Portfolios

What Goes Into a Teaching Portfolio?

Typically, a portfolio includes:

• a teaching philosophy statement
• information about your teaching activities
• evidence of, and reflections on, teaching effectiveness

For details see the relevant sections of this site.

The specifics of what you include will depend on:

1. the purpose of the portfolio;
2. your discipline; and
3. the importance assigned to different items by your department and Faculty.

Remember: Your portfolio is a demonstration of the beliefs, values, and approaches you have articulated in your teaching philosophy statement (TPS); consequently, there should be congruence between your TPS and the rest of your portfolio.

Be sure to speak with your department head or other trusted source to find out about the requirements in your context.

References

Little-Wienert, K., & Mazziotti, M. (2018). Twelve tips for creating an academic teaching portfolio. Medical teacher, 40(1), 26-30.

Teaching Philosophy Statement

"A teaching philosophy is a narrative essay which reflects an individual’s beliefs and values about teaching and learning, often including concrete examples of the ways in which that individual enacts those beliefs" (Bowne, 2017, p. 59).

It is typically 1-2 pages in length, written from the first person and in the present tense.

The teaching philosophy statement (TPS) communicates:

• Your approach to teaching
• How your teaching facilitates student learning
• Why you teach the way you do
• The goals you have for yourself and for your students
• How your teaching enacts your beliefs and goals
• What, for you, constitutes evidence of student learning
• The ways in which you create an inclusive learning environment

As appropriate, draw from scholarly literature to help ground the approaches you take and beliefs you hold.

Prompts to Help you Write Your Teaching Philosophy Statement

To assist you in writing your teaching philosophy statement, you may find the questions below helpful:

Additional Resources

Here are some more resources to help you get started in writing and evaluating your teaching philosophy statement.

• State Your Teaching Philosophy. Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, University of Calgary.
  • This is part of a larger resource on creating a teaching dossier. Also includes samples.
• Videos
  • Teaching Philosophy Statement: Introduction (3:25): https://youtu.be/PnDWfizxAb4
  • Belief Statements in Teaching Philosophies (4:20): https://youtu.be/li91l0hYGws
• Rubric for Statements of Teaching Philosophy. Center for Research on Learning and Technology. University of Michigan.
  • A rubric for evaluating teaching philosophy statements created by CRLT. The design of the rubric was informed by their experience with hundreds of teaching philosophies, as well as surveys of search committees on what they considered successful and unsuccessful components of job applicants’ teaching philosophies
• 4 Steps to a Memorable Teaching Philosophy, written by James Lang (2010) and featured in the Advice section in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
• Dr. Steve Wolfman has put together some excellent resources for creating a tenure packet. See here for his advice on preparing for/writing the teaching philosophy statement.

Sample Statements from UBC

You can find some teaching philosophy statement examples (and full portfolios) from UBC colleagues here:

• Silvia Bartolic, Associate Professor of Teaching, Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia, CA
• Christina Hendricks, Academic Director for the UBC Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology and Professor of Teaching, Department of Philosophy, University of British Columbia, CA
• Sarah Leavitt, Lecturer, Creative Writing Program, University of British Columbia, CA
• Greg Martin, Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of British Columbia, CA
• Jonathan Verrett, Associate Professor of Teaching, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of British Columbia, CA

References

Bowne, M. (2017). Developing a Teaching Philosophy. Journal of Effective Teaching, 17(3), 59-63.

Teaching Statements. Center for Teaching. Vanderbilt University.

Teaching Activities

Now that you have articulated your teaching philosophy, you can build a case and connect that to your approach/beliefs/values as described in your philosophy.

The information below provides guidelines for what to include; you may encounter overlap and will need to decide what works best for you. As you consider what to include and/or emphasize, think about UBC's Strategic Plans.

Please consult your Department for requirements and samples (you may need to reach out to individual colleagues to ask if they would be willing to share their portfolio with you).

