Teaching Portfolio

What is a Teaching Portfolio?

"A teaching portfolio is a coherent set of materials, including work samples and reflective
commentary on them, compiled by a faculty member to inquire into and represent his or
her teaching practice as related to student learning and development." -- Pat Hutchings,
(1993) American Association of Higher Education.
Typically, a teaching portfolio is a dossier that includes selected documentation of your
teaching effectiveness and your reflection on your teaching.
What is the Purpose of a Teaching
Portfolio?
There are several reasons why a teacher would need to design a portfolio. The most
common are for hiring decisions, promotion, and tenure, and sometimes for teaching
awards. Typically one submits only a cover letter and CV when first applying for a job.
Once a campus interview has been offered, it is a good idea to have a portfolio ready to
offer as a presentation of your teaching effectiveness. However, there is great variability
in this process. For example, some employers might request that you submit a
Statement of Teaching Philosophy with your CV or a summary of student evaluations.
Thus, it is a good idea to have a comprehensive, ongoing, and changing teaching
portfolio that you can excerpt from as appropriate.
What should be included?
Teaching portfolios have as much variability as individual teachers. Peter Seldin, who
has written extensively on teaching portfolios, suggests that the materials should come
evenly from three different areas: 1) information from self, such as a statement of
teaching philosophy and reflections; 2) information from others, such as student, faculty,
or peer evaluations; and 3) products, such as course materials.
Within these categories, some aspects of a teaching portfolio that may be included are:
Statement of teaching philosophy. Most teaching portfolios include this brief (1-2
page) explication on your philosophy about teaching near the beginning.
Student evaluation summaries. Some documentation of student evaluations should
always be included. The way that you present this data, however, can take many forms.
Some possibilities are:

 A table summarizing the numerical end of semester evaluations for all classes taught
 Sample mid-term and end-of-semester comments from a recent class, with a reflection
on how you used feedback to improve your teaching
 Copies of official university evaluation summaries
 Selected comments from students (from qualitative portion of evaluations), organized by
course, or theme (about "leading discussions," "being available to students," etc.)

The exercise: Presenting and Reflecting on Student Evaluations offers suggestions for
presenting this data and a writing exercise to begin writing a reflection on them.
A curriculum vitae or
A list of post-secondary courses taught if CV was sent separately. This list could
provide more detailed information than a CV, such as class size and make-up (e.g.,
mostly upper-class English majors, a freshman core course, etc.).
 Sample course materials, such as:

 Syllabus
 Assignments and grading guide
 A student paper with comments (with identifying information removed, and with a
statement of student permission)
 Lesson plan
 Exam or quiz
 Description of semester-long project

 Reflections on materials. Write a brief reflection on the materials you have chosen to
showcase (1-page maximum).

Writing Reflections on Teaching Materials includes some guidelines and writing

questions to begin drafting reflections.
List of professional interactions about teaching. These activities could include
serving as a mentor to new TAs, assisting in department or university TA orientation,
creating assignments or exams for other TAs to use, etc.
Documentation of classroom observation by a faculty member. Some departments
have formal observation practices with appropriate documentation, such as a letter.
How do I get started?
 Beginning a Teaching Portfolio: Questions to Consider is an exercise that asks you to jot
down the answers to several questions which might help to guide the development of
your teaching portfolio.
 Review other teaching portfolios. Look at the teaching portfolios of friends,
colleagues, or advisors. When conducting a faculty search, departments often have the
dossiers of prospective applicants available for review by faculty and graduate students.
This is a great opportunity to see how others at the early stage in their career have
presented their professional experiences. CTE also has several sample teaching
portfolios for review.
 Write a statement of teaching philosophy. Articulating your values about teaching
helps you choose the best pieces of evidence to support those values. For example, if
your teaching philosophy highlights the importance of collaborative learning, find an
assignment or project that showcases how you use this approach.
 Begin to organize student evaluations. Find and read over past student evaluations.
See if you notice any trends. In what areas have you improved and how? See
Presenting and Reflecting on Student Evaluations for more ideas.
 Find sample materials. Review syllabi, assignments, lesson plans, and classroom
materials, and choose those which represent your best work. Begin drafting 2-3
paragraph reflective essays on each of these topics. See Writing Reflections on
Teaching Materials.
 Schedule a classroom observation by a faculty member. Have the faculty member
write a letter describing the observation.
 How should it be formatted?
All teaching portfolios should have a table of contents. This is your central organizing
document and it should be clear and concise. After that, there is great variability in how
the portfolio is organized. No matter what order you choose for your documents, the
American Association of Higher Education recommends that a portfolio be structured,
representative and selective.

 It should follow a logical format and be easy for readers to follow.

 Formatting should be clear and consistent. Use continuous pagination and/or use tabs
and dividers. Nothing turns a reader off more than a document that is disorganized and
tedious to read.
 It should offer the best snapshot of your teaching practices. Include materials that best
exemplify your teaching philosophy.
 It should be honest. Try to represent yourself as accurately as possible. Refrain from
padding, but highlight the positives. If you include negative evaluations, show how you
have used this feedback to improve your teaching, and include subsequent positive
evaluations.
 It should be limited. Most people will start out with a much more comprehensive portfolio
than is necessary, and much of the work will be pruning it down to the best examples of
your work.
 Seldin (1997) suggests that the portfolio be divided between the narrative components,
placed first, and appendices with supporting materials. Other teachers might integrate
narrative components and supporting materials. Consider the pros and cons of each
approach and use a format that makes sense with your materials.

Where can I find other resources?

CTE's Online and Print Resources

 Teaching Portfolio Resources

 American Association for Higher Education. (1993) Campus Use of the Teaching
Portfolio.
 Edgerton, R. (1991) Teaching Portfolio: Capturing the Scholarship in Teaching.
 Murray, J.P. (1997) Successful Faculty Development and Evaluation: The Complete
Teaching Portfolio.
 Seldin, P. (1993) Successful Use of Teaching Portfolios.
 Seldin, P. (1997) The Teaching Portfolio: A Practical Guide to Improve Performance and
Promotion/Tenure Decisions. Second Edition.

CTE also offers individual consulting on this and other topics. Call (412) 396-5177 or e-
mail cte@duq.edu for more information.

 Course website excepts