With costs of higher education rising faster than inflation, parents and legislators question how faculty spend their time and whether universities make an effective use of public and personal money. Teaching portfolios help us measure our teaching effectiveness and meet this demand for accountability. A teaching portfolio is a factual description of our major teaching strengths and teaching achievements. A personal document provides a scholarly format for examining, portraying, explaining, and highlighting aspects of our teaching. The typical teaching portfolio consists of 5-10 pages of organized narrative followed by an appendix.
Additional sections depend on our individual teaching situations.
Data included in the appendix support claims made in the narrative portion of the teaching portfolio. For example, in the narrative portion, we may claim that we are particularly effective at leading discussions or at getting students to write effective argumentative essays or lab reports. In our experience at the Program for Excellence in Teaching, we have found that for most faculty, creating a teaching portfolio requires a small amount of explanation and direction and a protected space in which to write. Then they have time to write and edit that section. Collegial discussion is interspersed throughout and enhances the thinking, writing and editing processes.