Teaching Dossiers

A Dossier can be used to demonstrate your beliefs, strengths, accomplishments, and growth as an instructor. The process of developing a Dossier contributes to good teaching by stimulating self-reflection, self-analysis, and self-development. A typical Dossier will consist of four sections:

  • Approach to teaching
  • Teaching contributions
  • Reflections on and assessment of teaching
  • Supporting documentation

Resources

CTL Guide to Teaching Dossiers
Faculty members at the University of Alberta are responsible as scholars “active in teaching, in research, and in service” and are evaluated in terms of their performance in these three categories. In view of the University’s multifaceted teaching evaluation policy (GFC Policy 111), a Teaching Dossier may provide the basis to compile input from self, students, and peers. This Guide, in conjunction with resources on the CTL website, is designed to help instructors document their growth and achievements in teaching and to present evidence of these in the form of a Teaching Dossier.

Crafting a Teaching Philosophy Statement
Your teaching philosophy statement is a living document that changes as you develop as an instructor, and as you adapt it for specific purposes — an award, promotion, or application for new position, for example.

Teaching Philosophies—Teaching Plus Podcast
In this episode, Drs. Roger Graves and Cosette Lemelin discuss writing teaching philosophies just in time for preparing for faculty evaluations!

Teaching Dossiers—Teaching Plus Podcast
The teaching portfolio is becoming increasingly used across Universities in North America as a way to reflect on (and evaluate) teaching. Whether you are starting your first portfolio, or looking to revise, Drs. Janice Miller-Young and John Nychka have some great advice for you. 

Building Your Teaching Portfolio... Starting Now!
Stephen Brookfield writes in Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher that there are four lenses instructors need to consider while developing their teaching: personal experience, colleagues' perspectives, theory, and students' learning experience. This presentation discusses these as well as possible formats and forms of evidence you can include in your portfolio in order to demonstrate your beliefs, strengths, accomplishments, and growth as an instructor.

Other Resources

Teaching Philosophy Examples

Portfolio Examples