Documenting Your Scholarship in Teaching

Presented by

East Carolina University School of Medicine
Office of Faculty Development
Academic Skills for Medical School Faculty Workshop Series

Patricia Thomas, M.D., F.A.C.P.
Deputy Director for Education
Department of Medicine
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Teaching Portfolio Content

Section 1: Philosophy of Education

Section 2: Curriculum Development & Instructional Design

Section 3: Teaching Skills

Section 4: Assessment of Learner Performance

Section 5: Adviser

Section 6: Educational Administration

Section 7: Regional/National Scholarship

Section 8: Continuing Education

Section 9: Honors and Awards

Section 10: Long-Term Goals

Section 1: Philosophy of Education

State explicitly the educational goals of your career

Integrate personal background experiences, training, reading and reflection

May include:

Learning theory
Goals of instruction
Roles and responsibilities of the learner
Role of the teacher
Description of the variables which promote learning

References for Teaching Philosophy Statement:

McGaghie WC, Frey JH. Handbook for the Academic Physician. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1986.

Gagne ED. The Cognitive Psychology of School Learning. Boston: Little, Brown, 1985.

Linfros EW, Neelon FA. The case for bedside rounds. N Engl J Med 303:1230-1233, 1980.

Engel GL. The deficiencies of the case presentation as a method of clinical teaching. N Engl J Med 284:20-24, 1971.

Kassirer JP. Iterative hypothesis testing: let's preach what we practice. N Engl J Med 309:921-925, 1983.

Pauker SG, Kassirer JP. The threshold approach to clinical decision making. N Engl J Med 302:1109-1117, 1980.

Waldrop MM. The necessity of knowledge. Science 223:1270-1282, 1984.

Ende J. Feedback in clinical medical education. JAMA 250:777-781, 1983.

Miles M. Learning to Work in Groups. New York: Teachers College, 1981.

Knowles M. Self-Directed Learning: A Guide for Learners and Teachers. Chicago: Follett Publishing Co., 1975.

Whitman NA, Schwenk TL. A Handbook for Group Discussion Leaders: Alternatives to Lecturing Medical Students to Death. Salt Lake City: University of Utah, 1983.

Thoughts on a personal teaching philosophy:

Section 2: Curriculum Development and Instructional Design

Description:

Each curriculum module/program submitted for review in the portfolio must include the following instructional design elements:

1) Definition of educational objectives in measurable terms (Who will do how much of what by when?)

2) Development and sequencing of instructional units keyed to the objectives

3) Selection of educational strategies: lectures, small groups, PBL, clinical rounds, consistent with objectives

4) Preparation of instructional materials, handouts, and supplemental resources

5) Evaluation of program/curriculum
 

Documentation:

This section should include curriculum projects for which you have had primary responsibility.
 

Each curriculum packet should include the elements outlined above, and evidence which supports the value merit and/or worth of this curriculum:

• peer review
• review by education specialists
• student evaluations

Section 3: Teaching Skills

Description:

Teaching skills focuses on the candidate's ability to deliver instruction to the learner using techniques which will maximize learning.  These techniques include strategies to present and reinforce information, stimulate thinking, trigger discussion and synthesis, and the ability to improvise to take advantage of those "teachable moments" - the ability to respond rapidly to a variety of unplanned events.

Documentation:

1. Activity Report:

• summary record of the diversity of audiences you teach and the array of teaching methods which you utilize
• provide a detailed listing of the teaching activities in a CV format, categorized by audience: medical student, resident, faculty, community

• systematic peer reviews
• systematic learner or graduate reviews, ratings of instruction, content analysis of unsolicited student comments/letters
• educational consultant reports
• videotapes of exemplary teaching with self-analysis teaching

Teaching Activity Report: Audience

Section 4: Assessment of Learner Performance

Description:

Assessment is defined as the systematic process for making inferences about what an individual has learned and/or an individual's level of competency.  This process involves defining, selecting, designing, collecting, analyzing, and interpreting the results of measures designed to assess an individual's learning and/or measures designed to evaluate qualifications for certification or licensure.  Any assessment measure must have two qualities:  reliability (the consistency, precision, and dependability of the measurement) and validity (face, content, criterion, and construct).

