Teaching Portfolios At McMaster

Per SPS B2: “description of responsibilities and mechanism of evaluation drawn from the appointment letter, or updates thereto (maximum one page)” 

All that is needed for the Description of Teaching Responsibilities is a copy of your appointment letter, and any subsequent update letters. On this page, you should describe how you are expected to divide your time (e.g., 80% teaching, 20% service). It should be less than one page in length.  

Tip: In teaching portfolios submitted to the MacPherson Institute for feedback, we regularly see that the author has elaborated on their appointment letter to describe courses taught, typical work and responsibilities, etc. Please note that none of that is needed or expected here. Save yourself some time by simply inserting an excerpt from your appointment letter and consider that section of your portfolio complete! 

Per SPS B2: “description of teaching approach /philosophy (about one page)” 

A teaching philosophy is a personal statement that outlines your beliefs, methods, impacts, and goals regarding teaching and learning. An explanation of your beliefs, supported by brief examples of your methods and impacts, and accompanied by with a description of your goals for future growth as an educator, is an effective formula to achieve an impactful philosophy. Typically, a teaching philosophy is one page single-spaced, written in first person, thoughtfully structured and organized, and authentic. 

Think of your Description of Teaching Philosophy as the backbone to your entire teaching portfolio. The case you make there about yourself as an educator should be reinforced by the other sections in Part A of your portfolio, and supported by evidence in Part B. This is why the teaching philosophy is where you should focus the bulk of your efforts early in the development of your portfolio. 

Tips: 

• Have your statement reviewed by a trusted colleague or an Educational Developer at the MacPherson Institute (e.g. your Faculty’s Liaison Contact). Someone in your department or discipline would be best suited to reviewing your statement with an eye to local context, tone, and disciplinary norms. 
• When you have finished your portfolio, look back at your philosophy statement to check for alignment. Have you provided some evidence for each of the major points you made in your philosophy? Checking on this will help you make final refinements to your portfolio. 
• Share how you plan to grow. Unlike a resume or CV, which is primarily focused on your achievements up until ‘now,’ your philosophy statement can and should include thoughts on where you would like to take your teaching in the future. 
• Revisit your philosophy statement on an annual basis, because your statement will change with time and experience. 

Further resources: 

• The learning catalogue module Crafting a Teaching Philosophy Statement provides more in-depth guidance on writing a comprehensive and effective teaching philosophy statement. 
• Chapter III: Writing a Compelling Portfolio in the Preparing a Teaching Portfolio Guidebook discusses crafting a compelling narrative for your teaching portfolio more broadly. 

Per SPS B2: “description of teaching practice, including examples of how the approach/philosophy has been realized, or how teaching has been adapted to unusual conditions (one to two pages)” 

Whereas your Description of Teaching Philosophy is about your beliefs and contains few examples in little depth, in contrast, your Description of Teaching Practice is about what you actually do and contains in-depth examples. Ultimately, the Description of Teaching Practice is meant to elucidate how your philosophy is realized in your day-to-day teaching. This should be 1-2 pages maximum. 

For example, if your Description of Teaching Philosophy states that you care about having an inclusive classroom, you need to be specific in the Description of Teaching Practice about how you make that happen. How do you design your course to be inclusive? What teaching methods and approaches do you use in the classroom to ensure inclusiveness? And so on.  

Tips: 

• An element that can be effectively integrated into the Description of Teaching Practice is the context within which you teach, such as relevant strategic priorities, departmental culture, disciplinary norms, or evidence-based practices that inform your approaches.  
• You may also wish to provide an example that illustrates how you adapt your teaching to new or unique conditions. This is a great place to describe, for example, how you work to meet student needs expressed via requests for academic accommodations.  
• As with the Description of Teaching Philosophy, describing the impact of your teaching methods is of value in this section as well. Articulating the result of your chosen teaching approaches will strongly emphasize your effectiveness as an educator. 

Per SPS B2: “description of contributions to teaching, for example, adoption of the candidate’s teaching innovations by others, curriculum development and/or evaluation, presentations on teaching and learning, mentoring of other teachers, publications and research on teaching and learning, and other relevant activities, such as educational leadership, professional development, reports on issues pertaining to teaching and learning (about one page)”

The intent of the Description of Contributions to Teaching is to highlight examples of how you contribute to teaching and learning in ways that are above and beyond your day-to-day teaching activities. This can include:

• Adoption or adaptation of your teaching innovations, approaches, or materials by others (locally, nationally, or internationally);
• Curriculum development and / or evaluation at the course or program level;
• Presentations or conference contributions on teaching and learning;
• Mentorship and support of colleagues in their teaching practice;
• Publications, research projects, grants, or other Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) contributions;
• Educational leadership activities, such as coordinating teaching initiatives, programs, conferences, or events;
• Development and facilitation of professional development opportunities related to teaching and learning (e.g., workshops);
• Reports or contributions addressing issues, challenges, or advancements in teaching and learning;
• Other relevant contributions that demonstrate your impact on teaching and learning.