Documenting Your Teaching Effectiveness and Reflections

This section of your portfolio typically includes various sources of information that, collectively, demonstrate your teaching effectiveness.

In addition to data from outside sources, you will want to include your own reflections about your effectiveness. You may wish to include the ways that you monitor and evaluate your own teaching and reflect on what the evidence gathered tells you about your teaching.

Materials to draw from to document your effectiveness and to reflect on your teaching ^[1]:

• Summarized student evaluations of teaching, including response rate
• Unsolicited and solicited letters from students (initiated by the unit)
• Written comments from students on class evaluations (please note that, at UBC, the recommendation is against incorporating select comments from students; ie, you need to include all the comments or none)
• Statements from alumni
• Letters from course head, division head or chairperson
• Peer reviews of teaching
• Teaching recognitions such as (1) awards received by your department, institution, and external awards (professional association, national and international teaching awards) and (2) funding received to pursue a teaching initiative. Note: Nominations for awards also indicate your reputation as a teacher.

You may wish to make some concluding remarks that tie together the philosophy, approaches, evidence and evaluative sections. At this point, it is also important to detail a plan for future actions, including your motivation and challenges, as well as short and long-term teaching goals.

Additional Resources

The sample teaching portfolios below incorporate reflection and evaluations of teaching effectiveness:

• Elizabeth Riter , Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Civil Engineering, Ohio State University, USA
• Kevin Dunn, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, McMaster University, CA
• Martin Andresen, Professor, School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University, CA
• Jonathan Verrett, Instructor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (see pages 9 and 10 [of 47] in the "2019 Reappointment" portfolio), University of British Columbia
• Silvia Bartolic, Senior Instructor, Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia
• Catherine Rawn, Professor of Teaching, Psychology Department, University of British Columbia

References

Educational Leadership

Educational leaders promote meaningful changes that have a deep impact beyond the classroom and documenting your educational leadership activities is necessary for candidates in both the professoriate stream and educational leadership stream. Please do not assume that your educational leadership contributions will be “obvious” to your reader; instead, work to carefully present a case for your contributions, and highlight the impact of your work (with evidence, where possible).
At UBC, a well-constructed teaching portfolio and effective curriculum vitae may be used for merit considerations and in the tenure and promotion process. The teaching portfolio allows you to meaningfully expand on, and demonstrate the impact of, initiatives (and other information) you have included in your CV.
Please consult with your department head or chair of the tenure and promotion committee to determine exactly what documentation you must supply and in what format.

Portfolios from UBC Educational Leadership Faculty Members

• Silvia Bartolic, Senior Instructor, Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia
• Christina Hendricks, Professor of Teaching and Academic Director for the UBC Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, University of British Columbia
• Catherine Rawn, Professor of Teaching, Psychology Department, University of British Columbia
• Jonathan Verrett, Instructor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of British Columbia

Many thanks to the EL faculty members who have shared their teaching portfolios. If you would like to add your EL portfolio to list, please email Isabeau Iqbal (isabeau[dot]iqbal[at]ubc.ca).

Teaching Dossiers Additional Resources

• Teaching and Educational Leadership; see this link for practical resources to help you document your educational leadership, collect evidence, and articulate impact. Scroll to the resources section at this page to download the Teaching and Learning Impact Framework and the ELM Tool
• UBC Guide to Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure Procedures at UBC 2018
• UBC Human Resources: Tenure, Promotion & Reappointment for Faculty Members
• UBC Curriculum Vitae for the Professoriate Stream
• UBC Curriculum Vitae for the Professor of Teaching Stream

• UBC Faculty Association: Promotion and Tenure Process
• UBC Educational Leadership Network
  • The EL Network offered a special session on teaching dossier preparation in April 2017. That information can be found here.
  • Dr. Steve Wolfman has put together a valuable resource on preparing a tenure and promotion packet (with a special section devoted to writing your teaching philosophy statement)