1. Teaching Portfolios at McGill
MAUT Tenure, Renewal & Mentoring Workshop for Academic & Librarian Staff
19 April 2013
Laura Winer
Associate Director, Teaching and Learning Services

2. Context of the Teaching Portfolio
Research
I’d like to provide a context for the teaching portfolio at McGill.
How it fits into your role as a prof and into the tenure and promotion process.
The purpose of a T&P dossier is to capture your contributions and achievements as a professor.
Your task is to document the complexity of your role - contributions and achievements - in 3 categories.
I’m here to talk about the teaching component of your dossier
Service
The tenure and promotion dossier

3. Regulations Relating to the Employment of Tenure Track and Tenured Academic Staff
7.12 the “internal package” (p. 7)
“d) a record of the candidate’s teaching (including graduate and professional supervision as appropriate). Information about the candidate’s teaching shall be prepared in accordance with the Teaching Portfolio Guidelines (Appendix A)”;

4. What is a teaching portfolio?
A concise compilation of selected information that systematically documents the effectiveness as well as the scope, complexity, and individuality of an instructor’s teaching.
It reflects the progression of teaching over the last few years.
(pp )

5. Helps us think about teaching as a scholarly act
Examine teaching as part of our professorial responsibility - as members of our disciplinary community and the McGill community
Judge according to standards
Make teaching visible through artifacts
Purpose is to help us think about teaching as a scholarly act
In preparing your tenure dossier, we are all clear about the standards of scholarship for research. We don’t often think about these same standards being applied to teaching. but it is clear that they can be.

6. Structure Body (5-10 pages) Appendices (10 pages max)
Teaching approach or philosophy (1-2 pgs)
Teaching responsibilities
Evidence of teaching effectiveness
Teaching development and educational leadership
(if applicable)
Appendices (10 pages max)
Documents explicitly referenced in Body

7. 1) Teaching Approach/Philosophy
How do you teach?
What strategies do you use?
How do you assess learning?
Why you teach the way you do?
(1-2 pages)

8. 2) Teaching responsibilities:
Courses taught, level, enrollment, format
Clinical teaching: describe and quantify interactions
New courses developed, with rationale
Supervision
Undergraduate, Graduate and Postdoc
projects, theses, internships

9. 3) Evidence of effectiveness
Summary and interpretation of course evaluation
numerical ratings with dept/Faculty norms
Measures taken in response to feedback
Evidence of effective post-doc, grad and
undergrad supervision (where applicable)
numerical ratings on course evaluations for all courses taught, compared with department or faculty norms. The suggested format is a table, showing the ratings for each question on each course taught and the average ratings for the department or faculty.2
Summarize and interpret these results, showing how they shed light on your teaching effectiveness.
• evidence of effective postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate supervision, where applicable.

10. By faculty – by course level and class size
May 13, 2009
Compare your results to courses that are similar in your faculty – for 4 core questions
Log in required
By faculty – by course level and class size
Page

11. 4)Teaching development and educational leadership
Teaching development efforts (e.g., workshops)
Advising or mentoring colleagues or TAs about teaching issues
Contributions through teaching support units, teaching committees (departmental/Faculty/University)
Contributions to the development of curriculum or policies on teaching
Development and sharing of teaching innovations
summary of activities undertaken to develop and enhance teaching, particularly in the broader context.
Information can include:
• development and sharing of teaching innovations, materials or strategies;
• advising and mentoring colleagues about teaching-related issues;
• TA mentoring (unless this is included under ‘Other contributions’ in the dossier);
• contributions through teaching support units, teaching committees, associations;
• organizing or facilitating seminars, workshops or conferences on teaching and learning;
• contributions to the development of policies on teaching and learning;
• teaching related publications – both discipline-specific and general.

12. Gather evidence! A (virtual) shoebox
Students supervised (undergrad & graduate)
Course evaluations
Committees related to teaching and learning
Contributions to program development
(Re)Design of courses

13. : Producing your own teaching portfolio
Consult online resources
Have others review drafts of portfolio
Review sample portfolios at TLS
Request individual consultation from TLS

14. : Websites with guidelines for developing a teaching portfolio
University Affairs
University of Saskatchewan
UBC
University of Texas at Austin, Center for Teaching and Learning
Vanderbilt
Iowa State University, Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

15. Individual consultations available
Development of/feedback on portfolios
Interpretation of course evaluations
Sample portfolios to review
x6648

16. Teaching and Learning Services http://www.mcgill.ca/tls
QUESTIONS?