000)

INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

STUDENT LEARNING

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

LESSONS I’VE LEARNED

TABLE OF APPENDICES

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR - JUSTICE STUDIES

TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES AND SYLLABI

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

TEACHING STRATEGIES

TEACHING OBJECTIVES

CURRICULAR REVISIONS

STUDENT COURSE FEEDBACK AND TEACHING EVALUATION DATA

PROFESSIONAL OUTREACH AS EVIDENCED BY PRESENTATIONS, PUBLICATIONS, AND EXPERT TESTIMONY

STUDENT PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS AS EVIDENCE OF STUDENT LEARNING

GOALS

APPENDICES

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE - LAW

TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

TEACHING STRATEGY AND METHODOLOGIES

REPRESENTATIVE COURSE SYLLABI

HONORS RELATED TO TEACHING

EVALUATION OF TEACHING

TEACHING IMPROVEMENT ACTIVITIES

COMMUNITY OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

PLANS FOR DEVELOPING TEACHING SKILLS

APPENDICES

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX - MUSIC

I . TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

II. STATEMENT OF TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

III. TEACHING METHODS AND STRATEGIES

I V. COURSE SYLLABI

V. STUDENT LEARNING

VI . TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS

VII. TEACHING IMPROVEMENT ACTIVITIES

VIII. FUTURE TEACHING GOALS

IX. APPENDICES

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN - NURSING

TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

TEACHING STRATEGIES AND METHODOLOGY

SYLLABI, ASSIGNMENTS, AND RESPONSES TO STUDENTS’ WORK

EVIDENCE OF TEACHING EFFECTIVENESS

AWARDS/HONORS

PROFESSIONAL OUTREACH

FUTURE TEACHING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT GOALSPROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT GOALS

LIST OF APPENDICES

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT - PATHOLOGY

1. STATEMENT OF TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

2 . REFLECTIVE STATEMENT OF TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

3 . ANALYSIS OF METHODS, STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCING STUDENT LEARNING, CURRICULAR ...

4. EFFORTS TO IMPROVE TEACHING

5. EXAMINATION OF STUDENT RATINGS AND DIAGNOSTIC QUESTIONS

6 . TEACHING GOALS: SHORT AND LONG TERM

7 . APPENDICES

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE - PHYSICAL THERAPY

PURPOSE STATEMENT

TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

TEACHING METHODOLOGIES AND INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

EVIDENCE OF STUDENT LEARNING

EVALUATING MY TEACHING

EFFORTS TO IMPROVE TEACHING

SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM TEACHING GOALS

APPENDICES

CHAPTER THIRTY - PHYSICS

STATEMENT OF TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

TEACHING STRATEGIES AND IMPLEMENTATION

REPRESENTATIVE COURSE SYLLABI

NEW COURSE DEVELOPMENT, MATERIALS, AND INNOVATIONS

EVIDENCE OF STUDENT LEARNING

EVALUATION OF TEACHING PERFORMANCE

RECOGNITION OF TEACHING/AWARDS

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

SERVICE AND OUTREACH

APPENDICES

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE - PHYSIOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

TEACHING STRATEGIES AND METHODS

ASSESSING STUDENT LEARNING

MOTIVATING AND INSPIRING STUDENTS

EVALUATING MY TEACHING

TEACHING IMPROVEMENT

GOALS

APPENDICES

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO - POLITICAL SCIENCE

INTRODUCTION

TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

TEACHING OBJECTIVES/METHODS

CURRICULAR REVISIONS

STEPS TAKEN TO EVALUATE/IMPROVE TEACHING

EVALUATION OF TEACHING

STUDENT LEARNING

HONORS AND AWARDS

GOALS

APPENDICES

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE - PSYCHOLOGY

CLASSROOM TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

STUDENT MENTORING RESPONSIBILITIES

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY, GOALS, AND STRATEGIES

CURRICULUM AND COURSE DEVELOPMENT

EVALUATION OF TEACHING

EVIDENCE OF STUDENT LEARNING

STUDENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

PROFESSIONAL OUTREACH AT BROOKLYN COLLEGE

FUTURE GOALS

APPENDICES

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR - SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES AND EXPERIENCE

COURSE DESIGN

STUDENT ASSESSMENTS

FEEDBACK FROM COLLEAGUES

TEACHING AWARDS AND HONORS

SCHOLARSHIP OF TEACHING AND LEARNING AND RELATED ACTIVITIES

TEACHING IMPROVEMENT ACTIVITIES

CURRENT TEACHING AND PEDAGOGICAL GOALS

APPENDICES

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE - SOCIAL WORK

TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

TEACHING OBJECTIVES, STRATEGIES, AND METHODS

EVALUATION OF TEACHING

TEACHING IMPROVEMENT ACTIVITIES

FUTURE TEACHING GOALS

APPENDICES

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX - THEATER

1 . TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

2 . TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

3 . STUDENT AND PEER ASSESSMENT OF TEACHING

4 . EVIDENCE OF STUDENT LEARNING

5 . SCHOLARSHIP ON TEACHING AND PROFESSIONAL OUTREACH

6 . SHORT-AND LONG-TERM GOALS

7 . APPENDICES

REFERENCES

INDEX

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Seldin, Peter.

The teaching portfolio : a practical guide to improved performance and promotion/tenure decisions.—4th ed. / Peter Seldin, J. Elizabeth Miller, Clement A. Seldin ; foreword by Wilbert J. McKeachie. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-470-53809-8 (pbk.)

