Expertise and interests of some participants

Marva A. Barnett
Director, Teaching Resource Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, U.S.A.
E-mail: marva@virginia.edu

The Faculty Senate of the University of Virginia has an ongoing interest in and, in fact, has identified this year as its major priority improving the methods of evaluating the teaching done by our faculty. In conjunction with this interest, the Teaching Resource Center brought Peter Seldin and Linda Annis in 1994 to do an introductory workshop on teaching portfolios. At faculty request, the Teaching Resource Center (TRC) now offers an annual ten-day Teaching Portfolios Workshop, during which our associate director and I help faculty members and graduate student teaching assistants from around the University create their own portfolios, with help from mentors we have trained. Participants create portfolios for a number of different reasons (including leaving a legacy for their department, learning to talk about their teaching, improving their teaching, getting tenure and promotion,finding a job); they make their portfolios available for consultation at the TRC. Attendance at this workshop has doubled in the past two years, and faculty regularly consult with TRC staff throughout the year about teaching portfolios. Currently, the Faculty Senate Academic Affairs Committee (of which I am a member) has established as its key project a study of current University of Virginia teaching evaluation practices, following recommendations from our University-wide Self-Study. Thus the TRC and I are at the center of a long-term process of investigation and education about teaching portfolios. Participation in this WWW and workshop project would serve well myself, the Teaching Resource Center, the Faculty Senate, and the University faculty as a whole, enhancing the credibility of using teaching portfolios at this research institution.

Carole Baume
HEFCE FDTL Co-ordinator, based at the Open University, UK
Email: c.baume@open.ac.uk

I have designed two accreditation schemes based on portfolios:

1. the SEDA Fellowships Scheme for staff and educational developers in higher education, and
2. a national scheme for the accreditation of the professional competence of playworkers.

I have for three years, been a member of the course team at Oxford Brookes University running the Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education; a one year part-time programme for new teaching staff which is portfolio-based and leads to SEDA Teacher Accreditation. I have also been External Examiner to a programme for new teachers at the University of Plymouth which makes extensive use of portfolios. Finally, I have compiled a portfolio for my own SEDA Fellowship and mentored three other successful candidates in this process.

Gunnar Handal
Institute for Educational Research, University of Oslo, Norway.
Email: gunnar.handal@ped.uio.no

So far I have not had any practical experience with using portfolios. I have read and heard about it both for teachers in schools and for academic staff (last time at the Vasa conference). In our unit for 'university pedagogics' at the University of Oslo, we are in the process of planning a course unit / project group for university teachers who would like to take part in a pilot project on development of portfolios. I am consequently very eager to take part in the workshop as a basis for further work on this topic.

Eric Kristensen
Berkeley College of Music, Boston MA, USA
Email:ekristensen@berklee.edu

I have helped faculty members pull together portfolios on teching and professional accomplishments as pat of a promotion dossier. Most of my experience with portfolios has been in this summative evaluation setting, but I find that the actual process of assembling these portfolios creates a formative event for the faculty member which I try to encourge and nurture.

Bland Tomkinson
UMIST, UK
Email:Bland.Tomkinson@umist.ac.uk

I am responsible for the Postgraduate Certificate course in Academic Practice and for its introduction. This is assessed in part from a teaching portfolio. I am interested to extend the concept of the portfolio to other groups of staff, in part widening it beyond a purely teaching portfolio and also using it for development rather than assessment purposes.

Nigel Beasley
University of Leicester, UK
Email: nab1@le.ac.uk

I am Director of Staff Development and have been using portfolios for a University of Leicester Certificate in Academic Practice, covering research, teaching and administration as appropriate for a particular member of staff. My experience is limited as the course has only been going two years and recruitment is difficult. I am also experimenting with the development of portfolios of teaching for promotion purposes.I also have experience of the use of a portfolio type assessment in the Certificate in Teaching & Learning at Newcastle University for which I am external examiner.

Lin Thorley
University of Hertfordshire, UK
Email: L.Thorley@herts.ac.uk

I use portfolios as part of PgCert/Dip (+SEDA Accreditation) in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education - for new staff at this institution (am Scheme Tutor for this course). Also, I am attempting to put my own together for SEDA Fellowship.

Tony Harland
University of Sheffield, UK
Email: a.harland@sheffield.ac.uk

I have just started to run a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at Sheffield aimed at part-time teachers. One of the main developmental areas is the teaching portfolio although it is also handed in as a course requirement. There have been more problems sorting out the portfolio than any other part of the course and this has involved much discussion by the teachers, and the teachers and students, through workshops, tutorials and email discussion groups. I also use portfolios on a teaching course for our Research Training Programme. Although I do not have a great deal of expertise, I feel that I could certainly share my experiences but am also very interested in how others have addressed the conflicts and tensions which we have tried to resolve. As an educational staff developer, I am also looking forward to future developments for our teaching staff. Certificate courses may benefit a small number at Sheffield but the portfolio could reach a much wider audience.

Paul Blackmore
University of Warwick, UK
Email: p.d.blackmore@admin.warwick.ac.uk

I originally used portfolios whilst teaching F and HE lecturers on both Huddersfield University's and De Montfort University's Certificate in Education programmes. I have also included their use in the Warwick Teaching Certificate, to be launched in January 1997, that I am leading. I recently assisted Promotions Committee at Warwcik by producing guidelines for probabtioners who are now expected to generate a teaching portfolio to document their teaching. I have also included an introduction to keeping a portfolio in the introductory "Preparing to Teach" programme that I tutor. I am now involved in assisting Promotions Committee to establish a means by which staff may claim promotions partly on the grounds of teaching excellence, and this too will include the use of a portfolio of evidence.

