Guidelines for Preparing Teaching Portfolio

A teaching portfolio is a summary of evidence explaining how the instructor(s) has met the criteria of the Common Core Teaching Excellence Award in the course(s) specified in the nomination form. The portfolio should not be just a collection of teaching materials but should be a self-reflection about the effectiveness and quality of teaching and learning activities. Some indication of future development for the course(s) would also be beneficial. 

The teaching portfolio should not exceed 6 A4-sized pages. The evidence and materials presented in the portfolio should be relevant to the course(s) specified in the nomination form. Appendices may be added where deemed necessary.

The following elements should be included in the teaching portfolio:

  1. Teaching Philosophy
    • A self-reflective statement of the teaching philosophy about common core teaching, the teaching goals, and strategies for the course(s) specified in the nomination form, and explain how the teaching philosophy is implemented in the course design, teaching practice, and assessment activities of the course(s)
  2. Teaching Arrangements
    • Describe one’s involvement in the course(s) as a course designer and/or course instructor; and in the case of a team of instructors, describe the involvement of each team member in course design and teaching
    • Provide the class size, number of enrollment, pre-enrollment (if any), and student demographics
    • Explain the reasons for pre-enrollment, if applicable 
  3. Course Outline
    • Course description
    • Enrollment requirement, if any
    • Course objectives and intended learning outcomes
    • Teaching and learning activities
    • Assessment tasks and their respective weighting in the final grade
    • Weekly course topics, required and recommended readings or activities 
  4. Achievement of the Selection Criteria
    1. Excellence in course design and teaching innovation 
      1. Course design (including the development of a new course, or the refinement or redevelopment of an existing course)
        • Elaborate how the course(s) learning outcomes have supported the achievement of intended learning outcomes of its associated common core area
        • Specify those course materials that have been developed with reference to current research and the knowledge derived therein, if any, and explain how they have been integrated into the learning process
        • Explain how the course design has enhanced student learning and provide the evidence, if any
        • Explain how the course(s) has challenged students to consider social, cultural, or philosophical issues, and met the needs of students with diverse background and abilities
        • Describe how the course(s) has drawn on students’ life experience and made good connections between theories and applications to the real world 
      2. Teaching innovation (please provide sample class video-recordings (if available) to demonstrate their delivery in-class)
        • Give examples of non-conventional teaching pedagogy such as blended or experiential learning approach to inspire and motivate students to approach an unfamiliar discipline and arouse their interest in it
        • Specify the educational innovations developed or adopted to stimulate and support student learning
        • Describe the teaching and learning activities adopted to address varied student needs
        • Describe how active or interactive learning is promoted inside or outside the classroom
    2. Delivery of an exemplary common core course
      • Explain how the course(s) has attained the three goals of the Common Core Program
      • Describe how the course(s) has supported students in developing the University’s desired graduate attributes – ABC LIVE
      • Illustrate how the course(s) has served as an exemplary model and helped promote good practices in the delivery of common core courses
      • Explain what measures have been adopted to monitor the effectiveness of course delivery and how feedback is incorporated to enhance teaching
      • Provide the SFQ instructor overall mean, course overall mean, and common core questions mean scores in the form of a table, and benchmark them with the data of the respective department or unit
    3. Innovative and/or diversified assessment of student learning
      • Elaborate how assessment activities have supported the achievement of course learning outcomes and common core area intended learning outcomes
      • Illustrate how innovative assessment scheme has been adopted to evaluate students’ performance in achieving the course learning outcomes
      • Explain how assessment activities have been diversified to evaluate attainment of student learning outcomes
      • Specify the arrangement of well-balanced assessment between group work and individual assessment, if applicable
      • Describe how and when feedback has been communicated with students for their continuous improvement
      • Give examples of graded student assessment showing excellent, average, and poor work, and feedback on these work