1. College teachers—Rating of—United States. 2. College teaching—United States—Evaluation. 3. Portfolios in education—United States. 4. Portfolios in education—United States—Case studies. I. Miller, J. Elizabeth, 1958- II. Seldin, Clement A., 1948- III. Title. LB2333.S.1’224—dc22

2010014411

The Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series

FOREWORD

Almost twenty years ago, in 1991, I wrote the Foreword for the first edition of Peter Seldin’s seminal book, The Teaching Portfolio. I said then that the portfolio offered a promising solution to the problem faced by professors to supply persuasive documentation of their teaching effectiveness. The reason for my genuine optimism, I said, was that the teaching portfolio provided tangible concrete evidence needed by those responsible for personnel decisions, and at the same time, it provided a useful structure to stimulate critical self-analysis and improvement in teaching.

In the time since I looked into my crystal ball and wrote those prophetic words, use of the teaching portfolio concept has been adopted by several thousand colleges and universities throughout the United States and by countless other institutions around the world. And in the process, The Teaching Portfolio has become the most widely used and all-time best seller in the teaching portfolio field.

I thought the first edition of the book was great. Then the second and third editions each added some helpful new suggestions. Now, in this fourth edition, Peter Seldin has been joined by coauthors J. Elizabeth Miller and Clement Seldin. Each brings a wealth of hands-on experience with the teaching portfolio. Together, these three authors have written a remarkably useful book. They have mastered the art of simplification, used straightforward language, and provided suggestions that are practical and easily implemented.

Especially noteworthy new features of this edition are:

• The detailed guides for preparing a portfolio for promotion and tenure as differentiated from a portfolio for improvement

• The specific suggestions on how to find a mentor to help in developing the portfolio

• The detailed nuts-and-bolts chapter on preparing a portfolio

• The expanded section on electronic portfolios and a new section on clinical educator portfolios

• The time-tested strategies for getting started with portfolios.

• The pragmatic answers to questions commonly raised about developing and using portfolios

The Teaching Portfolio, Fourth Edition covers just about everything you should know about portfolios. It includes models of successful use; provides a field-tested, widely used template; offers sample teaching portfolios; and gives immediately useful advice. Seldin, Miller, and Seldin have extensive portfolio involvement as researchers, practitioners, and mentors to faculty who are preparing portfolios. This broad-based experience has enabled them to gain new perspectives and insights, as well as refine and modify what has already been learned about portfolios. The new edition puts much of this wisdom into practice.

I believe that college teaching has improved since I began teaching in 1946. One of the major factors contributing to this improvement is the development of the teaching portfolio.

University of Michigan

WILBERT J. MCKEACHIE

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION

Not long ago, an academic friend ran into us at a national conference and asked us how she could really convince others that she was an effective teacher. Student rating scores, she said, were an obvious way to measure teaching effectiveness: the higher the rating, the greater the effectiveness. We told our friend that it was an obvious (and necessary) way, but that it struck us that student rating numbers were hardly a complete basis for determining teaching effectiveness and that they needed to be augmented by data from an array of other sources. We also pointed out that student rating numbers did not provide information on what a professor did, why he or she did it, or how he or she did it. And these numbers did not present a rationale for pedagogical choices made, expectations realized, or circumstances that promoted or inhibited teaching success.

Our friend pondered what we had told her. Okay, she said, if using student rating numbers alone is a flawed approach to measuring teaching effectiveness, is there a better way? We said there is. It is the teaching portfolio. Our friend was not familiar with the concept and asked how she could learn more about it. The Teaching Portfolio, Fourth Edition, we told her, is a book that will be helpful. It covers just about everything you should know about portfolios; gives models of successful use; provides a field-tested, widely used template; and provides sample teaching portfolios and practical materials.

WHY A NEW EDITION?

Since 2004, when the third edition of The Teaching Portfolio was published, we have collectively visited more than one hundred colleges and universities and talked with countless faculty and administrators about the portfolio and its place in the evaluation and development of teaching. We have also had the distinct pleasure of working one-on-one as mentors to hundreds of faculty members as they prepared their personal teaching portfolios.

During that period, we picked up new ideas, gained new perspectives, and refined and modified what was already known about portfolios. This new edition of The Teaching Portfolio puts many of these into print.

Like the first, second, and third editions, this one keeps the focus on self-reflection and documenting teaching performance. But in this edition, considerable substance has been added:

• A new detailed table of contents for portfolios prepared for personnel decisions and for portfolios prepared for improvement purposes

• A new section of nearly one hundred prompt questions to guide the preparation of each part of the portfolio

• An expanded section on the key factors to consider in choosing portfolio items

• A new section on the important items to be sure to include in the portfolio appendix

• An expanded section on the specific topics of conversation needed between the professor and department chair on portfolio expectations

• A more detailed section on how to gain institutional acceptance of the portfolio concept

• An expanded section on electronic portfolios and a new section on clinical educator portfolios

• An expanded section on how to prepare a portfolio without a mentor

• A new section on how to evaluate portfolios for tenure/promotion decisions, including a field-tested form for doing so

HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED

The Teaching Portfolio, Fourth Edition has three parts.

Part One presents the what, why, and how to develop teaching portfolios. It outlines an extensively tested step-by-step approach to create a portfolio, discusses how to prepare it for tenure decisions or for improvement in performance, and offers an array of field-tested suggestions for improving portfolios.

Chapter One discusses the teaching portfolio concept: what it is, how it includes the scope and quality of a professor’s teaching performance, how it is based on structured reflection and thoughtfully selected information on teaching activities and provides solid evidence of their effectiveness, and how it differs from other approaches to evaluate and improve teaching. It also provides a detailed table of contents.

Chapter Two describes the many possibilities from which faculty members can select portfolio items relevant to their academic situation, discusses the factors to consider in choosing items, outlines the three main categories of the narrative, provides suggestions as to the length of each category, and sets out more than one hundred prompt questions to guide the preparation of each part of the portfolio.

