The Role Of The Academic Portfolio In Documenting Faculty Development

Abstract

The academic portfolio provides a means for faculty to organize, present and reflect on their accomplishments in the areas of teaching, scholarship and service. Since the portfolio represents faculty accomplishments in these key areas it may be used to support an application for promotion, tenure or merit reviews. Given this, it is important to identify faculty’s knowledge and perspectives on the structure and utility of the academic portfolio. Surveys were sent to faculty at Seton Hall University to gather information on what faculty know about academic portfolios and whether portfolios should be used for promotion/tenure or merit reviews. Results indicate that faculty understand the characteristics and organization of a portfolio, but are not certain about whether portfolios should be used for personnel decisions. The lack of objective criteria for evaluating portfolios may be a factor underlying this perspective. Further research using a larger sample is warranted.