Developing your Professional Portfolio in Teaching and Learning' workshop

1. Developing your
Professional Portfolio in
Teaching and Learning
Dr Muireann O’Keeffe
Teaching Enhancement Unit, DCU
2017

2. Teaching enhancement unit
Interests Professional
learning, Social media,
professionalization of
teaching

3. This morning’s schedule
 Introductions
 Why develop a teaching & learning portfolio?
 Examples of portfolios
 Teaching Philosophy statement
 Reflective practice
 Thinking digital about your portfolio
 Setting goals for your portfolio

4. Introductions
 Hello: your name, subject area
& teaching experience
 What is your understanding of
a teaching portfolio?

5. Why Portfolios?
 Showcasing experience & professional development
for career purposes
 Can help one reflect on and improve one’s teaching.
 Show development over time
 Towards teaching and learning awards

6. Trends in academic
development
2010+
(McLaren, 2005)
Trends
Reflective
practice
European
Modernisation
report, 2013
Hunt report
Teaching
philosophy
National
Forum PDF
Accreditation

7. Purposes of portfolios

8. Portfolios & Career
According to a search on Chronicle.com of 2978 ads for
academic jobs
 388 include the words “teaching philosophy,”
 5 include the words “teaching statement,”
 8 include the words “teaching portfolio.”
From http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/teaching-portfolios/

9. Portfolios for Awards
 DCU President’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching and Learning
 NAIRTL National Awards for Excellence in Teaching
 New Zealand Teaching & Learning awards
 Teaching Fellows, HE Academy UK

10. DCU Awards
Lecturers are invited to submit a form for review by the
awards panel answering 4 questions
1. What is your philosophy/ approach to teaching?
2. What is your approach to your subject?
3. What is your approach to self development relevant to
teaching and learning?
4. What is your approach to assessment and feedback?

11. DCU Awards: Teaching excellence criteria
Types of
activities/qualities
that might
contribute to
Teaching
Excellence
Confidence,
enthusiasm
and passion
in the delivery
of the subject.
Empathy,
respect and
support for
students.
A reflective
approach to
teaching/learning.
Use of
contemporary
theory and
practice
relevant to the
discipline area.
Development/adoption of
innovative approaches to
teaching and
assessment.
Recognition of the
importance of
assessment and
feedback for
enhancing learning
and improving
teaching.
Integration
of research
and
teaching.

12. Ireland: National Forum professional
development framework

13. UK professional standards
framework
 Associate Fellow
 Fellow
 Senior Fellow
 Principal fellow

14. Ako Aotearoa Tertiary Teaching Excellence
Criteria New Zealand
 Design for Learning
 Facilitating learning
 Assessing Student Learning
 Evaluating Teaching and Learning
 Professional Development and Leadership

15. New Zealand example
Portfolios
What ideas do these examples give you
for your portfolio?
Online example (US context):
http://faculty.virginia.edu/marva/Teaching%20Portfolio/teachin
g_portfolio.htm

16. Question:
As a teacher what
would you like on your
tombstone?

17. What makes a good teacher?
Think about the teachers that had a profound effect on
you
 What were their qualities?

18. Who am I when I teach?
 What do you want to be remembered for as a teacher?

19. Teaching philosophy

20. Writing a teaching philosophy
 What do you believe about teaching?
 What do you believe about learning? Why?
 How is that played out in your classroom?
 What are my goals as a teacher (educator, researcher),
and what do I expect to be the outcomes of my
teaching?
 What do you struggle with in terms of teaching and
student learning?

21. Writing a teaching philosophy
Example: Read the Richard Lombard-Vance example
 How could you adapt this example for your own
purposes and disciplinary context?
Or you could use the prompt questions to assist writing
a teaching philosophy.

22. Teaching Philosophy: To consider
 Does DCU* have a mission & strategy?
 If so, can you address the mission in your statement?
 Ground your teaching philosophy in your discipline
 Remember that teaching is about the students
 Peer review: Get a second opinion
*or the strategy of another university

23. Activity
 Mind map: A plan for your teaching philosophy

24. My philosophy headings
Philosophy
presence
diversity
constructivist
interactivityRespect
Responsibility
reflective

25. Tara Brabazon

26. Why digital teaching portfolios?
 Enables connections, sharing and learning with other
educators about learning and teaching practices.
Did you know that:
 social networking tools can be used to showcase your
teaching and learning practices to a global audience?
 By joining and participating online you become part of
professional learning networks?
 Blogs, Twitter, LinkedIn can all be used to extend
professional teaching practice?