Chapter Three outlines the necessary topics of conversation between the department chair and professor on portfolio expectations and specifics of what and how teaching performance is to be reported, provides helpful guidelines for getting started with portfolios, and spells out ten field-tested ways to gain institutional acceptance of the teaching portfolio concept. It offers practical advice and takes a hard look at what works and what does not.

Chapter Four examines in important detail the key sequence of steps in creating a teaching portfolio. It then discusses the need to begin the process by deciding the purpose in preparing it and the audience that will read it, outlines how to describe an approach to teaching and select portfolio items that illustrate teaching style and offer evidence of effectiveness, and offers helpful suggestions on how to present the entire portfolio in a unified container.

Chapter Five examines the key role of the mentor, describes the collaborative approach to developing a polished portfolio, recognizes that sometimes no able mentors are available, and provides important self-assessment questions that can serve as a helpful checklist for those who are preparing a portfolio without a mentor’s advice.

Chapter Six presents a list of specific, field-tested suggestions to faculty as they prepare their portfolios (with or without a mentor). Among others, the detailed recommendations include housing the portfolio in a binder with tabs; cross-referencing the narrative to the appendix; explaining the evidence; bringing the teaching philosophy statement to life; limiting the number of student or colleague comments; and using graphs, charts, italics, and boldface to enhance reader interest.

Chapter Seven discusses how to evaluate teaching portfolios for personnel decisions, what should be evaluated, and how it should be done. It discusses the key requirements of practicality, relevance, and acceptability; outlines common pitfalls in the evaluation of portfolios; provides practical advice in the form of a twenty-point general checklist of items to consider; and includes specific criteria and suggested evidence that can be used to evaluate teaching from portfolios.

Chapter Eight offers pragmatic answers to questions commonly raised about developing and using teaching portfolios. It discusses how a portfolio differs from the usual end-of-year faculty report to administrators, how much time it takes to produce a portfolio, who “owns” it, why no two portfolios look alike, why models and mentors are so important, and why an elegant portfolio cannot disguise weak performance in teaching.

Chapter Nine discusses electronic teaching portfolios; describes how technology allows portfolio developers to collect and organize the contents in many formats, including audio, video, graphical, and text; examines the use of hypertext links to organize the material; and outlines the strengths and weaknesses of electronic portfolios.

Chapter Ten examines the clinical educator portfolio and describes how it differs from the traditional teaching portfolio. It discusses individual instruction, direct patient care, board certification, how working with adult learners affects teaching methods, and the need for clinical educators to document different types of teaching—for example, bedside, didactic, and simulation.

Part Two, new to this edition, contains profiles of campus use of the teaching portfolio. It describes how four very different colleges and universities have implemented portfolios, what worked and what did not, purposes, tough decisions, and key strategies. It also includes a personal report by a university provost on what he looks for in reviewing portfolios submitted for tenure and promotion purposes.

Chapters Eleven to Fourteen contain profiles of campus practice and provide detailed yet concise accounts of what four campuses are doing with teaching portfolios: Loyola University Maryland, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Elgin Community College (Illinois), and Florida Gulf Coast University. The settings and practices are diverse by design, reflecting the broad individual differences in institutions. The intent is not to present the best of current practice (though many positive examples can be seen in the profiles) but rather to demonstrate how teaching portfolio use depends on context and purpose, as well as the mission and culture of an institution.

Chapter Twelve presents a personal report by the provost at Florida Gulf Coast University on what he looks for in reviewing portfolios submitted for tenure and promotion, what separates strong from weak portfolios, and the kinds of evidence that are most persuasive. It includes the practical but surprising recommendations that he, an “end user,” makes to faculty who are preparing their portfolios for personnel decisions.

Part Three is also new to this edition and contains the actual teaching portfolios of twenty-one faculty members from an array of disciplines and a wide range of institutions. None of these portfolios appeared in earlier editions of this book.

Chapters Sixteen through Thirty-Six contain the sample portfolios, all developed under the guidance of a skilled portfolio mentor. These documents reflect the advice and strategies presented in Part One. Because each portfolio is an individual document, varying importance has been assigned by different authors to different items. Some faculty discuss an item at length, while others dismiss it with just a sentence or two or omit it altogether. This is as it should be. Although there is a general template for teaching portfolios, much of what goes into them is determined by special factors such as purpose, career point, academic discipline, and personal preferences of the individual faculty members who prepare them. Together the sample portfolios are rich sources of ideas to professors in all disciplines.

CONCLUSION

The Teaching Portfolio, Fourth Edition offers the kind of ready-to-use, hands-on information that is required to foster the most effective use of portfolios. This new edition identifies key issues, red-flag warnings, successful strategies, and benchmarks for success. It is written for faculty members, department chairs, members of promotion and tenure committees, and graduate students planning careers as faculty members. The language is straightforward and nontechnical.

In 1991, the first edition of The Teaching Portfolio was published. Since then, the book has gained tenure as perhaps the most widely used and all-time best seller in the teaching portfolio field. We are humbled by this overwhelming show of trust and approach this latest edition determined to build on the solid foundation that made the first three editions such highly regarded tools for self-reflection and for documenting teaching effectiveness.

Pleasantville, New York

PETER SELDIN

DeKalb, Illinois

J. ELIZABETH MILLER

Amherst, Massachusetts

CLEMENT A. SELDIN

June 2010

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Peter Seldin is Distinguished Professor of Management Emeritus at Pace University in Pleasantville, New York. A behavioral scientist, educator, author, and specialist in evaluation and development of faculty and administrative performance, he has been a consultant on higher education issues to more than 350 colleges and universities throughout the United States and in forty-five other countries around the world.

