26 Approaching Individual Portfolio Evaluations
Depending on your role, you may be tasked with formally reviewing an educator’s portfolio, or an educator may request your informal review as they prepare it for tenure, permanence, promotion, or another purpose. Regardless of the circumstance, reviewing and providing feedback offers an opportunity to refine your own teaching practices and discover new ideas. Approach your review with a curious and open mindset, and keep in mind any norms or recommendations specific to your context, such as departmental priorities.
Qualities to look for in a teaching portfolio
Beyond specific qualities you may be looking for to satisfy departmental requirements, the questions below can serve as a starting point for formulating your feedback on a portfolio.
| Teaching Philosophy | Evidence of Teaching | Alignment |
| Is the portfolio strongly grounded in a teaching philosophy statement that clearly summarizes the educator’s core beliefs about teaching and learning, and the key claims they make about their practice? | Is evidence provided from multiple perspectives (e.g., self, students, peers) to substantiate claims made throughout the portfolio? | Can strong alignment be seen between the evidence provided and claims made throughout the portfolio? |
| Does the philosophy statement provide a strong framework for the presentation and organization of the portfolio? | Are the sources of evidence appropriate given the context of the educator’s teaching responsibilities, experiences, and expertise? | Are links to scholarly literature provided throughout the portfolio where appropriate? |
| Reflective Approach | Presentation | Future Directions |
| Is the portfolio grounded by a critically reflective narrative that puts the evidence into context, highlights key learning, and describes how the educator’s teaching and learning approaches have evolved over time? | Is the educator’s voice consistent throughout the portfolio? | In general, what are the strengths of this portfolio? |
| Does the reflective component make connections between the philosophy statement and evidence, and across sources of evidence? | Is the portfolio presented as a clear, succinct, and integrated document? | What specific changes could be made to improve this portfolio? |
If you prefer to consult a framework or tool to guide your feedback, you may wish to check out one of the following options:
- The Career Framework for University Teaching presents four levels based on a faculty member’s sphere of impact. Each level includes promotion criteria and suggests appropriate types of evidence. This framework is designed to be adaptable to local teaching and learning contexts. An adapted version of the framework’s types of evidence is presented in the next section.
- The Transforming Higher Education – Multidimensional Evaluation of Teaching project aims to advance aligned, sustainable, and effective evaluation of teaching strategies. It presents a collection of peer, student, and self review tools from various higher education institutions in the United States.
- The UBC Teaching Dossier Self-Assessment Tool provides a comprehensive set of rubrics organized into six categories. These rubrics can be adapted to a peer evaluation perspective and are reproduced in Chapter VI: Refining Your Portfolio: Feedback, Resources, and Policy.
Note that at this time, McMaster does not formally endorse any one of these frameworks or approaches over the other. Be mindful as you explore external tools and consider their fit with local strategy and departmental or disciplinary norms and priorities. As advised previously, it is best to take an approach that is transparent and consistent with the faculty member(s) whose portfolios you review.