TLC's Selection of Instructional Topics:
Teaching Portfolio

Appendix I of the University of Kentucky Administrative Regulation AR II-1.0-5 (http://www.uky.edu/Regulations/fhbcov.html) details which documents are required and which are suggested for inclusion in the portfolio. (The Administrative Regulations can also be accessed with a VIEW command on the UKCC server. To access View, log on to UKCC and type: "view." After accessing "View," go to "Regulations.")

Following are some additional suggestions that might prove helpful for choosing items to be included in the portfolio. The types of documents in a portfolio can be loosely organized into material from the instructor, material from others, and the products of good teaching. (Cf., Edgerton, Hutchings and Quinlan (1991) and Seldin (1991; 1993).

Materials from the Instructor include:

• Statement of teaching responsibilities, including course titles, numbers, enrollments, and a brief description of the way each course was taught;
• Representative course syllabi detailing course content and objectives, teaching methods, readings, and homework assignments;
• Instructional innovations and evaluation of their effectiveness;
• A personal statement by the professor describing teaching goals for the next five years;
• A reflective statement by the professor describing personal teaching philosophy, strategies, and objectives;
• Description of steps taken to evaluate and improve one's teaching. This description might include changes resulting from self-evaluation, time spent reading journals on improving teaching, participation in seminars, workshops and professional meetings on improving teaching, and obtaining instructional development grants;
• Self-evaluation by the professor. This document would include not only a personal assessment of teaching-related activities but also an explanation of any contradictory or unclear documents or materials in the teaching portfolio;
• Information about direction/supervision of honors, graduate theses, and research group activities;
• Description of curricular revisions, including new course projects, class assignments;
• Contributing to, or editing, a professional journal on teaching the professor's discipline;
• A videotape of the professor teaching a typical class;
• Evidence of help given to colleagues leading to improvement of their teaching; and
• Description of how computers, films, and other non-print materials are used in teaching.

Materials from Others include:

• Student course or teaching evaluation data which produce an overall rating of effectiveness or suggest improvements;
• Statements from colleagues who have observed the professor in the classroom;
• Statements from colleagues who have systematically reviewed the professor's classroom materials, the course syllabi, assignments, testing and grading practices, text selection;
• Statements from colleagues who have systematically reviewed the professor's out-of-class activities such as instructional and curricular development, and instructional research;
• A statement by a chairperson assessing the professor's teaching contribution to the department and discussing how the department plans to use the professor as a teacher in the future;
• Information on the professor's performance as a faculty advisor. This input would come primarily from students, but supplementary information might also come from the department chairperson or advising coordinator or even from colleagues;
• Honors or other recognition from colleagues such as a distinguished teaching award or election to a committee on teaching;
• Invitations to teach from outside agencies, to present a paper at a conference on teaching one's discipline or on teaching in general, or to participate in a media interview on a successful teaching method;
• Invitations to other campuses to demonstrate effective instructional methods, or to participate in teaching/learning symposia;
• Participation in local, regional, state or national activities related to teaching courses in the professor's discipline;
• Documentation of teaching/development activity through the campus office for teaching and learning; and
• Involvement in research that contributes directly to teaching.

Products of Good Teaching can include:

• A record of students who succeed in advanced study in the field;
• Student publications or conference presentations on course-related work;
• Testimonials from employers or students about the professor's influence on career choice;
• Student scores on professor-made or standardized tests possibly before and after a course, as evidence of student learning;
• Student essays, creative work, field-work reports, laboratory workbooks or logs and student publications on course-related work;
• Examples of graded student essays showing excellent, average, and poor work along with the professor's comments as to why they were so graded; and
• Statements by alumni on the quality of instruction.

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Posted July 1, 1997
http://www.uky.edu/UndergraduateStudies/tlc/topic/portfolio.html