A well-known speaker at national and international conferences, Seldin has presented programs at more than thirty American Council on Education national workshops for division and department chairs and deans designed to enhance department leadership. He has contributed numerous articles on the teaching profession, student ratings, educational practice, and academic culture to such publications as The New York Times, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Change magazine.

The more recent of his sixteen books are The Academic Portfolio (2009, with J. Elizabeth Miller), Evaluating Faculty Performance (2006, with associates), The Teaching Portfolio (2004), The Administrative Portfolio (2002, with Mary Lou Higgerson), and Changing Practices in Evaluating Teaching (1999, with associates).

Among recent honors, Seldin was named by the World Bank as a Visiting Scholar to Indonesia. In addition, he was elected a Fellow of the College of Preceptors in London, England. This special honor is given to a small number of faculty and administrators who are judged to have made an “outstanding contribution to higher education on the international level.”

J. Elizabeth Miller is associate professor of child and family studies at Northern Illinois University (NIU) in DeKalb. She teaches courses in family theory and human development and mentors graduate students in undergraduate teaching. She has been honored four times with excellence-in-teaching awards.

Miller is the founding director of NIU’s teaching assistant training program, which has served more than eight hundred teaching assistants. She is the outgoing chair of the Women’s Caucus of the American Association for Higher Education and has served on the board of the National Council of Family Relations.

A presenter at numerous national and international conferences, her research interests focus on the interplay between feminist teaching and learner-centered instruction, as well as the improvement of college teaching. She has extensive experience mentoring faculty members and graduate students as they prepare their teaching and academic portfolios.

She is the coauthor of two well-received books, The Academic Portfolio (2009, with Peter Seldin) and Exploring Family Theories (2009, with associates) and has published journal articles and book chapters in faculty evaluation, work and family in higher education, religion and family, and mentoring graduate students.

Clement A. Seldin is professor of education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on the social foundations of American education. He has provided service to both his institution and profession as director for field-based graduate programs, director of internships, and member of regional research and editorial boards. He has been honored with many teaching awards, including the prestigious University of Massachusetts Distinguished Teaching Award.

Clement Seldin’s research agenda focuses on contemporary problems in American education. He has examined several controversial and timely issues that have a direct impact on the lives of teachers and students. In addition, he has specialized in faculty development in higher education, with emphasis on teaching and academic portfolios.

He has contributed over thirty articles to national education journals and presented over forty research papers at regional and national conferences. Seldin has also served on research teams for the Schools of Education Project, a comprehensive multiyear research study of the nation’s twelve hundred schools of education, directed by Arthur Levine of Columbia University. This major study resulted in three significant reports: Educating Leaders (2005), Educating Teachers (2006), and Educating Researchers (2007).

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Peter G. Anderson is a professor of pathology, director of pathology undergraduate education, and preclerkship curriculum coordinator at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine. He recently received the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award and is active in national and international medical education organizations.

Nancy V. Baker is a Regents Professor and head of the Government Department at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces. The recipient of multiple teaching awards, including the university’s highest recognition, she publishes extensively on law in the executive branch, including two scholarly books on the office of the U.S. attorney general.

Marc Jonathan Blitz is associate professor in the Law School at Oklahoma City University. He teaches and writes on constitutional law and on law and technology, and also teaches national security law, administrative law, evidence, and law of alternative dispute resolution. He was voted 2007 Professor of the Year by the Law School’s merit scholars, was a Priddy Fellow, and has made significant use of visual technology, including interactive diagrams, animation software, and virtual world platforms, in his teaching.

Wiebke J. Boeing is assistant professor in the Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Ecology at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces. She teaches classes in natural resource management, and her research focuses on the ecology of aquatic food webs.

Michael D. Brown is associate teaching professor at Brigham Young University, an affiliate of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A recipient of his college’s Teaching Excellence Award, he is a member of the Physiology and Developmental Biology Department and BYU’s interdisciplinary Neuroscience Center.

Michaela Burkardt is associate professor of physics at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces. She currently provides faculty development for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) faculty through the university’s Teaching Academy.

Kristine De Welde is an assistant professor of sociology at Florida Gulf Coast University, where she teaches courses on gender, family, methods, the sociology of food, and Hurricane Katrina. Selected for inclusion in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, she has published and presented extensively on pedagogy and ser vice-learning.

Esther L. Devall is professor of family and consumer sciences at New Mexico State University, Las Cruces. She has received college, university, and national recognition for her teaching excellence and has been awarded almost $10 million in state and federal grants.

Monica A. Devanas is the director of faculty development and assessment programs at the Center for Teaching Advancement and Assessment Research at Rutgers University. She has been teaching microbiology for twenty-five years and is active in issues of science education and programs for retention of women in science and in National Science Foundation-funded grants to enhance science education both at Rutgers and in precollege populations.

Amanda Evans is assistant professor of social work at Florida Gulf Coast University. She has published and presented widely on issues related to neurobiology, trauma, and violence. She has twenty-five years of experience in health, mental health, and management. As a medical social worker for the first fifteen years of her career, Evans practiced in trauma, emergency, and cardiac settings. She is a certified mediator and serves as a consultant on issues related to organizational behavior and conflict.

Donna Price Henry is dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of Biological Sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University. She is currently leading the construction of three academic buildings with instructional, research, performance, and office space. Henry has been instrumental in undergraduate curriculum innovation through integration of service-learning and undergraduate research projects.

Amy E. Hughes is an assistant professor of theater history and criticism at Brooklyn College, City University of New York, where she serves on the executive board for the Roberta S. Matthews Center for Teaching. She has published and presented on many topics related to teaching, including communication-intensive courses, role play, and pedagogical transparency.

