Teaching others about your excellence
as an educator

Developing Your Educator’s Portfolio

Instructor’s guide

Deborah Simpson, PhD

Associate Dean, Educational Support and Evaluation

Director, Office of Educational Services

Professor, Family and Community Medicine


Instructor’s Guide/Lesson Plan

Teaching Others about Your Excellence as an Educator

Brief Description

Faculty seeking to advance in their academic careers with an emphasis on education often need guidance to effectively document their educational contribution whether in an academic curriculum vita and/or an Educator’s Portfolio. This packet contains a brief PowerPoint presentation with annotated speaker notes, handouts and a compendium of CV and portfolio examples of educators used by educators seeking academic promotion.

Intended Learner Audience

o  Faculty - seeking to document educational activities for review by supervisors, promotion and tenures, or other high stakes reviewers

o  Academic Promotion Committees – including Faculty Mid-Rank Review Committees and Promotion and Tenure (P&T) Committees (e.g., orient new members regarding documentation strategies for educators seeking promotion)

o  Faculty Affairs Leaders and Development Specialists – who teach faculty how to document their educational activities using CVs and/or portfolios

o  Residents & Fellows - preparing materials for future job search

Session Objectives

At the end of the session, learners will be able to:

1. Identify types of evidence of excellence linked to educator roles and activities

2. Recognize the necessity of documenting for quantity and quality in presenting educational activities

3. Determine options of engagement with educational community to begin progression towards scholarship for selected inclusions

4. Justify why submission to peer-reviewed repository is an equivalent form of scholarship to a journal submission

Session Time: 60 Minutes Total

5 min / Introduction, Distribute Materials
35 min / Interactive PowerPoint presentation
o  Question prompts and example answers are included in the speaker notes
15 min / Discussion, Question and Answer
o  Commonly asked questions with brief answers are presented at the end of this Instructor Guide
5 min / Debriefing, Completion of evaluation, and Conclude Session

Relationship of This Session to Other Educational Materials/Activities

This session is designed to focus on the rationale and benefits for an Educator’s Portfolio (EP), its relationship to an academic CV, the types of educational activities to be included in a CV and Educator’s Portfolio and how to begin developing a portfolio using the EP worksheet. The Educator’s Portfolio & CV Guidebook compliments this workshop. It compliments published literature in the field including the 2006 Hafler, et al, Chapter on Scholarship and the AAMC-GEA Consensus Conference on educational scholarship.

Other Applications/Extensions of this Material

The original workshop and accompanying materials were designed for educators in a clinical department. However, the concepts and principles of documenting education can be applied to basic science educators, PhD educators, or others involved in teaching in the health care professions. In addition, the concepts of scholarship can be extended to include work in community academic partnership and service learning. The presenter would adapt the presentation and examples to match the audience. For example, for a basic science educator, examples related to teaching graduate students in lab would be appropriate. For a PhD educator, emphasis may need to be on faculty development activities both one-on-one (under advising) and in formal structured settings.

Evaluation/Assessment

An evaluation form for the session is included with packet materials to be completed by session participants as part of the debriefing exercise. Evaluations for this workshop are typically very favorable – with strengths associated with the provision of multiple examples and interactivity. It is important to draw examples from the audience and then work through, by Q and A’s with the audience, how and where the activity would appear in a CV and/or Educator’s Portfolio and what evidence may be available/should be gathered. In the general session, participants are enthused that they now have a way to be recognized for their educational work but then they are struck with the realization that it is going to take time and effort to document educational contributions. As a presenter it helps to acknowledge this dichotomy – and tell them you have good news and bad news! But the bad news isn’t so bad, as there are models and resources to meet the criteria of scholarship associated with “effective presentation”.

