What are the most effective ways to present your teaching portfolio during faculty evaluations?

1 Define your purpose and goals

Before you start assembling your teaching portfolio, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish with it. What are the main aspects of your teaching that you want to highlight? What are the criteria and standards that your evaluators will use to assess your portfolio? How do you want to demonstrate your strengths, challenges, and areas of improvement? By defining your purpose and goals, you will be able to select the most relevant and meaningful evidence of your teaching practice and align it with your evaluators' expectations.

2 Choose your portfolio format and structure

Depending on your context and preferences, you can choose between a paper-based or a digital portfolio format. Both have advantages and disadvantages, so you should consider factors such as accessibility, convenience, interactivity, and presentation. Regardless of the format, you should also decide on a logical and coherent structure for your portfolio. A common structure consists of three sections: introduction, body, and reflection. The introduction provides an overview of your portfolio and its purpose, the body showcases your evidence of teaching effectiveness, and the reflection summarizes your main achievements and goals for future development.

3 Select and organize your evidence

The evidence you include in your portfolio should demonstrate your teaching philosophy, methods, outcomes, and impact. You should select evidence that is relevant, authentic, diverse, and representative of your teaching practice. Some examples of evidence are lesson plans, syllabi, student work samples, assessment results, feedback from students and peers, teaching awards, professional development activities, and research publications. You should also organize your evidence in a way that is easy to navigate, label, and reference. You can use categories, themes, or chronological order to group your evidence and provide clear headings, captions, and annotations to explain each piece of evidence.

4 Prepare your presentation and delivery

Once you have your portfolio ready, you need to prepare how you will present it and deliver it to your evaluators. You should rehearse your presentation and anticipate possible questions or comments from your evaluators. You should also check the technical aspects of your portfolio, such as the file size, format, compatibility, and links. If you are presenting your portfolio in person, you should bring a backup copy of your portfolio on a USB drive or a cloud service. If you are presenting your portfolio online, you should test your internet connection, audio, and video quality before the evaluation.

5 Engage your evaluators and solicit feedback

During your presentation, you should aim to engage your evaluators and solicit their feedback. You should use a confident and enthusiastic tone and highlight the main points and achievements of your portfolio. You should also invite your evaluators to ask questions, share their opinions, and offer suggestions for improvement. You should listen attentively and respectfully to their feedback and respond constructively and professionally. You should also thank your evaluators for their time and attention and follow up with them if needed.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?