Examples of Teaching Portfolios

TEACHING PORTFOLIO FOR X. Y.*

A. Goals

For each course, I identify the concepts and procedures that I want each student to master. Then I develop a sequence of instructional activities intended to lead to that mastery. Students are expected to demonstrate conceptual mastery, not just to recognize or recall….

I try to learn the name of each student and something more about him or her….

I regularly review my teaching practices and experiment with new ideas.

B. Responsibilities

Typically, each semester I teach two courses and an undergraduate seminar. Specifically, in the last six semesters I have taught the following courses (numbers of students in parentheses):

• Course A (430 students)
• Course B (56 students)

The participants in the seminar obtain valuable experience as discussion group leaders in certain sections of the freshman course X.

In the past three years I have chaired x doctoral dissertation committees and y master’s thesis committees, and have guided z honors theses.

This year I have advised 33 certified majors in my department and, for the advisory program in the SALC, about 12 students who are not yet certified.

While I do not believe in innovation for its own sake, I do treat each of my courses as an experience from which I, too, can learn something. The object is to find ways to teach more effectively with available resources.

About a third of the students in the seminar mentioned above are from ethnic minorities, and are active in programs serving other students belonging to those groups. I have been a leader in the programs A, B, and C, which are concerned especially with the academic welfare of minority students, and they have received national attention, based in part on papers I have published about them. (See below.)

Many of the findings in my discipline have direct application in undergraduate instruction, and I have done my best to make use of them in my teaching. Examples include:

• Example A
• Example B

At WSU I have been a member (chair if an asterisk is attached) of the following university, college, and department committees concerned directly with teaching.

• Committee A
• Committee B

I try to follow the highlights of the literature on those aspects of university education that especially interest me. I scan every issue of the Journal of Higher Education and, as an individual member of the American Association for Higher Education, I regularly receive and examine its Bulletin and the magazine Change which it publishes. I often follow up on publications cited in these journals. Recent constraints on travel have prevented me from attending as many conferences on teaching in my field as I would have liked, but I have in fact attended the following since I came to WSU:

• Conference A
• Conference B

I have received special funding with WSU for several of the projects mentioned above, namely:

• Project A
• Project B

I have also received the following grants from the Lilly Endowment, the Exxon Foundation, and FIPSE:

• Grant A
• Grant B

A program officer at FIPSE has encouraged me to submit a proposal for a sequel to the FIPSE grant just mentioned, and I plan to do so in the next round.

C. Evaluations

In general, student evaluations of my courses have been positive, and the written comments have been laudatory. In the fall of 1993, my two classes rated higher than any others in the department; but they were also the smallest classes. The appendix contains a random selection of written comments from students. My department does not make systematic use of peer evaluations, but my colleagues think highly of my contributions in team-taught courses and my occasional guest lectures.

D. Results

I have no way of measuring how much I contribute to the professional welfare of the students who earn a baccalaureate in our department. In general, they do very well, whether or not they go on for graduate work. Those students who have done graduate work under my supervision have done very well indeed, as the following information about those who have received advanced degrees in the past three years indicates:

• Student A
• Student B

E. Publications

I have published about 45 research papers and reports in my field. I have also published, or am awaiting an editorial decision on, the following papers specifically concerned with teaching:

• Publication A
• Publication B

Signed: X**************** Y***************