Instructor Qualifications and Responsibilities

1.  A strong working knowledge and understanding of:

A.  Educational Scholarship including the work of Boyer, Glassick, et al, and recent publications in medical education as presented in the reference list

B.  Local (your own institution) promotion and tenure process

C.  Forums for scholarship in medical education including peer reviewed repositories, presentations/conferences, and journals

2.  Experience working with colleagues on curriculum vitas

3.  Teaching Skills:

A.  Skilled/experienced large group instructor, comfortable integrating PowerPoint presentation with interactive audience based participation methods

B.  Ability to interact with learners in large group setting using the learner’s experience as examples to highlight key teaching points

C.  Prepare materials and room conducive to group interaction/discussion or be flexible to use established room set-up, if needed

4.  Recommended/qualifications:

A.  Be a senior faculty member who has been promoted for educational activities

B.  Experience on an academic promotion committee (e.g., department, college, university)

Facilities

o  Room able to accommodate size of group and computer projection

o  Sound system depending on size of group

Required Resources/ Instructional Materials (Equipment, space, room set up)

1)  Handouts

2)  Equipment: computer, projector, screen and laser light pointer

Advance Preparation

1.  Create a packet of handouts for each participant. Each packet should contain:

A.  PowerPoint presentation handouts with room for learner notes

B.  Your institution specific standards for academic CVs

(1)  MCW’s required format provided as an example

C.  Educator’s Portfolio Worksheet

D.  Evaluation form

2.  Review speaker notes included with PowerPoint slides in preparation for presentation

3.  Before the session begins, while participants are entering the meeting room, ask several participants if they would be willing to share their work-related experiences with the large group during the worksheet segment of the presentation.

Common Questions and Answers during the PowerPoint Presentation and Q& A

  1. Q. When participants ask for your “opinion” – is that teaching?
  2. Use a definition of teaching or learning to ground the discussion in evidence. For example, “Learning is defined as a relatively permanent change of behavior that occurs as a result of practice with feedback”. If you as a teacher did something that made a change in their behavior and you affected that, that’s teaching.
  1. Q. How do I document quantity of teaching?
  2. Quantity for teaching is answered by how often do you do it. Try asking the audience “what would you consider to be evidence that Dr.____ was a good teacher? (Often the group will generate types of evidence that can be used including learning ratings of teaching, peer ratings, etc.)
  1. Q. What would be evidence of teaching quality?
  2. For example, on your CV, you would list teaching residents the guidelines; advising and mentoring residents. When you think about this, ask yourself, do you have any evidence of the quality of your teaching? Yes, you may have resident evaluations. If you presented a workshop, collect data as to who was in attendance? Where are they from? If the audience is beyond your medical student family, include the data, e.g., regional conference. How many residents come through? To further define your quality of instruction, collect the teaching evaluations as then you would have that data longitudinally over time. It can then allow you to compare your data with the overall department data or other faculty departments.
  1. Q. What else is evidence that you are a really good teacher?
  2. Ever get notes from students? Do you get more notes than other teachers? Have you received teaching awards? Have you been asked to be an advisor? Keep track of that progression. Other sources of data can be peer evaluations from grand rounds or from asking a peer to sit in on your teaching. Ask them to evaluate you and ask them to answer –was this helpful? The goal is to improve your teaching and record the evidence.
  1. What would indicate you are a great mentor?
  2. Having seen your students improve would be your evidence of quality. Other evidence is that you were chosen to mentor. Ask the learner to write a note stating the reasons you were selected over other department faculty. It is judgment by your peers which is good. Think about how you would capture that good information.
  3. If you were looking at someone that advised your residents – what would be good evidence? For example, they were selected for a job, the type of job, they were sought after, and results on in-service exams. There is evidence all over about your quality. One needs to capture it. Must be systematic and ask for evaluations and they can be simple. Develop your dataset. Try to make it comparative – compare to your peers. If you developed specific protocols, that can be an example. Need to get oriented as to what you should collect. How do you coach others to be good mentors? You could present at a faculty development session on your findings and this becomes evidence you can use.
  1. Q. How do you take everyday tasks and convey quality and quantity on your CV?
  2. Use the sustained teaching evaluations and/or narrative comments you receive. Ask chief residents to write a summary letter about your teaching. Present at a national meeting. It carries considerable weight because it is displayed and presented and has evidence of how people think about it.
  3. Are you developing any educational materials and assessment tools? There are places to submit these resources for peer-review and dissemination called on-line repositories, e.g. MedEdPORTAL. Accepted submission of these endurable products should be included on your Educator’s Portfolio.
  4. Think about what you do and value it. Think about how you are going to convince others that it is quality. Before you convince others, how are you going to convince yourself? Start with yourself first and the rest will follow.
  5. Q. Where would I include my serving as an invited reviewer for textbooks, and/or a reviewer for online educational repositories like POGOe, FMDRL, AAMC-MedEdPORTAL?
  6. Most CV’s have a named category of Editorial Board. We typically expand that category, even if it is not official on the CV format, and rename it “Editorial Board/Invited Reviewer”.
  7. Why? Editorial Boards are often limited in size and are for senior faculty. However, when one is formally invited to serve as a reviewer, your peers have judged you to be qualified to evaluate the submission, just as do reviewers of papers for journals or grants. Peer review is at the heart of scholarship and by expanding the editorial board category to include our selection as individuals qualified to judge others work, we can demonstrate evidence of our educational expertise.
  1. Where would I list online learning tools that I have developed or co-developed?

