Summary of the Teacher's Portfolio
A teaching portfolio: What is it?
"A teaching portfolio is a cohesive set of materials assembled by a faculty member to reflect on and represent their teaching practice as it relates to student learning and development, including work examples and reflective commentary on them." Pat Hutchings, American Association of Higher Education (1993).
A teaching portfolio is typically a dossier that contains carefully chosen evidence of your effectiveness as a teacher and your reflections on your practice.
What Function Does a Teaching Portfolio Serve?
There are a number of factors that would require a teacher to create a portfolio. The most frequent are for tenure, promotion, and hiring choices, with teaching awards occasionally following. Normally, while applying for a job, one merely submits a cover letter and a CV. It is a good idea to have a portfolio prepared to show as evidence of your teaching efficacy once a campus interview has been extended.
However, this technique has a lot of variation. For instance, some employers might want you to provide a Statement of Teaching Philosophy or a summary of student assessments along with your CV. Therefore, it is a good idea to have a thorough, active, and evolving teaching portfolio that you may draw from as necessary.
What ought to be contained?
Teaching portfolios are as unique as the teachers who create them. Peter Seldin, a prolific author on teaching portfolios, advises that the content should be evenly distributed across three different categories:
- A statement of one's teaching philosophy and reflections are examples of information from oneself.
- Evaluations from peers, faculty, or students are examples of information from others.
- Products include course materials.
Some components of a teaching portfolio that may be included within these categories are:
- Philosophy statement for the classroom. Near the start of most teaching portfolios, you'll find a brief (1-2 page) explanation of your teaching philosophy.
- Summary of student evaluations. Student evaluations should always be supported by some documentation. But there are numerous options for how you might convey this information. Some options include:
- Copies of the official university evaluation summaries
- Selected student comments from the qualitative portion of evaluations, organized by course or theme (about "leading discussions," "being available to students," etc.)
- A table summarizing the numerical end-of-semester/term evaluations for all classes taught
- Sample mid-term and end-semester comments from a recent class, with a reflection on how you used feedback to improve your teaching
The activity:
In Presenting and Reflecting on Student Evaluations, recommendations are made on how to present this information and a writing task is provided to get you started on your reflection.
an academic resume or If the CV was supplied separately, a list of the post-secondary courses taught. This list could include more specific information than a CV, such as the size and composition of the class (e.g., mostly upper-class English majors, a freshman core course, etc.).
Examples of course materials include:
- the syllabus;
- assignments and grading guidelines;
- a student paper with comments (with identifying information removed and with a statement of permission from the student);
- a lesson plan;
- an exam or quiz;
- a description of a semester-long project;
- and passages from the course website. Briefly reflect on the materials you have selected to display in your essay (1-page maximum).
The writing prompts and directions in Writing Reflections on Teaching Materials can be used to start drafting reflections.
A list of teaching-related professional interactions. These tasks could include mentoring new TAs, helping with departmental or institutional TA orientation, developing assignments or tests that other TAs can utilize, etc.
Recording of a faculty member's observation of a classroom. Some departments have established formal observation procedures with the necessary supporting documents, such a letter.
Where do I begin?
You are asked to write down your responses to a number of questions that may assist to direct the building of your teaching portfolio in the exercise
- "Beginning a Teaching Portfolio: Questions to Consider." peruse further teaching portfolios.
- Look at your friends', your advisors', or your colleagues' teaching portfolios. Departments frequently make the dossiers of potential candidates available for faculty and graduate students to study when conducting a faculty search. It's a terrific chance to observe how other people who are just starting out in their careers have portrayed their professional experiences. A number of sample teaching portfolios are available for inspection at CTE.
- Put your teaching philosophy in writing. You can select the best pieces of evidence to support your teaching values by clearly stating your values. For instance, if your pedagogy emphasizes the value of collaborative learning, look for a task or project that demonstrates how you apply this strategy.
- Organize student evaluations to start. Find old student evaluations and read them. See if you can spot any patterns. What areas and how have you changed? For more suggestions, see Presenting and Reflecting on Student Evaluations.
- Look for test materials. Examine the course materials, homework assignments, lesson plans, and syllabi, and select those that best showcase your talents. On each of these subjects, start writing reflective essays that are 2-3 paragraphs long. Writing Reflections on Teaching Materials is a good resource.
- Set up a faculty member to observe your class. Request that the professor write a note outlining the observation.
What format should it be in?
A table of contents ought to be included in every instructional portfolio. This should be your main organizational document, so make it very clear and succinct. The portfolio's structure varies greatly from then on out. The American Association of Higher Education advises that a portfolio be structured, representative, and selective regardless of the arrangement you decide on for your materials.
- It ought to have a logical flow and be simple to understand.
- There should be clear and uniform formatting. Use tabs and divisions or continuous pagination. Nothing puts off a reader faster than a disjointed and tiresome document.
- It ought to provide the clearest picture possible of your instructional methods. Include resources that most effectively illustrate your teaching philosophies.
- It need to be truthful. Try to portray oneself as truthfully as you can. Avoid fluff and instead emphasize the good. If you do offer critical comments, be sure to follow it up with subsequent good reviews to demonstrate how you improved your instruction. It ought to be restricted. The majority of people begin with much larger portfolios than is necessary, and part of the effort is to narrow it down to the greatest samples of your work.
- Seldin (1997) proposes that the narrative elements of the portfolio should come first, and that the supporting resources should be included in the appendices. Other educators may incorporate narrative elements and supplementary materials. Use a structure that makes sense with your materials after weighing the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy.
Please join the our news update Group on WhatsApp and telegram below to be the first to be updated on all news or assist you with the NTC
Click to join the Telegram Group……