Stephanie Jensen-Moulton is assistant professor of musicology at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. She has published articles on women in hip-hop, the nineteenth-century pianist “Blind Tom” Wiggins, and feminist pedagogy and is currently researching cultural intersections of opera and disability.

Richard R. Johnson is a professor of political science and chair of the same department at Oklahoma City University. He has served as a Priddy Fellow and a Fellow of the Faculty Teaching Academy at Oklahoma City University. He has been actively involved with civic engagement, arts integration, portfolios, and learning communities regionally and locally.

Aaron Kozbelt is associate professor of psychology at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He is the head of the CUNY doctoral subprogram in psychology—Cognition, Brain, and Behavior—and publishes widely on the psychology of creativity, aesthetics, the arts, and humor.

Vicki D. Lachman is clinical associate professor and track coordinator for the Innovation and Intra/Entrepreneurship in Advanced Nursing Practice in the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel University. She is nationally known for her presentations and writing in clinical and applied ethics, especially in the area of moral courage.

Margaret Loring is an English instructor at Doña Ana Community College in New Mexico, where she has taught developmental and college level classes for fourteen years.

Mathew L. Ouellett is director of the Center for Teaching at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he is also a lecturer in the School of Education. He is editor of the well-received Teaching Inclusively: Resources for Course, Department and Institutional Change in Higher Education (New Forums Press) and is active in higher education organizations such as the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education.

Peter Rennert-Ariev is an associate professor of curriculum and instruction and chair of the Education Specialties Department at Loyola University Maryland. His scholarship focuses on teacher education, professional development, and assessment. He recently received the Outstanding New Scholar Award from the School of Education, University of Maryland at College Park.

Martha S. Rosenthal is a professor of biological sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University. The recipient of a number of teaching awards, she teaches courses on human physiology, neuroscience, human sexuality, and drugs and society. Her textbook on human sexuality will be published by Houghton Mifflin/Cengage Learning.

Richard Schnackenberg is assistant professor of mathematics and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Mathematics at Florida Gulf Coast University. While actively teaching for forty-four years, he spent twenty years in the world of professional theater.

David E. Smith is associate professor of chemistry at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. He teaches courses in general chemistry and physical chemistry, as well as distance education courses for dual-enrollment high school students.

Annalise Sorrentino is an associate professor of pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at the University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) and has been the recipient of numerous academic and teaching awards. She graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine and completed her pediatric residency and emergency medicine fellowship at UAB.

Kimberly Tarver is a professor of physical therapist assistant at Elgin Community College. She serves on the college’s Multicultural and Global Initiatives Committee and is committed to on-campus initiatives relating to the teaching portfolio, multicultural curriculum transformation, and other learner-centered strategies for student success. She contributes to regional agencies that support suicide prevention and underprivileged children and their families.

Ronald B. Toll is provost and vice president for academic affairs and professor of marine sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University. Previously he held numerous academic administrative positions at several institutions. A recognized leader in advancing learning outcomes, his interests include academic building design that supports pedagogical flexibility and faculty career development.

Mary Pelak Walch is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Philosophy at Florida Gulf Coast University. Her teaching and research interests are in the areas of media ecology, rhetorical criticism, and communication pedagogy.

Heather A. Walsh-Haney is an assistant professor of forensic anthropology within the Criminal Forensics Studies program at Florida Gulf Coast University. As a member of the U.S. Public Health Services’ Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team, she has helped in the identification of victims from the World Trade Center and Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma. She brings these practitioner-based experiences into her undergraduate and graduate courses.

PART ONE

THE WHAT, WHY, AND HOW OF TEACHING PORTFOLIOS

Part One discusses the teaching portfolio concept: what it is, what might go into it, why the contents depend on the purpose for which it is to be used, how it is based on structured reflection, why collaboration is important, why expectations must be discussed with the department chair, and how electronic portfolios and clinical educator portfolios differ from traditional teaching portfolios.

CHAPTER ONE

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE TEACHING PORTFOLIO

An important and welcome change is taking place on college and university campuses: teaching is being taken more seriously. Interest has mushroomed rapidly in recent years, burrowing into all areas of the country. Institutions are moving from lip-service endorsements of the importance of teaching to concerted and sustained efforts to evaluate and reward it. As for faculty, they are being held accountable as never before to provide solid evidence of the quality and effectiveness of their instruction.

The familiar professorial paradox is crumbling on many campuses. Traditionally, college professors were hired to teach but rewarded for research. Although this is still true in many institutions, especially those with strong graduate schools, it has been largely swept away on campuses stressing undergraduate education. Today, teaching may still be in second place in the race with research, but the gap is slowly closing.

What is behind this new emphasis on teaching? The growing number of students and parents facing rapidly escalating tuition bills has led to pointed questions about the quality of teaching and played a part. So have the rapid changes in educational technology, which have forever altered concepts of teaching and learning. But perhaps the most compelling force behind the demands for teaching accountability is the unrelenting budgetary squeeze that legislatures and institutional governing boards face. It has pressed colleges and universities hard to take a much closer look at each professor’s teaching effectiveness.

Unfortunately, factual information on teaching performance is often skimpy at best. The typical curriculum vitae lists publications, research grants, publications, and conference presentations but says almost nothing about teaching. It offers little factual information about what the person does as a teacher, why he or she does it in that way, or how well he or she does it. Evaluating teaching performance in the absence of factual information is very difficult. Rewarding it is also very difficult, as is improving it.