John Dolan
University of Derby, UK
Email: j.dolan@derby.ac.uk

I have had experience of developing use of learning portfolios for both Access and APEL provisions, as well as in a range of undergraduate programmes, including modules with B.A. Combined Studies, and ITE programmes. Additionally, I am part of the Programme Development and Management team for the Certificate of Professional Practice operated by my institution, which is a required programme for all new members of academic staff who lack sufficient experience of teaching at Levels 4 & 5. This programme has a Professional Portfolio as it principal means of assessment. My interests and concerns about using Portfolios in learning and teaching centre around issues of student manageability, learning focus, and strategies for assessment (reliability and comparability).

Monica McLean
Keele University, UK
Email: eda16@keele.ac.uk

I am the programme tutor for the programme leading to the Keele University Higher Education Teaching Certificate (awarded at three levels). Participants compile a teaching portfolio as a major part of their training and assessment. I am interested in the potential of portfolios as vehicles for and evidence of reflective practice which results in developing personal theories or in the ability to 'make a case' for teaching. I have written an article in 'Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice' ( 3 [1]) which uses portfolios to characterise conceptions of teaching and am working with a group of new lecturers in one discipline area to explore their experiences of compiling portfolios.

Andrew Sackville
Head of Teaching, Learning and Programme Development, Edge Hill University College, UK.
Email: sackvila@staff.ehche.ac.uk

Own portfolio; portfolios used at EHUC for Probationary Year and on Postgrad Cert in Teaching and Learning Support in HE; portfolio development sessions run with all staff (teaching and support); working with the Recording Achievement in Higher Education Project on portfolio development (recently introduced a half-day workshop on this for 20 participants from 6 HEIs, 4 FEIs and 4 LEAs); met Peter Seldin in Maryland two years ago, and would welcome the opportunity for further work on this topic.

Peter A.J. Bouhuijs
Associate Professor, Educational Research and Development, University of Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Email: bouhuys@educ.unimaas.nl

As a faculty developer I have always stressed the importance of a clear link between faculty development and personnel management. Recently my faculty (the innovative medical school) chose to establish this link by making faculty development programmes a requirement for all teachers, and by introducing a complicated system of performance review. The faculty board claims that the system will be more clear than a system based on portfolio's. My hopes are that the portfolio approach can be introduced at a later stage, when the drawbacks of our "simple" solution become more obvious. I would be interested to learn how an appraisal system using portfolio's works for senior teachers (does peer review really work here?).

Jan van Tartwijk
IVLOS Institute of Education, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Email: j.vantartwijk@ivlos.ruu.nl

Recently a number of related initiatives has been taken to improve the quality of teaching at Utrecht University. One of these initiatives is a training programme for junior faculty in which portfolios play a central role. After finishing the training programme, their teaching capabilities are assessed using their portfolio's. Senior faculty are required to compile a portfolio for assessment purposes as well. If their teaching capabilities are assessed to be insufficient they have to follow a training programme. As a researcher, I am involved in the evaluation of the use of teaching portfolios in the training programme and in research on the reliablity and validity of assessment procedures using portfolios. Part of my task is to advise policy makers on the character of the portfolios required, the design of assessment procedures using portfolios and the use of portfolios in the junior faculty training programme. Furthermore, as a teacher I compiled a porfolio myself.

Steve Outram
Head of Education Development, Staffordshire University, UK
Email: S.G.Outram@Staffs.ac.uk

I have been using teaching portfolios within our MA Higher and Professional Education programme for the last four years. This programme will be revised through 1997 leading to a new programme, commencing September 1997, that will be available electronically and delivered through distributed learning using Lotus Learning Space and a bespoke WWW shell that is being developed as a JISC project. In addition, as Head of Education Development I am in discussion with the University's senior managers to introduce the means by which excellent teaching will be rewarded - this will entail the wider use of professional portfolios.

Brenda Smith
Nottingham Trent University
Email:sdv3smith@ntu.ac.uk

Experience so far with Teacher Training students. Now designing one to be used with academic staff as part of our HEFCE (FDTL) project on Peer Review and Exchange of Teaching Excellence. The purpose of the portfolio is

1. To encourage reflection on practice
2. To enhance the discussion during appraisal
3. To enable staff to claim excellence in teaching for a Principal Lectureship

Marjorie Terdal
Portland State University, USA
Email: marjorie@nh1.nh.pdx.edu

In 1996-97 I am the faculty-in-residence for portfolio development for the Center for Academic Excellence. My responsibilities include conducting workshops for faculty members on developing a portfolio to document their scholarship of teaching, individual mentoring of faculty in developing their own portfolios, and giving workshops on peer review of materials and teaching. I also have met with all the deans and department chairs in the university to promote the use of portfolios as individual departments revise their promotion and tenure guidelines in keeping with Portland State's new emphasis on teaching and outreach as valid ways of demonstrating scholarship. The focus in my work seems to be on assessment and standards, although I have tried to advocate use of portfolios as a means of faculty development.