Teacher Portfolio and Annual Assessment
Definition
The teacher portfolio refers to information and documents collected on the academic progress, contribution and achievements of the teaching staff.
Goals:
The main goals for the creation of teacher portfolio are:
1- Encouraging the academics to offer high quality teaching and learning experience to students.
2- Assessing the progress, contribution and achievements of the teaching staff.
3- Identifying the teacher’s strengths and weaknesses and offering them the appropriate support to improve quality.
The core value of Teacher`s portfolio
The teacher’s portfolio must contain all the essential documents that would support their claim.
- Teacher`s CV
- A summary of the teacher`s profile written in his/ her own words
- The certificate and the academic background of the teacher and a summary on his/ her field.
- The principles and philosophy that the teacher is following in his/her journey to quality in teaching in his/her specialty
- Evidence for the efforts made for curriculum development
- Innovation in teaching methods and facilitating the learning process
- Employing different teaching methods to deliver lecture objectives: classical teaching, supervising students seminars, promoting critical thinking and academic debates
- External evaluator report for assessing the teacher`s course
- Research activity: a report on achieved research projects and scientific breakthroughs.
- Academic publications: peer reviewed papers, review articles and books.
- Supervising Master’s and Doctoral thesis and participating in viva voce.
- Active participation in conferences and academic workshops
- Any other activities such as membership in academic and administrative committees, meeting minutes and other documents for active participation.
- Activities beyond the university role, e.g. within professional, charity organizations, general publications and media profile.
- Any other document or activity which are considered important by the teacher
- Rewards and bonuses
The portfolio of the teacher, Head of Department, Head of school and the Dean of colleges are all organized and assessed in the same way.
The mechanism of evaluation
The collection and organization of information and documents in one folder is the sole responsibility of the teacher himself/herself. Every teacher is required to submit his/her portfolio before the end of April (each year) to the departmental head of Quality Assurance (DHoQA) in their academic Department. The DHoQA submit a copy of the portfolio in confidence to the members of the assessment committee, who will fill a preliminary assessment form and score each section from (1-5):
Failed : 1
Below medium : 2
Medium : 3
Good : 4
Very good : 5
The final rate will then be recorded and comments added against each section, particularly where the scores are very high (4.5-5.0) or very low (1.0-2.0). The DHoQA will coordinate correspondence and collate the date before finalization by the Teacher Portfolio Assessment Committee (TPAC).
Teacher’s Portfolio Assessment Committee (TPAC).
The membership of TPAC will consist of:
1- The Head of the academic Department (HoD, as chairman of the committee). In case of assessing the portfolio of the HoD or other managerial leaders (Head of School, Dean of college) then the assessment committee must be presided by a person higher than the HoD.
2- The DHoQA.
3- The Head of Quality Assurance in the college (FHoQA), or their representative (a member from the college QA committee)
4- The Director of academic and higher education section at college level.
5- An experienced academician at the level of Professor or Assistant Professor from outside the Department, whose nomination is approved by the college council. The academic grade of the assessor must be higher than, or equivalent to, that of the assessed candidate.
Note: the teacher who is undergoing assessment will not attend the meetings
- After completion of the assessment process, ah hour credit will be awarded to each assessor for each portfolio assessed (not exceeding four hours in total).
Assessment Committee Meetings
The departmental assessment committees will hold their meetings before the end of May of each year. During these meetings, the submitted final forms for each assessed candidate will be reviewed and approved. The DHoQA will be taking minutes.
The assessment committee must focus on the assisting and encouraging the candidates to make greater efforts to address their shortcoming, raise the quality of their academic work and enhance their career prospects. The assessment committee must document its comments, criticism, suggestion and recommendations. These will be the feedback returned to the teacher.
Before the end of May, the approved assessment form, alongside the minutes of the assessment committee meeting will be sent to the Dean of the college by the FHoQA. The Dean of the college will then submit the file to the college Council. The teacher portfolio will be returned to the owner. A copy of the high or very low performers will be kept with the DHoQA for future reference.
The CCollege Council
The college Council will make the decisions listed below before the end of June of each year, FHoQA must attend these meetings.
1- Meeting minutes of the Assessment Committee and the final forms will be considered and approved. Decisions on difficult or controversial issues can be referred to college Council.
2- The procedures for implementing the Committee’s decision would be according to the ‘table of consequences’ (below).
3- The Teacher-of-the-Year in each Department and college will be identified from among the teachers who obtained A1 grade. The candidate at the college level will also be nominated for the University’s teacher of the year (decision by the University Council).
4- The forms of the under-performing teachers who obtained E2 grade will be sent to the University Council for further decisions.
The decisions of the college Council should be proportional and appropriate, designed to serve the interest of students as well as the academic member of staff. The college Council has the right to investigate the fairness and objectivity of the process followed by the Assessment Committee, but has not authority to interfere with details or influence outcome.
The university council
Each year and before the graduation ceremonies, the Council of the University or Technical institution with the attendance of the Director of Quality Assurance will review the meeting minutes of the college Council and nominate the teacher of the year whose name will be announced at the graduation ceremony. The University Council will also examine the numbers and details of under-performing teachers (obtained E2) and follow up their progress after securing additional support for them.
In every institution, electronic data bases will be created to collate and analyze the scores for students and communicate these to the Quality Assurance Directorates at the University and the Ministry for future reference and audit.
The rights of the assessed teacher
The teacher has no right to interfere with the assessment process or communicate with the members of the Assessment Committee. They have the right to discuss details with the HoD and receive objective feedback. This meeting is not to influence outcome of the process.
Teachers have the right to appeal and ask for re-assessment. This request is submitted in writing to the college Council, who will consider the request and may decide to have the teacher re-assessed by a different Assessment Committee outside the candidate’s own department.
Conclusion
The teacher’s portfolio is considered to be a complementary to the quality assurance process. Overlap may be notice in this process and that of Continuous Academic Education and Student Feedback assessment processes. However, there are fundamental differences between these processes that would make each one of these independent, yet complementary.