Rethinking the Teaching Portfolio in a Learning-Outcomes Climate

Abstract

The teaching portfolio (Seldin, 2004) has gained increasing acceptance beyond the United States as a means of documenting college teaching performance. For examples, see Tenhula (1993; Finland), the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (2002; Ireland), and Cosser (2002; South Africa). Hutchings and Schulman (1999) added "learning" to the phrase "teaching portfolio" to emphasize the outcomes of teaching in addition to the traditional display of an educator's achievements covered by Boyer's (1990) concepts in the scholarship of teaching. In the United States, the importance of learning outcomes to higher education was brought to the attention of the public through the Spellings Report (U.S. Department of Education, 2006). As a faculty member returning to the classroom after more than two decades of service as an academic administrator, I am well aware of how extensive the accountability shift from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning has been, without needing to read the Spellings Report. …