1. Activity Report:

• graphic summary of your assessment activities over time

• reliability
• face validity
• content validity
• construct and criterion validity
• examples of student work

Section 5: Adviser

Description:

The goal of any instruction is to change learner's knowledge, attitudes, and/or behaviors in a predetermined direction.  Instruction occurs in both formal and informal settings - advising of students/resident; non-credit externship experiences; collaboration on research; coffee table discussions on career planning - but often the informal instruction is overlooked.  However, it is the candidates' one-on-one involvement with learners as coach, guide, or mentor which impacts their development as professionals.  This section provides the opportunity to document the candidates' interactions with, and impact of, these informal educator responsibilities on the learner. 

Documentation Types:

• List formal advisees and current status
• List of students (from Registrar's Office) who request candidate as an adviser, ? index of where candidate stands relative to other faculty
• List of informal advisees. Consider asking advisees to write a 1-2 page summary of how they have been "changed" as a result of candidate's interactions
• Examples of advisee work while under your guidance

Section 6: Educational Administration

Description:

Instruction is managed change.  Service as course directors, curriculum coordinators, members of residency, departmental, college-wide, and/or community committees involved with the planning and/or evaluation of education all require the candidate to be skilled in educational administration.  Educational administrators participate in and provide leadership for small and large group tasks and manage self, others, money, and time on various educational projects and programs.

Documentation:

• appointment to committees
• ability to recruit instructors in a timely fashion
• provision of timely and constructive feedback to instructors on their performance
• ability to synthesize committee ideas into an action plan
• preparation for an accreditation or RRC review

• colleagues
• supervisors
• managers of teaching facilities
• chairs of committees
• reports from accreditation review
• self-assessment of administrative skills
• authorship of administrative reports

Educational Administrative Activity Report: Role

Section 7: Regional/National Scholarship

Description:

Those activities which advance knowledge in the discipline of education.

1) Peer reviewed regional/national presentations and publications
2) Receipt of a grant or contract based on peer review of a written proposal
3) Participation and service in a professional education organization

• publications and presentations related to education using publication style reference
• invited presentations
• serving as a discussant at a meeting
• peer reviewer for education
• reviewer for regional/national education-related conferences and/or journals

• title
• source of funding
• P.I.
• position
• dates
• amount

Section 8: Continuing Medical Education

Description:

Knowledge and techniques in medical education. Document candidate's record for continuing his/her own development as an educator.

Knowledge base in one's own area of specialty.

Documentation:

• list continuing educator (faculty development, consultant with education specialist, etc.) activities
• list clinical continuing education activities
• pedagogical essay

Section 9: Honors and Awards

Description:

Awards, certificates, and honors are evidence that one's peers hold the candidate in high esteem.  These recognitions must be included in a portfolio as they represent the collective judgments of one's peers regarding expertise.  As in the Continuing Medical Education section of this portfolio, awards include both recognition as an "educator" and as a "clinician" or "scientist."

Documentation:

• awards
• certificates
• honors
(could include both recognition as an "educator" and as a "clinician" or "scientist")
 

Section 10: Long-Term Goals

Description:

Donald A. Schon argues that enhancing the practitioner's ability for "reflection-in-action" - learning by doing and developing the ability for continued learning and problem-solving throughout one's career - is essential for taking action in cases where established theories may not always work.  Nowhere is this need to reflect more important than in the continuing development of educators.

The first section of the Educator's Portfolio (i.e., Philosophy of Education) provides the candidate with an opportunity to reflect on where he/she has been - one's values and beliefs regarding how students learn, the goals of instruction, the responsibilities of the instructor and the student.  In this, the last section of the portfolio, the candidate has the opportunity to reflect on where he/she will be - future projects, ideas to be investigated, skills to be learned through continuing education, involvement in professional organizations.  The process of articulating one's values and delineating a plan of action based on those values requires the "reflection-in-action" that will result in skilled educators who are able to address the important questions.  

Documentation:

1-2 page description of your plans as an educator

You may want to include:

• faculty promotion
• future projects: curriculum development, scholarship, grants/contracts
• teaching skills to be added to your repertoire
• continuing education
• assessment of student performance
• educational administration
• professional organizations

References for the Teaching Portfolio

Anderson E, Hutchings P. Campus Use of the Teaching Portfolio:  Twenty-Five Profiles. AAHE Teaching Initiative, 1993.

Beasley BW, Wright SM, Cofrancesco J, Babbott SF, Thomas PA, Bass EB.  Promotion Criteria for Clinician-Educators in the United States and Canada.  JAMA 278:723-728,1997.

