|
General Advice on Constructing an Evaluation Portfolio |
||
|
This is a work in progress. I'll
add ideas as they occur to me.
Consider your audience -- different evaluators have different preferences.
|
||
Showcase your professional accomplishments -- Use the link to articles in the NEA Advocate |
||
| Organize it so that the relationship between
the materials you included and the evaluation criteria is crystal clear.
Have separate sections for teaching or library services, advising,
scholarship, service, and -- if appropriate -- "other."
Use a narrative, either at the front of the portfolio or as an introduction
to each section. Make each selection that you make from Appendix A very clear. You might write something like, "I chose to be evaluated on my contribution to the content of the discipline of . . ." Except in the case of post-tenure review, your portfolio will be read by many different evaluators. Don't tailor it so much to one evaluator's preferences that you leave other evaluators unsatisfied. Review your previous evaluations. Be sure to include information that demonstrates that you have given them serious consideration. Include documentation for everything without regard to how public or obvious the activity was. Discuss the quality, relevance and significance of your activities. Comment even on what seems obvious to you. Consider: what you did -- how much you did; why you did it; how you did it; how you used it; how it changed your practice; how it relates to your teaching, library services, and/or scholarship. Explain how your work contributed to your professional development. Scholarship: Explain why what you did is "scholarship" and why it is relevant to your discipline. If you are using projects that involved others, be sure to discuss what you did. If your project included mentoring students on their research, this is especially important. Grants? Be sure to demonstrate the
relationship of the grant to the criteria for evaluation (teaching,
advising, librarianship, scholarship, professional activities, APRs).
If you are presenting it as evidence of scholarship explain how it fits into
that category. |
||
| Don't leave readers guessing about the
quality of the work. Include enough documentation to make it clear. Letters from colleagues who can testify to the quality, relevance, and significance of your work can be effective. Include colleagues both on campus and/or off campus -- including former chairs. |
||
I think you should be wary about analysis of student evaluation -- unless they are clearly stellar.
Ms. Mentor's column of April 23 , 2003 contains interesting insights and important references regarding student evaluations. |
||
Student testimonials carry very little weight even when it's clear that they were not self-serving and that they were unsolicited
|
||
|
Mechanics Give it a professional appearance
It makes some sense to organize your portfolio so that
you have sections on each of the evaluation criteria including those
required of everyone and those that you selected on Appendix A1 or A2 |
||
| Make it sturdy enough to survive many readers -- but it doesn't need to be fancy. Don't spend a lot of money in a stationery store unless that gives you pleasure. | ||
Include all the required elements -- forms, résumés, documents. Number the pages and use a table of contents-- very important if there's a dispute later about what you did or didn't include. |
||
Proof read it; proof read it; proof read it again; and then have someone else proofread it. |
||
|
|