El Portafolio Docente

Preparing a

Teaching Portfolio
by
Fran Mues and Mary Deane Sorcinelli
The Center for Teaching
University of Massachusetts Amherst

Spring 2000

Contents
Preface v
What Is a Teaching Portfolio? 1
Why Prepare a Teaching Portfolio? 1
How Does One Develop a Teaching Portfolio? 2
Getting Started 3
Preparing Your Portfolio 3
Shaping the Final Portfolio 7
Keeping Your Portfolio Upto Date 8
Assembling an Electronic Portfolio 8
How Will My Portfolio Be Evaluated? 9
Conclusion 9
Appendices
Appendix A:
Appendix B:
Appendix C:
Appendix D:
Appendix E:
Appendix F:
Appendix G:

Items That Might Be Included in a Teaching Portfolio 11
Sample Teaching Portfolio 14
Excerpts from a Teaching Portfolio 21
Sample Summary of Teaching Experience 24
Sample Teaching PhilosophyStatement 26
Sample Teaching Philosophy Statement 28
Sample Activities to Improve Teaching 30

References 32
Teaching Portfolio Resources List 33

Preface
Over the past decade, the Center for Teaching (CFT) and the Faculty Senate Council
on Teaching, Learning and Instructional Technology have collaborated on several
initiatives to assist faculty in assessing and enhancing teaching.The Council has advised
in the development of an updated student and course evaluation system, the Student
Response to Instruction (SRTI). And in an effort to supplement student ratings with a
richer and more substantive kind of information about teaching, they have encouraged
faculty members and departments to consider compiling teaching portfolios.
In 1993, the CFT and the Council prepared anintroductory handbook for campus
use: the Teaching Portfolio Handbook. At that time, only a handful of institutions across
the United States were experimenting with teaching portfolios. On our campus,
individual faculty mostly used the Teaching Portfolio Handbook as a general reference
when documenting their teaching accomplishments for teaching awards, mini-tenure, and
tenure and promotionreview.
Over the past decade, however, there has been a growing body of knowledge about
how to create and apply teaching portfolios. It is estimated that as many as 1,000 college
and universities are now using and experimenting with portfolios (Seldin, 1997). On our
own campus, several colleges and departments have sponsored workshops on the
teaching portfolio, one school is piloting aportfolio project, the CFT offers assistance in
portfolio
development to graduate students through its Teaching Documentation Program, and
individual faculty and teaching assistants increasingly consult with the CFT on portfolio
development.
In addition, our Provost, Cora B. Marrett, has encouraged a fuller and more
convincing assessment of teaching accomplishments for personnel decision making.In
her 1998 Promotion and Tenure Recommendations, she placed a renewed emphasis on
the “personal statement.” In a personal statement, the candidate for tenure and/or
promotion describes his or her performance and future plans in the areas of research,

vi Preface

teaching, and service. In documenting teaching effectiveness, Marrett argues that the
consideration of teaching should attemptto capture the total contribution of the candidate
to the instruc-tional mission. She further suggests that “. . . a teaching portfolio can be an
effective document to connect teaching activity with the personal statement of the
candidate.”
In this updated handbook, Preparing a Teaching Portfolio, we can now offer faculty
members and administrators the kind of step-by-step, practicalinformation necessary to
get started, prepare, and maintain a teaching portfolio. Graduate students who are
planning careers as faculty members should also find this handbook useful. Another
important revision is the addition of sample items that have been used in real portfolios at
the University of Massachusetts Amherst. They consist of a complete teaching portfolio
and excerpts from other...