Beecher AC, Lindemann JC, Morzinski JA, Simpson DE.  Use of the Educator's Portfolio to Stimulate Reflective Practice Among Medical Educators.  The Educator's Portfolio.  Teaching and Learning in Medicine 9:56-59, 1997.

Bickel J.  The Changing Faces of Promotion and Tenure at US Medical Schools.  Acad Med 66:249-256, 1991.

Beecher A, Simpson D, Morzinski J, Lindemann J.  Meeting the Challenge to Document Teaching Accomplishments:  The Educator's Portfolio.  Teaching and Learning in Medicine 6:203-206, 1994.

Black L (editor). New Directions in Portfolio Assessment. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton Cook, 1994.

Bok D. The Improvement of Teaching. Teachers College Record 66:236-251, 1991.

Boyer EL. Scholarship Reconsidered:  Priorities for the Professorate. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.  Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990.

Braskamp LA, Ory JC. Record and Portfolios, Assessing Faculty Work: Enhancing Individual and Institutional Performance. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc., 1994, pgs. 226-236.

Centra J. Reflective Faculty Evaluation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Inc., 1993, pgs 94-114.

Challis M, Mathers NJ, Howe AC, Field NJ. Portfolio-based Learning: Continuing Medical Education for General Practitioners - a Mid-point Evaluation. Medical Education 21:22-2, 1997.

Chaput DM, Saintonge DE, Elzubeir M, Towle A. Promotion Policies and Recognition of Teaching Excellence in UK Universities and Medical Schools.  Education for Health 10:153-164, 1997.

Collins A. Portfolios for Biology Teacher Assessment.  Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education 5:147-189, 1991.

Daley W. Teaching and Scholarship - Adapting American Higher Education in Hard Times. Journal of Higher Education 65: 45-57, 1994.

Davis BG. Self-evaluation and the Teaching Dossier.  In Tools for Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishing, 1993, pgs 362-366.

Edgerton R. The Re-examination of Raculty Priorities.  Change July/August 10-25, 1993.

Edgerton R, Hugchings P, Quinlan K. The Teaching Portfolio: Capturing the Scholarship in Teaching. Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education, 1992.

Froh RC, Gray PJ, et al. Representing Faculty Work: The Professional Portfolio. In Recognizing Faculty Work:  Reward Systems for the Year 2000. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishing, 1993, pgs 97-110.

Glassick CE, Huber MY, Maeroff GI. Scholarship Assessed-Evaluation of the Professoriate. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishing, 1997.

Jacobs MB. Faculty Status for Clinician-Educators:  Guidelines for Evaluation and Promotion.  Acad Med 68:126-128, 1993.

Jolly P, Jolin B, Sanderson S. Medical School Financing: Comparing Different Types of Schools and Departments. Acad Med 68:92-101,1993.

Jones RF. Clinician-educator faculty tracks in US Medical Schools. J Med Educ 62:444-447, 1987.

Jones RF, From JD. Faculty and Administration Views of Problems in Faculty Evaluation.  Acad Med 69:476-483, 1994.

Lindemann J, Beecher A, Morzinski J, Simpson D. Translating Family Medicine's Educational Expertise Into Academic Success.  Family Medicine 27:306-309, 1995.

Oeffinger KC, Roaten SP, Ader DB, Buchanan RJ. Support and Rewards for Scholarly Activity in Family Medicine:  A National Survey.  Family Medicine 29:508-512, 1997.

Rothman AI, Poldre P, Cohen R. Evaluating Clinical Teachers for Promotion. Acad Med 64:774-775, 1989.

Rubeck RF, O'Connor WN.  Automating portfolio documentation for faculty.  Academic Medicine 71:569, 1996.

Seldin P. How Administrators Can Improve Teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishing, 1990, pgs. 14-16.

Seldin P. The Teaching Portfolio: A Practical Guide to Improved Performance and Promotion/Tenure Decisions (2nd edition). Boston, MA: Anker Publishing Co., 1997.

Seldin P. Successful Use of Teaching Portfolios. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing Co., 1993.

Shulman L. Toward A Pedagogy of Substance.  AAHE Bull 41:8-13, 1989.

Shulman L. A Union of Insufficiences: Strategies for Teacher Assessment in a Period of Educational Reform.  Educ Leadership November 36-46, 1988.

Swanson AG. ACME-TRI Report: Educating Medical Students.  Washington, DC:  Association of American Medical Colleges, 1992.

Wolf K. The Schoolteacher's Portfolio: Issues in Design, Implementation and Evaluation. Phi Delta Kappa October 129-136,1991.