Introduction to Academic
Portfolios
DANIELLE MIHRAM, DIRECTOR
CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING
OFFICE OF THE PROVOST
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Overview
 Fundamental features of academic portfolios
 Four basic processes for the creation of an
academic portfolio
 Example: The “Teaching Portfolio” as part of
your academic portfolio
 Advantages of an academic portfolio
 Interactive electronic portfolios: A new medium
for academic portfolios
 Bibliography: Electronic portfolios.
Two Approaches to Portfolio Creation
 Portfolios for Self-Evaluation & Development:
•
•
•
•
The Learning Portfolio (students)
The Course Portfolio (instructors)
The Teaching Portfolio (instructors)
The Academic Portfolio (faculty)
 The Professional Portfolio (The “job market”)
Fundamental Feature of the Academic
Portfolio Created for Self-Evaluation
 A fundamental feature of the (self-evaluative) academic
portfolio is the intentional focus on learning and
assessment:
• the deliberate and systematic attention not only to teaching and
research skills, but also
• to a faculty’s self-reflective, meta-cognitive appraisal of how, and
more importantly, why learning, teaching, and research are being
perfected.
What is Meta-cognition?
 Awareness of a learner’s own thought processes
• Conscious of self-awareness
• Knowledge and understanding of one’s intellectual approaches
and strategies used in learning and teaching
 Awareness of how other learners’ approaches may differ
 Level of insight that allows learners to give themselves feedback =
Dialogic reflection
Hughes, H. Woodrow Dialogic Reflection: A New Face on an Old Pedagogy
http://gsep.pepperdine.edu/~whughes/Journaling.html
MacLellan, Effie (1999). “Reflective Commentaries: What do they say about learning?”
Educational Action Research, Volume 7(3): 433-449. [pdf on CET web]
Metacognition: Implications
 A highly personal process
 Involves reflective judgment and informed choices
 Focuses on the uniqueness of each individual
 Fosters individual’s ownership of his or her own learning
and career development
Benefits of Dialogic Reflection

Increased understanding of
•
How you learn and what are your learning outcomes
•
What you have (and have not ) learned
•
What do you value?
•
Role in learning how to articulate in writing one’s thoughts and
ideas
•
How others view your work

Enhanced ability to make connections
•
Among courses taught and in the context of teaching “without
boundaries”
•
Among research experiences and research collaborations