27. AS AN EDUCATOR, WHAT DOES YOUR
DIGITAL PROFILE LOOK LIKE TO OTHERS
INTERESTED IN TEACHING AND
LEARNING PRACTICES?
Image from: mkhmarketing.wordpress.com CC BY 2.0)

28. Examples of online educators
 Michael Seery - DIT, Edinburgh
 http://michaelseery.com/home/
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKTMImvFYok
 Benefits of sharing practice online
 Intervarsity Peer-assessment activities
 Sharing of Practice Peerwise, contribution to community
 Writing educational blogs, keynotes, conferences invites
 Career progressions

29. Michael Seery –The
Connected Educator

30. EPortfolios for career

31. Your Online Presence?
(Goodier & Czerniewicz 2014)

32. (Goodier & Czerniewicz 2014)

33. EPortfolios
‘An e-portfolio is a purposeful aggregation of digital items
– ideas, evidence, reflections, feedback etc., which
“presents” a selected audience with evidence of a
person’s learning and/or ability.’
Sutherland, S. and Powell, A. (2007)

34. ePortfolios
 Increased Accessibility – on web
 Multimedia Files: video, podcasts, images for content and reflection
 Nonlinear presentation
 Digital presentations of skills and competences
 Social media, collaboration, communities
Employers may expect an online profile….
 Issues: Copyright and Privacy Issues – plagiarism

35. ePortfolio example

36. ePortfolio example

37. ePortfolio example

38. DCU LOOP REFLECT (Mahara)

39. ePortfolio tools

40. Employers want ePortfolios

41. Eportfolios for careers

42. Eportfolios for careers

43. Academic Online portfolios
 https://patthomson.net/about/
 https://edifiedlistener.blog/ - Navigating The
Blogosphere and Social Media for Professional Growth
 Good teaching in digital age -
http://www.peterbryant.org/?p=667

46. Starting your Portfolio: Activity
Let’s get started
Setting Goals – what next?
 Mind-map of teaching Philosophy
 Other pieces of evidence
 Designing Learning
 Facilitating Learning
 Assessing Learning
 Feedback
 Evaluation
 Leadership & Mentoring*
 Engagement in CPD*

47. Designing Learning
 Who are the students?
 What will learning outcomes be?
 What are the activities I can design?
 What is the content?
 Constructive alignment – link between learning
outcomes, teaching approaches and assessment

48. Facilitating Learning
 How do I engage students?
 Class exercises, case studies, discussions
 Think-pair-share
 Larger whole group class discussion
 Personal response systems (clickers)
 Real world examples – authentic learning

49. Assessment & Feedback
 Summative & formative assessment
 Demonstrate previous student examples
 Assessment rubrics
 Scaffolding assessment
 Continuous assessment
 Feed forward
 Feedback – Timely

50. Evaluation
Evaluation to change practice
 Informal feedback from students (listen!)
 Students surveys
 Module feedback
 Employers
 Society
 Reflective practice

51. Leadership, Mentoring, CPD
 Conferences
 Sharing expertise
 Committees
 Proactive involvement
 Student conferences
 How do I engage in CPD?
 What counts as CPD:
 workshops,
 conferences,
 working in curriculum design teams,
 virtual professional development,
 how do you stay up-to-date,
 communities of practice

52. Reflective practice
Gibbs Reflective Cycle

53. Summary
Start portfolio now!!
 Set a goal for one item of portfolio
 Meet in 1 month

54. Recommended reading

55. Acknowledgments & other
resources
Thanks to Dr Pip Ferguson, Prof Mark Brown for supplying resources from New Zealand context
 Portfolio pointers, New Zealand: https://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/ako-hub/ako-aotearoa-northern-
hub/resources/pages/portfolio-pointers-preparing-and-presenting-high-q
 What is a teaching portfolio? http://oic.id.ucsb.edu/teaching-portfolios/what-teaching-portfolio
 DCU teaching portfolios http://www.dcu.ie/ovpli/teu/Teaching-portfolios/index.shtml
 Teaching portfolios (USA context): http://trc.virginia.edu/resources/developing-a-teaching-portfolio/
Teaching Philosophy Samples https://cei.umn.edu/support-services/tutorials/writing-teaching-
philosophy/teaching-philosophy-samples
Teaching philosophy with video: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctpdro/teaching.html