Is there a way for colleges and universities to respond simultaneously to the movement to take teaching seriously and to the pressures to improve systems of teaching accountability? The answer is yes. A solution can be found by turning to the teaching portfolio, an approach increasingly recognized and respected. Although reliable numbers are hard to come by, estimates are that as many as twenty-five hundred colleges and universities in the United States and Canada (where it is called a teaching dossier) are using or experimenting with portfolios—a stunning jump from the ten institutions thought to be using portfolios in 1990.

WHAT IS A TEACHING PORTFOLIO?

A teaching portfolio is a factual description of a professor’s teaching strengths and accomplishments. It includes documents and materials that collectively suggest the scope and quality of a professor’s teaching performance. The portfolio is to teaching what lists of publications, grants, and honors are to research and scholarship. As such, it allows faculty members to display their teaching accomplishments for examination by others. And in the process, it contributes to both sounder tenure and promotion decisions and the professional development of individual faculty members. As a result, it provides a strong signal that teaching is an institutional priority.

The teaching portfolio is not an exhaustive compilation of all the documents and materials that bear on teaching performance. Instead, it culls from the record selected information on teaching activities and solid evidence of their effectiveness. Just as in a curriculum vitae, all claims in the portfolio should be supported by firm empirical evidence. Selectivity is important because the portfolio should not be considered a huge repository of indiscriminate documentation. Rather, it should be seen as a judicious, critical, purposeful analysis of performance, evidence, and goals.

The portfolio permits faculty to describe the unique circumstances of their courses and general approaches to teaching, explain their use of specific strategies and methods, and provide convincing evidence that they are effective. We interpret the word teaching here to signify all professional activity that provides direct support for student learning. That includes not only traditional classroom and laboratory teaching, but also instruction of online courses, and small-group settings, one-to-one teacher-student interactions, student advising, and the scholarship of teaching and communication of its results.

Why should a skeptical professor spend valuable time preparing a portfolio? Because it makes good sense to document teaching activities with the same care and accuracy as he or she uses to document research and scholarship. Portfolios are a step toward a more public, professional view of teaching and reflect teaching as a scholarly activity.

The logic behind portfolios is straightforward. Earlier assessment methods such as student ratings or peer observation were like flashlights: they illuminated only the teaching skills and abilities that fell within their beams and therefore shed light on only a small part of a professor’s classroom performance. With portfolios, the flashlight is replaced by a searchlight. Its beam discloses the broad range of teaching skills, abilities, attitudes, philosophies, and methodologies.

PORTFOLIO USES

Faculty members are busy, even harried, individuals. Here are some reasons they should want to take the time and trouble to prepare a teaching portfolio:

• Graduate students are preparing portfolios to bolster their credentials as they enter the job market.

• Professors are preparing portfolios to take on the road as they seek a different teaching position.

• Some institutions are requiring portfolios from finalists for teaching positions.

• Portfolios are being used to determine winners of an institution’s teacher of the year award or for merit pay consideration.

• Professors nearing retirement are preparing portfolios in order to leave a written legacy so that faculty members taking over their position will have the benefit of their experience.

• Portfolios are used to provide evidence in applications for grants or release time.

• Institutions are asking faculty to prepare portfolios so they can provide data on their performance to persons and organizations operating off campus, such as government agencies, boards of trustees, alumni, the general public, and advocacy groups.

By far, though, the two most often cited reasons for preparing teaching portfolios are to provide evidence for use in personnel decisions and to improve teaching performance.

PERSONNEL DECISIONS

Providing a rational and equitable basis for promotion and tenure decisions is a central reason for preparing a teaching portfolio. In today’s climate of greater accountability, colleges and universities are increasingly looking to portfolios as a rich way to get at the complexity and individuality of teaching. The portfolio provides evaluators with hard-to-ignore information on what individual professors do as teachers, why they do it, how they do it, and the outcome of what they do. And by so doing, it avoids looking at teaching as a derivative of student ratings.

Some argue that professors should be given unrestricted freedom to select the items that best reflect their performance. That approach works well if the portfolio is developed for improvement, but not if it is developed for personnel decisions such as tenure or promotion. Because each portfolio is unique, the lack of standardization makes comparability very difficult for faculty members from different teaching contexts.

One answer is to require that portfolios being used for personnel decisions such as tenure or promotion include certain items, along with those chosen specifically by the professor. Mandated items might include summaries of student evaluations, classroom observation reports, representative course materials, and a reflective statement describing the professor’s teaching philosophy and methodologies. The professor would then choose which additional items to include in the portfolio.

If certain items in the portfolio are standardized, comparison of teaching performance (three finalists from different disciplines competing for university teacher of the year, for example) becomes possible.

Because they are based on triangulation of data, portfolios provide evaluators with solid evidence from an array of different sources. This material enables them to better recognize and evaluate the effectiveness of faculty members as teachers inside and outside of the classroom.

The contents page prepared for personnel decisions (that is, evaluations) might include the following entries:

Teaching PortfolioName of Faculty MemberDepartment/CollegeDate

Table of Contents

1. Teaching Responsibilities

2. Teaching Philosophy

3. Teaching Methodologies

4. Student Evaluations for Multiple Courses (summative questions)

5. Classroom Observations

6. Review of Teaching Materials

7. Representative Course Syllabi

8. New Instructional Initiatives

9. Evidence of Student Learning

10. Statement by the Department Chair Assessing the Professor’s Teaching Contribution to the Department

11. Teaching Awards

12. Teaching Goals

13. Appendices

When portfolios are submitted for personnel decisions, the focus should be on evidence that documents the professor’s best work as a teacher and demonstrates that significant student learning (cognitive or affective) has taken place. The faculty member’s achievements, awards, and successes are the focus. Self-criticism is a key component in a portfolio developed for teaching improvement, but it does not make much sense to include for those who are being considered for promotion or tenure.

