FOE EFL TS AND ALL EFL PROFESSIONALS : TEACHING PORTFOLIOS

1. Teaching Portfolios:
What are they and how do I put one
together?
September 14, 2004
Presenter: Tine Reimers
reimers@utep.edu

2. What’s a Teaching Portfolio?
An arrangement of organized, representative
materials related to your professional practice
(teaching) and explained by your teaching
statement.

3. What should be in a Teaching
Portfolio?
 Material from yourself
 Material from others
 Student products
(Peter Seldin, The Teaching Portfolio)

4. Seldin: Material from Yourself
 Statement of teaching responsibilities, history
 Reflective teaching statement
 Goals statement
 Representative syllabi
 Professional development opportunities taken
 Self-evaluation of materials: explanation of
supporting documents

5. Seldin: Material from Others
 Observation statements from colleagues
 Materials reviews from colleagues
 Student evaluations and comments
 Honors, other recognitions for teaching
 Invitations to teach, to lead seminars on teaching
 Documentation of teaching development
 Videotape of a class

6. Seldin: Student Products
 Samples of student work
 Student scores on common exams
 Information about effect on student careers, majors
 Alumni statements
 Student publications
 Examples of graded essays

7. Your
teaching
role &
Evidence How you
objectives
of student teach
success & (method,
learning techniques)
Document
your teaching
with…
What Your efforts to
students grow &
observe What improve
colleagues
observe
Center for Effective Teaching and Learning UTEP 2003

8. What’s the Role of the Teaching
Statement?
 Communicates your enthusiasm and commitment to
teaching
 Expresses your beliefs and values about teaching,
learning, and students.
 Tells the “story” of your teaching: past, present,
future.
 Points to evidence of your teaching success
 Serves as the DOORWAY to your whole teaching
portfolio

9. Writing a Philosophy of Teaching
Statement
 Decide what “story” you need to tell
 Be clear about what kind of classes/students
you teach
 Address disciplinary realities
 Address readers not in your discipline
 Describe what you do to get students to learn
 Explain the challenges students have in your
discipline/your class

10. Questions to ask yourself as you
prepare your statement
 What’s your “story”?
 How did you get into teaching—why are you
engaged in this profession?
 What do you love best about teaching—i.e.,
when is it most rewarding?

11. Questions to ask yourself (cont.)
 How do you want your students to change as a
result of your classes?
 what new things should they be able to do, say, and know?
 Who are your students?
 what are their strengths coming into your program?
 what are their needs? How do they learn best?
 what are the challenges of teaching in your discipline?

12. Questions to ask yourself (cont.)
 What strategies do you employ to help
students learn?
 What does a typical class look like?
 What do your assignments look like?

13. Questions to ask yourself (cont.)
 What’s your evidence that you are effective in
getting students to learn?
(See handout on documenting teaching and
learning…)

14. Questions to ask yourself (cont.)
 What have you learned along the way?
 How has what you’ve learned changed your
teaching?
 How can you document those changes?

15. Questions to ask yourself (cont.)
 What efforts have you made to improve your
teaching?
 Scholarly/research efforts
 developmental efforts
 How have you documented these efforts?

16. Questions to ask yourself (cont.)
 Where do you want to go now?
 What’s exciting in the future?
 What do you want to tackle next in your
teaching?

17. Your Teaching Statement needs to
 Communicate your enthusiasm and
commitment to teaching
 Express your beliefs and values about
teaching, learning, and students
 Tell the “story” of your teaching: past, present,
future
 Point to evidence of your teaching success
 Serve as the DOORWAY to your whole
teaching portfolio

18. Teaching statements are a “work in
progress”
 Revise your statement often—as you teach
new courses, you change and grow.
 Get others to read your statement before
submitting for evaluation of any kind.
 Look for opportunities to document what you
say in your statement: make your statement the
door to your portfolio.

19. Mundane Issues for Organization
 Organize materials for ease of reading
 Table of contents, indexes, explanations, clearly
labeled sections, appendices
 Pay attention to durability
 Binders, plastic sleeves…
 Keep copies of originals
 Keep it short
 Keep it representative

20. Resources
 Ask for and study portfolios from successful
candidates
 Visit our portfolio website:
http://cetal.utep.edu/resources/portfolios/
 Make an appointment to talk about your
statement, portfolio…