If I put it under the “Video, Syllabi, or Other Teaching/Educational Material” section of the CV do I diminish the importance of e-learning materials?

  1. Each institution has its own CV category for these kinds of educator activities or it may not have a category at all. As this is your CV – adapt the category label to match what you value – to reflect your unique contribution(s). Just put it in the location that is logical within the flow of the CV.
  2. If your material has been accepted in a peer reviewed repository, then the category label would need to indicate “Peer Reviewed Educational Materials” and list it like a publication. MedEdPORTAL and other portals have conferences for listing their accepted publications which should be followed.
  3. If your material has not been submitted to a peer reviewed repository – get going and share what you have developed by submitting it!

Teaching Tips – Lessons Learned

Throughout the session, the presenter must continually speak to the importance and value of educator’s contributions to the institutional mission of education and to the need to capture and present quantity and quality evidence associated with educator activities. This can be done in multiple ways including:

1.  Draw Analogies: Your research oriented colleagues and how they prepare for their academic promotion (e.g., the importance of developing a systematic way of collecting data that is easy and efficient for the faculty member).

2.  Rhetorical Questions:

A.  Do your research colleagues list all the “rejects” they receive on a paper prior to its publication?

(1)  No, then why would you list every sub par teaching evaluation? Include those that address your excellence but your data must be inclusive for that event (e.g., do not drop those you didn’t like from a specific event.)

(2)  “I only do what I’m paid to do – which is to teach, to advise residents, to see patients”. Why does that count? Why is teaching – which is your job – not suitable for academic documentation? What is the job of a clinical researcher? To do research, get grants and publish. That’s all on their CV. Teaching is equally suitable for academic documentation.

3.  Get a commitment from your workshop participants. In order for change to occur, encourage participants to commit to evaluating and recording their educational accomplishments before leaving the session.


Teaching Others About Your Excellence as an Educator

Session Evaluation

Your name (optional):
Poor/Low / Fair / Average / Good / Excellent/High
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
For each session objective below, rank your ability to: / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
1.  Identify types of evidence of excellence linked to educator roles and activities
2.  Recognize the necessity of documenting for quantity and quality in presenting educational activities
3.  Determine options of engagement with educational community to begin progression towards scholarship for selected inclusions
4.  Justify why submission to peer-reviewed repository is an equivalent form of scholarship to a journal submission
For each item below, rank its value / 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
5.  Relevancy/usefulness of information
6.  Responding to “Getting Started” worksheet; Q & A Session
7.  Effectiveness of presentation style
8.  Compared to similar sessions you have attended on this subject, rate the overall value of this session

List two unresolved questions: