Meeting the challenge to document teaching accomplishments: The educator's portfolio

Abstract

Faculty seeking promotion as educators have been constrained by the lack of an effective method for presenting and assessing the value of their teaching contributions. The educator's portfolio holds promise as a solution to this problem. A review of portfolio literature in higher and teacher education was conducted to determine the typical contents of a portfolio. Concurrently, a postcard survey on educator portfolios was mailed to 134 U.S. medical school deans. All postcard respondents who indicated that a portfolio system was in place received a follow‐up semistructured telephone interview. Two primary content orientations were identified in the portfolio literature: faculty development (e.g., philosophy of education, continuing education) and promotion (e.g., curriculum development, assessment of learner performance, teaching skills). Ninety‐one percent of medical schools responded to the postcard survey. Seventeen medical schools reported having a portfolio‐like system in place, used primarily for faculty promotion. There was a high degree of concordance between portfolio contents in higher education and in medical education. The educator's portfolio concept is being rapidly adopted in U.S. medical schools for documenting a faculty member's educational contributions for promotion‐oriented purposes.