MSU Teaching Dossier Template
These are 'suggested' sections for a dossier / portfolio. Consider these as starting points to building your dossier and highlighting your work.
Rationale
“...many teacher educators continue to believe that teachers learn to teach over time. In fact, it is the consensus in the teacher education community that we are never done learning to teach, because each group of new students brings new challenges and possibilities, and because as societies change, the problems and issues that teachers confront also change." (Cochran-Smith, M., 2012, p.2)[1]
Purpose
The purpose of this document is to help organize the development of a teaching dossier. As suggested in the above quote, teaching is an ongoing and evolving process. Your teaching dossier is an opportunity to organize and reflect on your instructional practice and related contributions to pedagogy such as professional learning and scholarship. This resource will help you to organize and highlight these efforts.
How to use this template
You should view your teaching dossier as a living document. Unlike a CV your dossier affords you the opportunity to include reflections, artifacts, and examples of your work to highlight your efforts, contributions, and growth as an educator. This document helps to outline core or common elements to be included to show your experience and perspective on teaching and learning. You may wish to omit or emphasize other areas of your work in this resource. Therefore, view this template as a starting point or organizer to begin the development of your dossier.
Biographical Statement
Provide a brief history of the journey to your current teaching position. Consider this your introduction. Provide a little background about your teaching experience but leave the specific details about your experience and current responsibilities for that section of the dossier.
Approach to Teaching / Teaching Philosophy
These are personal statements of your beliefs about teaching and learning. You can support your claims with anecdotal evidence and personal experiences. You may also highlight specific approaches that you employ in your practice. Your statement can summarize a general plan or goals for your teaching. The statement should be descriptive, but brief (1 to 2 pages). This isn’t a critique or analysis of various philosophies or theories of learning. It is your statement.
Teaching Methods & Examples
What types of instructional strategies do you use or rely on? Are you a proponent of active learning, peer instruction, problem-based learning, case-Based learning, or project-based learning? Maybe your instructional strategies are more didactic because these align with your philosophy of teaching. Here is where you can provide a description of the methods you use and show some examples of your work. You may consider including sample course materials such as:
- Assignment descriptions
- Course modules
- Lab assignments / projects
- Descriptions of activities
- Outline of technologies used
Teaching Responsibilities & Activities
Offer a description of your teaching responsibilities and courses. You may describe the courses (modality, level, size, credit hour, etc.). Highlight your role in the design and delivery of these courses. You may consider including the syllabi for the courses that you are currently teaching or have taught. If you are involved with non-credit teaching such as seminars and workshops, include these as well.
Professional Development & Scholarship
Highlight your participation and commitment to ongoing professional development. What courses or sessions have you participated in? Are you a member of a professional learning community? If you have contributed to the academic community through a presentation, publication, or session related to the practice of teaching and learning than these efforts should be highlighted. Include links to artifacts and evidence.
Reviews & Feedback
Course reviews can be artifacts of effectiveness. You may have received peer or student feedback to highlight your efforts and effectiveness. It is important to show the alignment between your approach to instruction and the results highlighted in feedback and outcomes. Consider comments received via iteach.msu.edu “Thank an Educator”, or through peer feedback sessions (i.e. Peer Dialogues)
Awards and Recognition
Provide a description of the nominations, awards, and various forms of recognition that you have received for your contributions to teaching. These may include “Thank an Educator” awards from iTeach.msu.edu to invitations to speak or present about your work.
Summary & Reflections
Include a summary or reflection to add a narrative to the experiences you have had during instruction. Identify things that worked well, or things that could be modified to work better the next time. Reflect on things that you have learned, areas where you believe you have been successful and areas where you would like to improve or grow. You may outline goals in this portion of your dossier.
Appendices / Evidence
In a document format of your dossier, you would include links to resources and a list of citations outlining your work and contributions to teaching and learning. In a digital format you would be able to provide evidence more directly. As you build your dossier, you may want to outline the artifacts and evidence you will include in your dossier here.
[1] COCHRAN-SMITH, Marilyn. A Tale of Two Teachers: Learning to Teach Over Time. Kappa Delta Pi Record, v. 48, n. 3, p. 108-122, 2012. DOI:10.1080/00228958.2012.707501.
