Below are my notes from another of UNL’s Office of Graduate Studies workshops, this time on the subject of creating an effective teaching statement and a teaching portfolio. The workshop was held on Thursday, February 20th.

A teaching portfolio = “a coherent set of materials including work samples and reflective commentary on them compiled by a faculty member [or graduate student] to represent his or her teaching practice as related to student learning and development.” (Hutchings, 1996)

• a useful tool for…
  • identifying areas for improvement
  • developing your teaching methods/approach
  • documenting your teaching experience
  • preparing for academic interviews
• focus today = preparing for the academic job interview
  • “the product of preparing a teaching portfolio may not be as useful to you in the long-run as the process“

Portfolio content:

• depends on the purpose
  • job search
  • awards application
  • promotion & tenure
• varies across disciplines
• linked to your goals for teaching & learning
• three primary components:
  • roles & responsibilities
  • teaching statement
  • evidence of effective teaching

(1) Teaching responsibilities:

• include: course number, course title, brief course description, course level (first year undergraduates/sophomores/juniors), date(s) taught, enrollment (number of students in course, maximum number allowed), description of your role in the course (recitation leader, instructor)
  • list these in reverse chronological order
    • be sure to update constantly, just as you would your C.V.
  • if haven’t taught courses, think about including very specific information on courses you would like to teach
  • a good option for your portfolio = to list these courses in table format (for easy browsing of your experience)

(2) Teaching statement:

• need to get to the point where you can articulate “why you teach the way you teach” within a 30-second “elevator speech”
• 1-2 page (single-spaced) statement that addresses:
  • What do you want students to do/learn? (learning objectives)
    • e.g. “I want students to become effective writers. I want them to formulate and articulate a stance through and in their writing.”
  • How do you help them learn? (methods)
    • e.g. “I use brief, in-class writing assignments to help students synthesize and critically evaluate information.”
  • How do you know if they’ve learned it? (assessment)
    • e.g. “I evaluate students’ blog posts in terms of content, synthesis, and relevance. Students are given examples of good posts and the grading criteria prior to the assignment.”
  • How do you measure your effectiveness?
    • e.g. “Every three to four weeks, I end the class by asking students to respond briefly to two questions: What’s the most important thing you learned today? and What questions still remain unanswered? Their responses help me identify what they understood from the discussion and what concepts are still unclear.”

• NOT about telling your general “teaching philosophy” –> show, don’t just tell
  • the person(s) reading this statement are interested in what you’ve accomplished, learned, thought about more than simply what you think/believe
• Keep in mind that a good teaching statement is:
  • concrete, personal/individualized, vivid, discipline specific, somewhat humble, all about student learning
• Remember: Not all teaching takes place in the classroom. Think broadly about your contributions to student learning.
  • e.g. mentoring of undergraduate students can be included because it IS teaching; same for tutoring, for example

(3) Evidence of effective teaching:

• include materials from:
  • oneself: syllabus, teaching sample, narrative reflection
  • colleagues: observation notes/summary, syllabus or material reviews/letters by recommenders
    • letters by faculty/other recommenders can be a particularly strong part of your teaching portfolio IF they are specific about your teaching
  • students: course ratings, comments, products/evidence of learning outcomes, letters, individual samples and aggregated summaries (anonymized & showing progress over the course of the semester)
    • offer raw data from course evaluations (to offer a fuller representation of your evaluations by students) BUT include samples that promote you as a teacher
• other examples of evidence: list of courses taught, sample syllabi, sample assignments, sample quizzes/exams, teaching awards, evaluations by peers
• when including student ratings/evaluations, be selective:
  • choose items that link to your major claims
  • use a matrix/table to display and organize the evaluation questions you are using
  • provide mean (and median) ratings
  • include narrative commentary –> write about some of the feedback you’ve received to respond to criticism and/or illustrate ways you’ve responded to criticism and changed your teaching as a result
  • include selection of student comments that relate back to some of your major teaching goals
  • if appropriate, include complete evaluations in appendices (depends on the discipline)

Portfolio organization: (physical copy)

• narrative description of teaching roles & responsibility
• teaching statement
  • description of select teaching methods and strategies
  • highlighted teaching outcomes
  • insights/reflections and new goals
• appedices (supporting data, documents, letters, etc.)

• could maintain a physical copy to take with you to a job interview, although it will probably be infrequent that you will be asked to provide a physical copy

Qualities of a “strong” portfolio:

• readability: format, headings, coherent, cohesive
• storyline or “picture”: memorable fact/image, clear examples given
• linked system of objectives, efforts, outcomes, adjustments: evidence that efforts do pay off or are changed

Revise, revise, revise:

• remember your teaching statement = a work in progress
• consider the suggestions of others and rewrite your statement over time
• proofread carefully
  • remember that your statement is a writing sample –> you will be judged on the quality of your writing as much as the content

Final tips:

• start now
• be selective
• don’t make any claims about your teaching you can’t document
• don’t create your portfolio in isolation
• consider it a work in progress
• make cumulative tables & annual review narratives