What is a Teaching Dossier?
A teaching dossier (sometimes referred to as a teaching portfolio) presents “an integrated summary of your teaching philosophy, approaches, accomplishments, and effectiveness” (Kenney et al., 2018, p. 6). Dossiers supplement the teaching section of your curriculum vitae (CV), providing details about your teaching experience, classroom strategies and approaches, as well as teaching accomplishments.
Teaching dossiers are used in a variety of ways including for the purpose of award and job applications as well as career enhancement. Importantly, teaching dossiers are also an act of reflective practice. Reflection is integral as you work to curate the evidence and artifacts that will be included in your dossier and to write the contextual narrative that accompanies them.
Video (10.5 minutes): What is a Teaching Dossier?
What to include
The statement of teaching philosophy acts as the thesis (Schönwetter et al., 2002) or foundational element of the teaching dossier. The statement of teaching philosophy outlines the beliefs and actions that guide your decisions as an educator.
The evidence you provide in your dossier should align with your statement of teaching philosophy. For example, the evidence you provide about the teaching strategies and activities you use in your classroom should reflect the beliefs you listed in your philosophy statement (see description below). That is, if you claim collaboration is a core element of your pedagogy, the classroom activities you discuss as evidence should reflect this.
The body of the teaching dossier includes summaries and contextualization of your evidence or artifacts. For example, in the body of the teaching dossier you may include a numeric summary of formal summative course evaluations completed by students alongside a written summary and contextualization of the results. In the dossier appendix you can include the raw data used to create the summary. It is recommended that faculty include documentation of their course development/design or modifications, teaching responsibilities, creation and implementation of course materials and illustration of collegial participation and alliance (Taylor & Charlebois, 2024).
The table below describes potential evidence for inclusion in your teaching dossier. This list has been adapted from the earlier work of Jill Grose and Kenney et al., (2019).
| EVIDENCE | WHAT TO INCLUDE |
| Teaching Roles | Summary of courses taught, teaching responsibilities, students supervised, roles held. |
| Teaching Methods | An overview of the strategies and activities used in your classroom. Details about syllabi and assignments you have developed. |
| Feedback | Letters and feedback from peers and colleagues. Solicited and unsolicited feedback from students (format, results, and your response). Summative feedback/summary of course evaluation ratings including information on size, response rates, comments, type of course, and context. |
| Professional Development | Details about professional learning and development such as workshops taken, conferences and talks attended. |
| Educational Service and Leadership | Information about your involvement in teaching and learning committees, working groups, learning communities, etc. |
| Accomplishments and Awards | Details of award nominations and any recognition received for your contributions to teaching and learning. |
| Scholarship of Teaching and Learning | Description of your contribution to any research specific to teaching and learning and any associated outcomes (e.g. paper publication, conference presentation, etc.). |
| Goals | Short- and long-term goals related to teaching and improvement. |
| Appendix | Completed documentation to support the evidence discussed in the dossier. Including but not limited to, full summative course evaluation data, full formative feedback results, certificates received. |
Though there are no firm rules, a statement of teaching philosophy is normally a first-person narrative that is one to two pages in length.
As noted by Kenny et al. (2018), building on Chism (1998) and Schönwetter el al. (2002), you may consider the elements listed below when organizing your statement:
Beliefs
What do you think about teaching and learning?
Strategies
What do you do in the classroom (activities, assignments, etc.)?
Impact
What is the effect of your actions on learners? Yourself?
Goals
How will you improve?
Challenges with a Teaching Dossier that Demonstrates Teaching Effectiveness:
When faculty are seeking appointment, tenure, or promotion, demonstrating pedagogical efficacy is both essential and demanding, when constructing their teaching dossier. One suggestion is to discuss, with the Department Chair, what may be critical categories to include in the teaching dossier (Taylor & Charlebois, 2024). These authors also deliberate some areas for faculty to consider:
- When analyzing faculty roles, ask what are my established pedagogical best practices? Is the position I seek research-active or more non-research active in nature?
- Demonstrating teaching effectiveness through illustration of course learning outcomes, peer evaluations, the faculty’s self-reflective practices, classroom observations, and student experience course surveys.
- A teaching dossier is an educational portfolio that is expected to show an Instructor’s teaching experience, professional development etc. and elements in the dossier to provide evidence of teaching beliefs, practices, experiences and abilities.
- Evidence to support an Instructor’s philosophy and teaching practices which are embedded within the Instructor’s generated materials and methods that have been incorporated in a course design and curriculum.
- What professional development aspects can be used to show effort in improving teaching strategies, methods and practices?
- Are there student and colleague documents of support?
- Is the content of the dossier in alignment with the specific position application?
Your dossier is a helpful and often required document when applying for teaching awards. Visit the Teaching Dossier for Awards resource for more information.
Beatty, J. E., Leigh, J. S. A., & Lund Dean, K. (2009). Finding our roots: An exercise for creating a personal teaching philosophy statement. Journal of Management Education, 33(1): 115-130. https://doi.org/10.1177/1052562907310642
Kenny, N., Berenson, C., Jeffs, C., Nowell, L. & Grant, K. (2018). Teaching Philosophies and Teaching Dossiers Guide. Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning. http://www.ucalgary.ca/taylorinstitute/resources/
Schönwetter, D. J., Sokal, L., Friesen, M., & Taylor, K.L. (2002). Teaching philosophies reconsidered: A conceptual model for the development and evaluation of teaching philosophy statements. International Journal for Academic Development, 7(1): 83-97.
Taylor, S. & Charlebois, S. (2024). Teaching dossier guidance for professional faculty: an evidence-based approach for demonstrating teaching effectiveness, Frontiers in Education, V 9, p. 1-10