GMU Teaching Excellence Award Criteria for Portfolio Evaluation
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Below are the descriptions for the five criteria that will be used to evaluate your teaching portfolio. There are many ways to provide evidence for each criterion and the selection committee will be paying special attention to the quality of your evidence, so you will want to be deliberate and selective in your choices. For each criterion you will want to provide a brief commentary about why you made these choices and what they illustrate for your readers. Please note that the lists below are not intended to be exhaustive.
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Criterion #1: Framing Teaching Excellence
Be mindful of your audience. The selection committee consists of faculty members from diverse backgrounds and disciplines who share your enthusiasm for teaching but may not share your expertise. The organization of your key ideas, and overall portfolio, should be evident and coherent. Work for clarity in the communication and documentation of your claims.
- Theme/key ideas evident
- Clarity of ideas; coherence and organization of portfolio
- Includes all required components
- Adheres to page limits
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Criterion #2: Evidence of Growth and Development as an Educator
One of the purposes of the portfolio is to track the evolution and enhancement of your teaching and learning practices. Each of you has had a unique set of experiences, key learning moments, and challenges you have encountered; this criterion affords you the opportunity to provide a dynamic portrait of who you are as an educator.
- Self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses
- Worked to overcome/ deal with a unique challenge
- Willingness to explore and develop strategies/ actions for change
- Openness and flexibility
- Values what student bring; learning from students
- Significant course or learning environment development and/or redesign
- Pedagogical knowledge and innovations
- Plans for diverse learning needs and preferences
- Active engagement with peers around issues of teaching and learning (e.g., mentors other faculty members, team teaching, etc.)
- Participation in professional development
- Builds institutional capacity around issues related to teaching and learning (e.g., curriculum and program development, development of technology resources, collaborative work at GMU, etc.)
- Creation and dissemination of effective teaching practices (e.g., presents teaching knowledge in GMU, local community, regional, national, or global settings; develops on-line resources; publishes work in scholarship of teaching and learning; etc.)
- Participates in outreach activities on behalf of GMU and students (e.g., open houses, Science Fairs, events, etc.)
- Offers evidence of growth and development through the classroom/ laboratory/ mentoring/ advising experience (e.g., feedback used to make course corrections)
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Criterion #3: Evidence of Student and Learner Engagement
Research has shown us that learning is significantly enhanced when students are engaged with the course, the subject area, and/or the learning environment. The selection committee will be looking for evidence of your approaches to ensuring student and learner engagement.
- Attends to classroom climate and creating community
- Incorporates active learning strategies
- Promotes learning from peers; incorporates collaborative learning techniques
- Uses technology(ies) to enhance learning and engagement
- Building of websites and/or electronic tools to facilitate learning
- Attends to student learning styles and preferences
- Assists student responsibility for learning
- Inclusive teaching and learning practices (e.g., teaches to diverse audiences, meets students where they are at, etc.)
- Models and encourages ethical and leadership behavior within the discipline or field of study
- Available/accessible to students in-person or on-line
- Works in one-on-one capacity as mentor and advisor; uses an apprenticeship approach; engages students in research or other professional activities
- Engages students in campus/ community /global activities (e.g., co-curricular activities, service learning, experiential learning, field trips, internships, study abroad, etc.)Demonstrates care and respect for students
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Criterion #4: Evidence of Assessment of Student Learning & Achievement
One of the most difficult tasks for us as educators is to provide evidence of student learning and achievement. That is, what knowledge, competencies, practices, and meaning are students taking away from our time spent teaching, advising, and mentoring? How do you know?
- Goes beyond university evaluations
- Incorporates Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs)
- Clear link between learning goals and assessment
- Variety in student assessment strategiesUses formative and summative assessments
- Evaluation criteria are made clear to students (e.g., use of rubrics)Learning / education was transformative
- Use of external raters
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Criterion #5: Evidence of Teaching Effectiveness & Impact
Teaching effectiveness is ideally demonstrated through the examination of multiple sources, e.g., students, peers/ colleagues, supervisors, community members, etc. The selection committee is interested in the variety of evidence you might include in this section as well as your reflection/ commentary on your choices.
- Includes summary of student ratings from university evaluations taught in the past three years
- Testimonials from diverse sources are included, such as letters of support; student emails, comments from course evaluations, thank you letters, achievements; classroom observations; peer/administrative ratings
- Provides closing statement
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