The Teaching Portfolio is best thought of as a documented evidence of an educator’s journey — collection of documents that tells a story about the educator, illustrating his/her professional growth and teaching achievements.

Most educators are very busy and never really bother to sit down and reflect on what they have done (or have not done) and how they can improve their practices. It's a BIG mistake! Well, I was one of those 'typical educators' until I had no choice but to 'force' myself to prepare a teaching portfolio. It was sometime back in 2008 when the university invited all the recipients of USM's outstanding educator to apply for National Academic Award (Anugerah Akademik Negara, AAN) in teaching category. I didn't know then what actually is teaching portfolio. It was about one week left before the deadline for submission. It was a real struggle to put together my 15 years teaching experience (at that time) in one portfolio, given that I never really thought about compiling and narrating what I do in my teaching on daily basis. Actually the word 'struggle' is not enough to describe my situation. I remember thinking, well, I'm not going to spend time to prepare this teaching portfolio and produce an 'ordinary' one. I'll show my creativity so that my portfolio will project and represent my image correctly. That's what I did and the result...my teaching portfolio has been recognized as ‘one of its kind’ by the AAN panels and has been used by some universities since then as a standard. The rest was history.

Looking back, forcing myself to prepare the teaching portfolio was the best thing ever happened to me. It was like a turning point, if not a tipping point — to transform and become even a better educator. It allows me to engage in deep thought and to reflect on my achievement (or lack of it) in terms of imparting knowledge, inculcating skills and instilling values in my students. It's like rediscovering the original mission of being an educator — to educate. Have I done my part successfully? Or I just went along with 'the flow' to the extent that teaching is just a routine and become secondary to research. This is the QUESTION that I would like all the participants of this workshop to ponder.

Below, I have compiled a collection of useful resources that would help you to learn more about teaching portfolio. I would highly recommend you spend some time to explore.

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