This should take up approximately one page of your portfolio.  

Keep in mind the purpose of the Description of Contributions to Teaching is to demonstrate growth that you foster in or for others, such as your teaching and learning network, your department, the curriculum, your institution, and so on. Description of Contributions to Teaching is not meant to document: 

• A list of courses you’ve taught or typical course stats 
• Your curriculum vitae (i.e. CV)  
• Attendance at workshops and professional development efforts 

Tips: 

• If you wish to represent your commitment to professional development somewhere in your teaching portfolio, it is okay to briefly refer to such a list in this section. For example, you could write “I have also done a lot to develop myself as an educator.  Please see Appendix such-and-such for a full list of the professional development activities I’ve engaged in in the past five years”. Then you could place the list in the respective Appendix in Part B. 
• You are not expected to provide an example for each type of contribution listed in SPS B2. 
• When writing this section, remember the “about one page” limit noted in SPS B2. What this likely means is that you will need to select a few contributions that are your greatest achievements and focus on writing about those. It will be more impactful to go into depth about a few examples than to create a list of many examples that lack detail. 

Per SPS B2: “complete details of responses to the summative question in the student feedback on all courses taught over the past five years. The information should be set in the context of all the teaching done in the department. It is the responsibility of the Department Chair to provide all instructors with contextual data for all the courses given in each term.” 

The description of Evidence of Teaching Effectiveness in SPS B2 suggests that only quantitative evidence is desired. However, it is recommended that you supplement the numbers with some qualitative contextualization in the form of a written reflection explaining the data’s significance. Since this is not expressly written in SPS B2 at this time, you may wish to touch base with your Chair to confirm how they wish to see evidence represented and contextualized in this section.  

Prior to 2020, the summative question in McMaster’s end-of-term course evaluations asked students to rate the effectiveness of their instructor on a scale of 1-10. Since then, in response to increasing evidence that student evaluations of teaching do not accurately or objectively evaluate teaching, the summative question has been phrased so that it asks students to rate their learning experience on a scale of 1-10. 

It’s important to remember that SPS B2 disallows student comments in Part A of your teaching portfolio. However, if you feel strongly that some student comments you’ve received are an important reflection of your effectiveness as an educator, you could write a reflection on feedback you’ve received from students for Part B of your portfolio as an Appendix. 

As you begin to develop or update your teaching portfolio, it can be helpful to reflect on various levels of context that may inform or inspire your teaching: 

• Consider how teaching and learning is prioritized or articulated within the culture and strategic priorities of your Faculty and/or department.  
• Familiarize yourself with institutional strategies related to teaching and learning and consider how your teaching aligns with them. 
  • Take stock of disciplinary norms or expectations that influence your perspectives, practices, and pedagogical approaches. 

This is the only time you will see the recommendation “quantity over quality” related to your teaching portfolio. For now, compile all of the available evidence of your teaching effectiveness. This will help you get a sense of what you have and consider what examples you may wish to discuss in Part A of your portfolio.  

Once you are further along in your portfolio process – having identified your beliefs, methods, impacts and goals – you can narrow down your comprehensive collection of evidence to only the most exemplary items that best align with the portfolio’s narrative. At that point, quality will again reign over quantity as you select a subset of the evidence for inclusion in your portfolio. 

Now that you’re familiar with the types of evidence you have available to you, reflect on the totality of what the evidence represents about your personal teaching philosophy, practices, and contributions. Jot down the major themes that arise from taking such a holistic view. 

From there, you can write your Description of Teaching Philosophy, which will establish a strong narrative for your portfolio. The values and beliefs articulated in your teaching philosophy will serve as thesis of your narrative, which you can then reinforce with the examples and evidence included throughout the rest of your portfolio. 

Once all of the components of your teaching portfolio are drafted, review your portfolio for clarity, alignment (i.e. consistency), compliance with the requirements of SPS B2, and persuasiveness. It is recommended that you seek feedback from colleagues or Educational Developers as you work towards finalizing your portfolio. Doing so can bring a fresh set of eyes to your extensive work and serve as a preliminary, unofficial review of what you have written. 

A teaching portfolio is best thought of as a living document that should be updated annually alongside your resume or CV, ideally in advance of your annual review. It may be tempting to file your teaching portfolio away in the proverbial desk drawer, but returning to it once a year to update it with new examples of growth, notable achievements, self-reflections, and forms of evidence has various benefits, including: 

• Ensuring you keep taking a reflective and deliberate approach to your teaching year after year, 
• Facilitating meaningful discussions with your Chair about teaching, and 
• Ensuring the portfolio is always near-ready for upcoming career achievements like tenure, or promotion, or unexpected opportunities including teaching grants and awards.