The faculty portfolio: Documenting the scholarship of teaching

The scholarship of teaching is considered an essential component of scholar ship within academic settings. To promote the transfer of knowledge specifi c to the discipline of nursing, this category of scholarship must include i nquiry into the practice of teaching, program development, and professional role modeling, in addition to excellence in teaching itself. Conveying wha t constitutes teaching scholarship in nursing may present special challenge s for nurse faculty in the university setting. A faculty teaching portfolio is one mechanism for explicating, communicating, and enhancing the scholar ship of teaching. The methodology for creating, improving, and maintaining a teaching portfolio includes analyzing the mission of the university, arti culating a philosophy of teaching, deciding on goals and objectives, design ing evaluative mechanisms, processing data, conducting a self-evaluation, a pplying new approaches, and revisiting and reflecting on the outcomes. Facu lty teaching portfolios serve to display, communicate, and document the sch olarship of teaching. The creative endeavors surrounding portfolio developm ent are ongoing and recursive, necessitating self-reflection and new approa ches. Copyright (C) 2001 by W.B. Saunders Company.