What is a Faculty Teaching Dossier?

A teaching dossier or portfolio documents your teaching experiences, methods, and growth over time. It usually includes a teaching statement and a selected set of teaching materials that support the ideas discussed in the statement. Faculty teaching dossiers are used at Cornell as part of tenure and promotion decisions. Some colleges and departments request them for third-year reviews, while others only require them for tenure decisions or promotions.

What is the Value of a Teaching Dossier?

An advantage of a teaching dossier is that it gives you an opportunity to showcase your teaching strengths by providing selected examples from your specific discipline and teaching area. It also allows a review committee to consider multiple sources of evidence about your teaching rather than solely relying on a single measure, such as student evaluations. A teaching dossier also encourages you to reflect on how your students are learning, as well as on your growth as an educator, especially if you create a routine in which you add to your dossier each semester.

The SETs Guidance to Chairs and Deans about evaluating teaching is a helpful Cornell resource to refer to as you are preparing your materials.

Teaching Statements

The centerpiece of a faculty teaching dossier at Cornell is your teaching statement (4–5 pages), which should focus on your teaching experiences while at Cornell. They are typically longer and with more details about your specific teaching responsibilities and growth while here at Cornell, when compared with a teaching statement you may have prepared while applying for a faculty position.

As always, be sure to check for recommendations and requirements from your department. However, in general, your teaching statement should provide:  

• Reflections on the goals and purpose of your teaching and how your teaching approaches align with these objectives.
• Evidence for growth and improvement in your teaching while at Cornell, including a willingness to seek out and use feedback, mentorship, and campus resources. 
• Thoughtful consideration of student experiences in your courses and how your students are learning.
• A glimpse into your classroom through specific examples.
• Contributions to the Cornell or disciplinary community, if relevant for your role (e.g., development of teaching materials, serving in roles that help improve teaching or curriculum, etc.).

Selecting Teaching Examples to Align With Your Statement

Curation

For your teaching dossier, note that you are not offering a complete record of all course materials, but instead a curated list of representative resources. You should select these materials with three key principles in mind:

• Do these resources represent a fair sampling of my work? Can they stand as accurately representative of what it is like to experience your teaching?
• Do these examples represent my teaching values? If you identify and discuss specific values as important to your teaching in your statement, do the selected artifacts demonstrate those values? 
• Do these resources tell a story? Do they, for example, show the ways in which you have changed and improved as a teacher over time?

Context

Selected documents should not stand on their own. You should select specific examples because they fit the overall story you are seeking to tell about your teaching. Do not assume that the story is immediately apparent to readers of your dossier.

You can refer to examples in your teaching statement and/or provide a cover sheet to

• Provide necessary context for the teaching materials you have included.
• Draw the reader’s attention to the key takeaways for these examples.
• Share your own reflections on what worked and what’s next for your teaching.

Content

Among the many different teaching materials you may consider sharing, be sure to include:

• Syllabi
  • Syllabi should contain a clear statement of what students will learn (i.e., learning outcomes) and how they will be assessed. Syllabi can also signal what an instructor thinks is important and their approaches to helping students learn.
• In-class exercises or activities
  • Examples of in-class activities can demonstrate a commitment to active learning and are an opportunity to show your approach to teaching in your discipline. 
  • Note: You should share examples that you developed or significantly modified, not materials that you inherited from previous instructors of a course.
• Mid-Semester Feedback Program reports
  • If you participate in the Mid-Semester Feedback Program or collect your own student feedback, sharing reports and noting changes you made in response is a good method for showing how you use feedback to improve your teaching.
• Assignment instructions
  • Select assignments that clearly connect to course learning outcomes and that demonstrate how you communicate clear expectations for students.
  • Note: Assignments that engage students in creation or design, conducting their own research, problem-solving, or community-engaged learning can be particularly effective examples.
• Exams 
  • Exams should be considered for inclusion if you have a particularly novel or effective way of assessing student learning.
• Rubrics
  • Including grading rubrics for assignments or exams demonstrates that you share clear, transparent expectations with students in assessing their work. 
• Peer Feedback or Self-Assessments
  • If you ask students to assess their peers or engage in self-assessment, consider including examples of how you structure those expectations.

Addressing Challenges and Responding to Feedback

Facing some challenges during your initial years of teaching at Cornell is expected. Some of these challenges will be apparent to reviewers from other materials provided by your department, such as student evaluations. Reviewers will be interested in seeing how you have responded to these challenges and used feedback from students, peers, or mentors to improve your teaching. In your statement, we encourage you to consider giving a few examples of how you have made changes to your teaching over time in response to feedback.

Taking a thoughtful approach to feedback can be helpful. For example, when reviewing student evaluation feedback, it’s important to look for repeated patterns and not focus too much on one disgruntled complainer. However, if several students note an issue with your course, consider taking steps to learn more and see what can be improved.

There are many resources and opportunities on campus to help you grow in your teaching. Conversations with teaching assistants, colleagues, and teaching experts at the Center for Teaching Innovation are good places to start. Additional student surveys, such as mid-semester feedback, may also help to diagnose any potential issues, as well as to identify solutions. We also recommend inviting a teaching specialist from CTI, or other colleagues or mentors, to observe your class and offer developmental feedback.

Resources

Peter Seldin. (2004). The teaching portfolio. Jossey-Bass.

Joy Burnham et al. (2010). Tools for dossier success. A guide for promotion and tenure. Routledge.

K. A. Rockqumore and T. Laszloffy. (2008). The Black Academic’s Guide to Winning Tenure – Without Losing Your Soul. Lynne Rienner Publishers.