Increased sense of learning over time
Sample Reflections
 When one basic goal is improvement over time,
consider:
• Documentation of steps (analogous to keeping a log
for lab research)
• Commentaries (as for solutions to math problems)
• Evolution of a course, of a speech, or of a paper
• “History” of a piece of artwork
Johnson, Bil (1996), The Performance Assessment Handbook, Vol.
1. Princeton: Eye on Education.
Four Basic Processes for the Creation of an
Academic Portfolio
Collection
A relatively short collection of materials that summarizes
and highlights an individual’s activities as a teacher and
researcher.
Selection
Why are you creating the portfolio? Who is reading it, and
why?
Reflection
Thinking critically about your total learning, teaching, and
research experiences
Connections
Making personally meaningful connections between
• Your teaching,
• Your field of research, its body of knowledge, and its
applications
• Your service and community experiences
Goals of an Academic Portfolio
Demonstrate breadth of learning,
teaching, and research
Range of achievements. Collecting and
connecting your various
accomplishments; a creative
representation of your work and of you
Evaluate achievement of
intended outcomes
Opportunity to showcase your
accomplishments. Your best work
Reflect, assess own educational
experience
Representative pieces; written reflections.
To make connections between where
you were, where you are, and where
you want to be
Illustrate the learning process
Multiple drafts -- a process. To document
teaching and research as it evolved
over time.
Share one’s expertise
Legacy of best practices in both teaching
and research.
Example: The “Teaching Portfolio” as
Part of your Academic Portfolio
Why a Teaching Portfolio?
 To serve as supporting materials (documented evidence,
specific data) of one’s effectiveness as a teacher
 To document one’s teaching as it evolved over time
 To obtain feedback and to share one’s expertise
(mentoring, legacy of best practices)
Seven Steps for the Creation of a Teaching
Portfolio
1. Summarize teaching responsibilities
 Courses taught, whether they are graduate or undergraduate,
required or elective;
 Teaching-related activities (e.g., serving as faculty advisor to
student organizations, advising individual graduate or
undergraduate students).
2. Describe your approach to teaching
 Reflective statement about teaching, strategies, methodologies
and objectives [“Teaching Philosophy Statement”].
• The most effective reflective statements provide detailed examples
of classroom practices which show how the faculty’s teaching
methods fit his or her aims and the context of the course.
Seven Steps for the Creation of a Teaching
Portfolio (Cont.)
3. Select items for the portfolio
 Items which are most applicable to the professor’s teaching
responsibilities and approach to teaching;
 Choice of items should also reflect the professor’s personal
preferences, style of teaching, academic discipline, and
particular courses.
4. Prepare statements on each item
 Statements on activities, initiatives, and accomplishments on
each item
• Do the syllabi of courses coalesce around a specific theme about your
teaching? have you participated in programs, colloquia, or seminars
designed to improve teaching? Do you have a variety of measures of
your teaching effectiveness? Back-up documentation and appendices
are referenced as appropriate.
Seven Steps for the Creation of a Teaching
Portfolio (Cont.)
5. Arrange the items in order
 The sequence of the accomplishments in each area is
determined by their intended use (e.g., to demonstrate teaching
improvement: entries that reflect that goal should be stressed -such as participation in seminars and workshops designed to
enhance classroom performance).
6. Compile the supporting data
 Evidence supporting all items mentioned in the portfolio: e.g.,
original student evaluation of teaching, samples of student work,
invitations to contribute articles on teaching in one’s discipline,
colleagues’ evaluations.
• Such evidence is not part of the portfolio but is back-up material
placed in the appendix or made available upon request.
Seven Steps for the Creation of a Teaching
Portfolio (Cont.)
7. Incorporate the portfolio into the curriculum
vitae
 Although the portfolio may stand as a separate
document [e.g., assembled in a three-ring binder], a
professor may choose to insert it into his/her
curriculum vitae under the heading of “teaching”.
• The intent is to provide a formal record of teaching
accomplishments so they can be accorded their proper
weight along with other aspects of a professor’s role.
Contents of an Academic Portfolio: Teaching
Faculty Member's Name
Department/College
Institution
Date
Table of Contents for Teaching Section
1. Teaching Responsibilities
2. Statement of Teaching Philosophy
3. Teaching Methods, Strategies, Objectives
4. Student Ratings on Summative Questions
5. Colleague Evaluations From Those Who Have Observed Classroom Teaching
or Reviewed Teaching Materials
6. Statement by the Department Chair Assessing the Professor's Teaching
Contribution
7. Detailed, Representative Course Syllabi
8. Products of Teaching (Evidence of Student Learning)
9. Teaching Awards and Recognition
10. Teaching Goals: Short- Term and Long-Term
11. Appendices
Contents of an Academic Portfolio: Research
Table of Contents for Research Section
1.
Research Statement
2.
Research Methods, Strategies, Objectives
3.
Students accomplishments in research lab
4.
Significant outcomes of collaborative or inter-disciplinary research
5.
Research awards and recognition
6.
Research Goals: Short- Term and Long-Term
7.
Appendices
A Document that Evolves Over Time
Remember: The portfolio is a living collection of
documents and materials which change over
time
 New items are added, others are dropped.
 Once each year, when the research and service
section of the curriculum vitae are updated, the same
is done for the portfolio’s teaching and research
sections.
Features of Portfolio Formats
 Limitations of Physical Portfolios (paper or CD)
• Logistic challenges (space and time).
 Advantages of Electronic Portfolios
• Information in multi-media (text, graphics, animation,
sound,video)
• Hypertext environment: e.g., menus, hyperlinks,
searchable information
• Non-linear thinking; “deep” organization
• Asynchronous access for others (for feedback and
collaboration)
Advantages of an Academic Portfolio
 The Section on Teaching
• Provides the stimulus and structure for self-reflection about
areas of teaching (including those needing improvement)
o Concentrates on reflective analysis, action planning, and
assessment of student learning.
o Provides evaluators with hard-to-ignore information on what a
professor does in a classroom and why he/she does it.
 The Section on Research
• Provides the stimulus and structure for self-reflection about
areas of research that may lead to inter-disciplinary collaboration
• Provides colleagues with the opportunity to contribute to the
portfolio’s creation through feedback and file exchanges
 Excerpts of Portfolio can be used in successful grant
applications
 Used as credentials for those seeking academic
positions
Interactive Electronic Portfolios: A New
Approach for Academic Portfolios
 Barrett, Helen (Univ. of Alaska, Anchorage)
• Using Technology to Support Alternative Assessment and
Electronic Portfolios
• http://transition.alaska.edu/www/portfolios.html
• Create Your Own Electronic Portfolios
• http://www.electronicportfolios.com/portfolios/iste2k.html
 Martin Kimeldorf’s Portfolio Library
http://amby.com/kimeldorf/portfolio/
 Mable Kinzie (An informal approach to the academic portfolio)
http://kinzie.edschool.virginia.edu/
Bibliography: Electronic Portfolios
•
Barrett, Helen C. (2004) . “Electronic Portfolios as Digital Stories of Deep
Learning -- Emerging Digital Tools to Support Reflection in LearnerCentered Portfolios
http://electronicportfolios.org/digistory/epstory.html
•
Greenberg, Gary (2004). “The Digital Convergence: Extending the Portfolio
Model,” Educause Review, July-August.
http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0441.asp
•
Jafari, Ali (2004). “The "Sticky" ePortfolio System: Tackling Challenges and
Identifying Attributes,” Educause Review July-August 2004.
http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0442.asp
•
Love, Douglas, Gerry McKean, and Paul Gathercoal (2004). “Portfolios to
Webfolios and Beyond: Levels of Maturation,” Educause Quarterly Vol.
27(2). 2004.
(Descriptions of developmental stages offer institutions guidance about their place in
the process and how to move to the next level)
http://www.educause.edu/pub/eq/eqm04/eqm0423.asp
Bibliography: Electronic Portfolios (Cont.)
•
Seldin, Peter (1997). The Teaching Portfolio. Bolton, MA: Anker.
•
Tomorrow's Professor Msg.#567 Answers to Common Questions about the
Teaching Portfolio.
http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/postings/567.html
•
Tomorrow's Professor Msg.#568 Electronic Learning Portfolios
http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/postings/568.html
•
Zubizaretta John, (2004). The Learning Portfolio. Bolton, MA: Anker.