Assessment of Classroom Instruction 6. Reflect on Results

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Teaching Portfolio

Another reflection tool is the teaching portfolio. Much like a photo album, a portfolio is a technique to gather evidence of the many different aspects of your teaching. It provides a window into who you are as a teacher as well as where you're going with your teaching. There are three types of teaching portfolio:

• The Working Portfolio: This is used to document growth and development towards performance standards, which may be set by the institution or may simply be internal goals. Materials collected in this type of portfolio reflect teaching as a work in progress, it's not meant to be a polished document.
• The Showcase Portfolio: This can be a collection of superior work, artifacts of success (letters from faculty for example), or anything else which hightlights success. This can be an excellent professional development tool.
• The Critical Incident Portfolio: This can be a collection of items which point toward incidents which were watersheds in one way or another. The content can be about particularly provocative occurrences, either positive or negative. In this way you can underline examples to fit your personal philosophy of teaching.

Source: Farrell, T.S.C. (2004) Reflective Practice in Action: 80 Reflection Breaks for Busy Teachers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

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