CONTENTS: Thoughts on teaching portfolios by leaders in higher education, plus a definition and argument of their benefits.

SOURCE: Program in College Teaching , University of Wyoming (http://grad.uwyo.edu/pict/WhatisTP.htm). Adapted for NTLF June 1999.

A Teaching Portfolio is loosely defined as a set of things that are assembled to represent your teaching accomplishments, philosophies and goals. Below are some thoughts on Teaching Portfolios from leaders in the field of higher education.

"At the heart of the portfolio as we envision it are samples of teaching performance; not just what teachers say about their practice but artifacts and examples of what they actually do." (Edgerton, Hutchings and Quinlan, 1992)

"A schoolteacher's portfolio can be defined as a container for storing and displaying evidence of a teacher's knowledge and skills. However, this definition is incomplete. A portfolio is more than a container--a portfolio also represents an attitude that assessment is dynamic, and that the richest portrayals of teaching (and student) performance are based upon multiple sources of evidence collected over time in authentic settings." (Wolf, 1991)

"Most methods of evaluating teaching are based upon underdeveloped or fragmented conceptions of teaching and almost completely ignore students' learning. Good teaching involves invention, problem solving, knowledge worrying and ongoing revision. A portfolio depicts the nature and quality of an individual's teaching and students' learning--it explains the connections among the instructor's intentions, teaching strategies and students' learning, thinking and development." (Bill Cerbin, 1993)

"And so I would ask us to think . . . about such strategies as portfolios not simply as psychometric devices to increase the accuracy of our evaluations but as culture-producing strategies that change the fundamental ways in which we live and think." (Lee Shulman, 1993)

THE TEACHING PORTFOLIO

A DEFINITION: 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

THE ARGUMENT: Teaching portfolios can...

1. Prompt individual reflection about and improvement of teaching goals, strategies, and results, now and over time.

2. Put faculty in charge of monitoring, improving, and ensuring the quality of teaching: a mechanism for professional accountability.

3. Provide better, more authentic, more robust (which is not to say foolproof or "scientific") evidence of teaching growth and effectiveness... be it for improvement-oriented discussion with colleagues or personnel decision making.

4. Help foster a culture in which teaching and learning are valued, talked about, inquired into, rewarded, and continuously improved.

American Association for Higher Education: Teaching Portfolios Definitions (1993), by Pat Hutchings