It is important to keep in mind that use of the portfolio for personnel decisions is only occasional. Its primary purpose is to improve performance.

IMPROVING PERFORMANCE

There is no better reason to prepare a portfolio than to improve performance. Faculty are hired by institutions in expectation of first-class performance. To help them hone their performance is nothing less than an extension of this expectation. It is in the very process of reflecting on their work and creating their collection of documents and materials that professors are stimulated to reconsider policies and activities, rethink strategies and methodologies, revise priorities, and plan for the future.

A portfolio is a valuable aid in professional development for three important reasons: (1) the level of personal investment in time, energy, and commitment is high (since faculty prepare their own portfolios), and that is a necessary condition for change; (2) preparation of the portfolio stirs many professors to reflect on their teaching in an insightful, refocused way; and (3) it is grounded in discipline-based pedagogy, that is, the focus is on teaching a particular subject to a particular group of students at a particular time in a particular institution.

Do teaching portfolios actually improve faculty performance? For most faculty, teaching portfolios actually improve their performance. Experience suggests that if a professor is motivated to improve, knows how to improve, or knows where to go for help, improvement is quite likely.

When used for improvement purposes, the portfolio contains no mandated items. Instead, it contains only items chosen by the professor working in collaboration with a consultant/mentor.

The contents page in a portfolio for improvement might have the following entries:

Teaching PortfolioName of Faculty MemberDepartment/CollegeDate

Table of Contents

1. Teaching Responsibilities

2. Teaching Philosophy

3. Teaching Objectives, Strategies, Methodologies

4. Description of Teaching Materials (Syllabi, Handouts, Assignments)

5. Efforts to Improve Teaching

• Curricular Revisions

• Teaching Conferences and Workshops Attended

• Innovations in Teaching

6. Student Ratings on Diagnostic Questions

7. Evidence of Student Learning

8. Teaching Goals (Short and Long Term)

9. Appendices

The improvement portfolio provides a record of performance that details progress and setbacks, successes and disappointments in a framework of honest and thoughtful information analyzed and examined in a timely way. The goal is to establish a baseline of information and then progress through stages of experimentation and development until enhancement of teaching performance becomes evident through assessment.

Sometimes a professor will decide to prepare a teaching portfolio that focuses on a single course rather than an array of courses. The goal is to improve his or her teaching of that particular course by helping the faculty member (1) articulate a teaching philosophy for that particular course; (2) describe, analyze, and evaluate course materials, methods, and outcomes;(4) study student and peer evaluations; and (5) formulate an action plan for improvement.

Whether improvement actually takes place depends on the information included in the portfolio. It will not be successful unless the teaching elements to be strengthened are singled out. If the portfolio is to stimulate improvement in teaching performance, it must have multiple items, and the data must be detailed, thoughtful, and diagnostic.

CHAPTER TWO

CHOOSING ITEMS FOR THE TEACHING PORTFOLIO

The items chosen for the portfolio are based on a combination of availability of supporting materials, the nature of the portfolio, the faculty position, the discipline, and the importance assigned by the faculty member to different items (see the sample portfolios in Part Three). Differences in portfolio content and organization should be encouraged to the extent that they are allowed by the department and the college or university.

Since the teaching portfolio is a highly personalized product, no two are alike. The information revealed in the narrative and documented in the appendix bears a unique stamp that personalizes the portfolio.

Nevertheless, given the nearly universal need in faculty evaluation today that professors document their teaching, the list in this chapter should be helpful. It does not comprise items a professor must include. Rather, it includes many possibilities from which the faculty member can select those that are relevant to his or her purpose and particular academic situation. Also, there may be some items not included in this chapter that are particularly relevant to an individual professor and can be selected for his or her portfolio.

Although this is not an exhaustive list, it illustrates the range of items that might be selected to evidence teaching style and effectiveness. Of course, no single item in the portfolio is capable of providing a comprehensive view of the faculty member’s teaching performance. Rather, the reader’s impression of that performance comes from a summative review of all of the items in the portfolio.

The portfolio takes a broader view of teaching than the traditional curriculum vitae compiled by faculty to document their achievements because it integrates the values of the faculty member with those of the discipline, the department, and the institution. That is accomplished by work samples and reflective commentary that speak to an integration of values.

A word of caution: all college and university professors have seen poor student work dressed in fancy covers. The point of the teaching portfolio is not a fancy cover. Instead, it is the thoughtful, integrated compilation of documents and materials that make the best case for the professor’s effectiveness. The portfolio typically contains a narrative that provides rich details on a professor’s teaching activities, initiatives, accomplishments, and goals, as well as thoughtful reflection on his or her performance. The appendices provide evidence that supports the narrative section.

Based on an examination of more than one thousand portfolios prepared by professors in institutions representing all sectors of higher education, we can say with confidence that certain items turn up in portfolios with much more frequency than others. They fall into three broad categories: material from oneself, material from others, and products of teaching and student learning.

MATERIAL FROM ONESELF

Faculty generally find that gathering materials from themselves is easy because they write their own statements of responsibilities, philosophy, methodologies, syllabi, and goals.

STATEMENT OF TEACHING RESPONSIBILITIES

This statement should include course titles, catalogue numbers, average enrollments, and an indication of whether the course is graduate or undergraduate, required or elective. A chart or table is a useful way to present the information.

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

The focus here is on the philosophy of teaching and learning that drives the professor’s classroom performance. Following are some guiding questions to consider as prompts when preparing this section: What do I believe about the role of the teacher? What do I believe about the role of the student? Why do I teach? What does good teaching mean to me? What can my students expect from me?

TEACHING METHODOLOGIES

This section addresses the professor’s strategies and methodologies.

