Teaching Portfolios
Teaching portfolios allow instructors to document the scope and quality of their teaching performance with evidence from a variety of sources such as syllabi, graded student work, feedback from students and observers, their own self-assessments and reflections, and more. Depending on their purpose, teaching portfolios can be used:
- Formatively, to help instructors reflect upon and improve their teaching
- Summatively, to inform hiring, promotion, and tenure decision-making
Teaching Center staff can assist academic units in establishing criteria for teaching portfolios and can help instructors at any stage in the process of developing their own teaching portfolios. Academic units and instructors interested in requesting one-on-one consultations can submit requests at teaching@pitt.edu. Instructors can also register to attend regularly offered workshops on developing teaching portfolios.
Resources and Readings for Teaching Portfolios
- Statement of Teaching Philosophy Tips and Strategies
- Prompts for Developing a Statement of Teaching Philosophy
- Components of a Teaching Portfolio
- Teaching Portfolio Checklist
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This seminal guidebook provides models, standards, practices, and tools for creating and evaluating teaching portfolios.
- Teaching Portfolios by Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching contains information about the purpose of a teaching portfolio, what it is, its components, the role a teaching portfolio plays in the academic job market, guidelines for assembling one, and sample portfolios.
- Teaching Portfolios – The Professor Is In is a collection of blogs posted on The Professor Is In, an academic career advice website maintained by Dr. Karen Kelsky.
- Indiana University rubric for evaluating teaching portfolios
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De Rijdt, C., Tiquet, E., Dochy, F., & Devolder, M. (2006). Teaching portfolios in higher education and their effects: An explorative study. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22(8), 1084-1093. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2006.07.002 (NOTE: To access this content, you must be logged in or log into the University Library System.)
Researchers conducted this study to determine how teaching portfolios were used and what the effects of using teaching portfolios. Instructors who used teaching portfolios reported that they felt stimulated to reflect on their teaching and learning content, to improve their course materials, and to investigate alternative teaching strategies.