Certificate courses may benefit a small number at Sheffield but the portfolio could reach a much wider audience. I have also included their use in the Warwick Teaching Certificate, to be launched in January 1997, that I am leading. I recently assisted Promotions Committee at Warwcik by producing guidelines for probabtioners who are now expected to generate a teaching portfolio to document their teaching. I am now involved in assisting Promotions Committee to establish a means by which staff may claim promotions partly on the grounds of teaching excellence, and this too will include the use of a portfolio of evidence. This programme has a Professional Portfolio as it principal means of assessment.
Participants compile a teaching portfolio as a major part of their training and assessment.
I am interested in the potential of portfolios as vehicles for and evidence of reflective practice which results in developing personal theories or in the ability to 'make a case' for teaching. Peter A.J. Bouhuijs Associate Professor, Educational Research and Development, University of Maastricht, The Netherlands. As a faculty developer I have always stressed the importance of a clear link between faculty development and personnel management. The faculty board claims that the system will be more clear than a system based on portfolio's. One of these initiatives is a training programme for junior faculty in which portfolios play a central role.