Guiding questions as prompts: Why do I choose the teaching strategies and methods that I use? How would I describe my particular teaching style? What do I do in the classroom and outside it? How do I assess student learning? What kind of feedback do I give to students?

DESCRIPTION OF TEACHING MATERIALS

Samples of teaching materials are placed in the appendix, but the highlights are included in the narrative, and the two are cross-referenced. Course and instructional materials could include applications of computer technology, study guides, case studies, handouts, and manuals.

Guiding questions as prompts: How do these materials enhance my teaching? In what ways have they changed in recent years? How do I know these changes are for the better? What kind of student feedback do I have about the effectiveness of these teaching materials?

CURRICULAR REVISIONS

This section concerns new or revised courses, material, and assignments.

Guiding questions as prompts: Have I introduced new applications of technology? Changed course objectives? Used new material? Added (or dropped) guest speakers? Field trips? Laboratory work? Have I developed a new course? Revised a course? Team-taught a course?

INSTRUCTIONAL INNOVATIONS

Highlighted here are the new and different pedagogical innovations the professor uses to enhance teaching and student learning.

Guiding questions as prompts: What new approaches have I introduced in teaching my courses? Which ones worked well? Why were they successful? Which didn’t work well? Why didn’t they work? How could they be changed so they would be more successful next time?

REPRESENTATIVE COURSE SYLLABI

Samples of syllabi are placed in the appendix, but highlights appear in the narrative, and the two are cross-referenced.

Guiding questions as prompts: What does this syllabus say about my teaching and learning beliefs? What do I want it to say? What does it say about the course and my way of teaching it? Is it a learning-centered syllabus? Does it detail course content and objectives, teaching methodology, readings, and homework assignments in the way I want it to?

DOCUMENTATION OF TEACHING IMPROVEMENT ACTIVITIES

Improvement efforts and professional development activities are highlighted here. Samples of certificates of attendance can be placed in an appendix file, but reference is made to them in the narrative, and the two are cross-referenced.

Guiding questions as prompts: Which faculty development workshops and conferences have I attended? How am I applying what I learned from those programs? What specific steps have I taken to improve my teaching? How have I responded to suggestions for improvement that have come from students?

TEACHING GOALS—SHORTAND LONG TERM

This section of the portfolio asks professors to look ahead and identify some short- and long-term teaching goals. It forces them to crystallize their thinking about possible projects and activities that would continue their development as a teacher.

Guiding questions as prompts: What teaching goals have I been unable to attain in the past that I would like to pursue now? Why are they important to me? How can my department or institution help me achieve those goals? What kind of resource help (people? money? space? time?) do I need to achieve those goals?

MATERIAL FROM OTHERS

Materials from others are trickier to produce than materials from oneself because they comprise student evaluation and classroom observation reports—feedback that varies in availability and utility.

STUDENT COURSE EVALUATIONS

Student course or teaching evaluation data, especially those that produce an overall rating of effectiveness or satisfaction, are placed in the narrative section of the portfolio. As in other sections of the portfolio, all claims must be supported by evidence in the appendix. Student course evaluation data are often presented in a chart or table that shows the course title and catalogue number, number of students, mean score, and, if available, the department or collegewide mean score on each question.

When the portfolio is used for promotion or tenure, it is especially important to provide ratings on each of the questions that the institution’s personnel committees consider to be pivotal.

Guiding questions as prompts: Are all claims made in the narrative about student ratings supported by evidence in the appendix? Are there any special circumstances that are affected the ratings? Is the vast majority of the student feedback current or from the recent past (three to five years)? Are student evaluation data included from each class that is regularly taught? Are data from all pivotal questions included?

COLLEAGUE REVIEW OF TEACHING MATERIALS

Excerpts from reports reviewing such pedagogical supports as course syllabi, assignments, reading lists, tests, and PowerPoint slides are placed in the narrative file and cross-referenced to the complete report in the appendix file.

Guiding questions as prompts: Are excerpts included in the narrative that tie in with my teaching philosophy or methodology? What do these teaching aids say about my teaching and learning beliefs? What is significant about each? In specific terms, how do they help students learn?

CLASSROOM OBSERVATION BY FACULTY COLLEAGUES OR ADMINISTRATORS

Excerpts from observation reports are placed in the narrative section and are cross-referenced to the complete report, located in the appendix file.

Guiding questions as prompts: Is the observation report dated and signed by the observer? Are any excerpts included in the narrative that tie in with my philosophy of teaching or pedagogical methodology? Did any special circumstances (for example, room too noisy, too large, too small, too cold, too hot) interfere with teaching and learning during the observation?

DOCUMENTATION OF TEACHING IMPROVEMENT ACTIVITIES

Improvement efforts and professional development activities are highlighted here. Samples of certificates of attendance can be placed in an appendix, with reference made to them in the narrative, and the two are cross-referenced.

Guiding questions as prompts: Which faculty development seminars or workshops have I attended? How am I applying what I learned from those programs in my teaching? What evidence do I have of growth or change in my teaching? How have I responded to students’ suggestions for improvement?

TEACHING HONORS AND OTHER RECOGNITION

This section of the portfolio focuses on teaching honors or other recognition from colleagues, students, administrators, or alumni, such as a distinguished teaching award, student advising award, or teacher of the year designation. Certificates of achievement, award letters, and photographs documenting the teaching recognition should be placed in the appendix.

Guiding questions as prompts: Which teaching honors or other recognition have I won? Who selected me for this achievement: peers, students, or alumni? On what basis was I selected? Have there been setbacks or disappointments that later served as the foundation of any of these honors?

PRODUCTS OF GOOD TEACHING AND STUDENT LEARNING