Program Resources
The Teaching Portfolio

What is a Teaching Portfolio?

A teaching portfolio is a collection of documents that showcases both your accomplishments as a teacher and the rationale behind your approach to teaching. It is designed to highlight not only what you have done while teaching, but also to let you explain why you chose to do certain things, and how your understanding of teaching has evolved as you tried different methods. A teaching portfolio consists of three main types of materials: (1) materials you have generated yourself (a teaching philosophy, commentaries on teaching, student work, descriptions of projects, etc.) (2) materials from others who have observed your teaching (other teaching assistants, professors, your faculty mentor, even students); and (3) materials from the course you have taught (student papers or exams, copies of a syllabus, etc.). The entire collection should represent you as an educator and an individual. [from MSU's guidebook]

Required Items for the Teaching Portfolio:

• Statement of Teaching Philosophy
• Description of Teaching Experience (list of courses taught with enrollments and your responsibilities for each)
• Sample Syllabi including Course Descriptions of some Courses Taught (with details of content, objectives, methods, and procedures for evaluating student learning)
• Description of Efforts to Improve Teaching (workshops, seminars, courses, etc.)
• Commentary on Teaching from a Faculty or Peer Observer/Mentor
• Summary of Student Evaluations (including response rate, relationship of scores to departmental average, and summary and samples of students' written comments)
• Syllabi for Proposed Future Courses

Optional Items for the Teaching Portfolio:

• Statement of Teaching Methodologies, Strategies, Objectives
• Sample supporting Course Materials (handouts, assignments)
• Evidence of Student Learning (student papers, exams, etc.)
• Teaching goals-short or long term
• Teaching Awards
• Letters from Students (preferably unsolicited)
• Videotape of yourself teaching
• Description of how films, computers or other technologies were used in your teaching
• Contributions to Teaching Profession and/or Your Institution (publications in teaching journals, papers delivered on teaching, review of forthcoming textbooks, facilitation of teaching workshops, etc.)