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SUMMARY NOTES ON "IF YOU’VE GOT IT, FLAUNT IT: USES
AND ABUSES OF TEACHING PORTFOLIOS" BY RICHARD M. FELDER, AND
REBECCA BRENT, CHEMICAL ENGINEERING EDUCATION, 30(3), PP.
188-189 (SUMMER 1996). (http://www2.ncsu.edu/effective_teaching/
click on "Random Thoughts").
Summarized by J. T. P. Yao (5/17/99)
"A teaching portfolio is a collection of materials
that document a professor’s teaching goals, strengths, and
accomplishments. It contains
- self-generated material (e.g., a teaching philosophy
statement; representative syllabi, instructional objectives, handouts,
assignments, and tests; descriptions of educational innovations
and evaluations of their effectiveness; textbooks and education-related
papers published; instructional software developed; teaching workshops
and seminars presented or attended).
- teaching products (e.g., graded assignments, tests, and
reports; scores on standardized tests; student publications or
presentations on course-related work).
- information generated by others (e.g., summaries of students,
alumni, and peer evaluations; honors and awards; reference letters).
Some items may be mandated, others may be included at the professor’s
option."
"A portfolio can be used for summative evaluation (to
evaluate teaching performance and provide a rational basis for promotion
and tenure decisions and teaching award selections) or formative
evaluation (to help identify and correct teaching problems).
…"
"… Three key requirements for effective portfolios are
relevance (the elements selected for evaluation must be clearly
linked to established criteria for effective teaching), reliability
(ratings from different evaluators should be reasonably similar),
and practicality (portfolios should be well organized, not
too long, and easy to evaluate). … Once a summative portfolio
has been prepared, several people should independently examine it,
rate each category using a predetermined system (e.g., 0 = poor,
5 = outstanding), calculate a weighted average rating, … and
finally provide a collective rating."
"… the administration should demonstrate by actions as
well as words its commitment to take portfolio seriously when making
personnel decisions. …"
"… Anyone thinking about implementing a portfolio program
should study the references …
- Peter Seldin, The Teaching Portfolio: A Practical Guide to
Improved Performance and Promotion/Tenure Decisions, Bolton,
MA, Anker Publishing Company, Inc. (1991).
- Peter Seldin, Successful Use of Teaching Portfolios,
Bolton, MA, Anker Publishing Company, Inc. (1993)."
[Rich Felder is a well-known professor of chemical engineering
at the North Carolina State University. He and his wife Rebecca
Brent have written many papers and conducted effective teaching
institutes on engineering education.]
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