What is a Teaching Portfolio?

A teaching portfolio is a selective collection of items that work together to demonstrate your commitment to teaching in your academic discipline. They provide a record of your core beliefs about teaching, your previous and current teaching experiences, and your reflective process. Overall, they exhibit evidence of your teaching effectiveness. As such, they are frequently used for both the academic hiring process and for support during the tenure and promotion process.

While research statements document your disciplinary expertise, the teaching portfolio documents your expertise in teaching. The portfolio will necessarily be both forward- and backward-looking, with examples drawn from courses you have taught or assisted in and with thought towards courses that you will prepare to teach in the future.

While it is important if you are on the academic job market to present to search committees a version of your portfolio that is well-organized, clear, polished, and tailored to the specific position, consider your portfolio as a work-in-progress that you will continue to revise throughout your academic career.

Overall, a teaching portfolio is a useful tool that can help you:
• Develop and refine your teaching philosophy, methods, and approaches
• Present teaching credentials for hiring and promotion in an academic position
• Document professional development in teaching
• Reflect on your teaching and identify areas for improvement

When Should You Create a Teaching Portfolio?

Ideally, you can begin amassing documents for your teaching portfolio as soon as you begin teaching, or as soon as you begin participating in professional development activities related to pedagogy. Even before you set foot in the classroom as an instructor, you can begin to think about the goals that you’ll have for your students, which will guide your decision making as an instructor.

Reading articles and attending workshops on teaching will help you identify current issues and potential approaches, as well as provide inspiration for reflecting on your teaching and building your portfolio. As you become an experienced instructor, you will continue to refine your approach to teaching and revise your portfolio accordingly.

Assistance with Building or Revising Your Portfolio

The professional Academic Services staff at the Teaching Center are happy to read and provide feedback on teaching portfolios for those associated with WashU. Faculty, postdocs, and graduate students can schedule in-person or virtual consultations.

Resources

“Documenting Teaching Effectiveness.” University Center for the Advancement of Teaching. The Ohio State University. https://ucat.osu.edu/professional-development/teaching-portfolio/feedback/

Kaplan, Matthew. “The Teaching Portfolio.” The Center for Research on Learning and Teaching. University of Michigan. http://www.crlt.umich.edu/publinks/CRLT_no11.pdf.

Seldin, Peter. The Teaching Portfolio: A Practical Guide to Improved Performance and Promotion/Tenure Decisions. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing Company, Inc. 1991.

“Teaching Portfolios.” Center for Teaching. Vanderbilt University. http://www.vanderbilt.edu/cft/resources/teaching_resources/reflecting/portfolio.htm.

Vick, Julia Miller and Jennifer S. Furlong. The Academic Job Search Handbook. 5th ed. Philadelphia: U Pennsylvania P, 2016.