Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1999 - 58

right or wrong that day, and what we might do about it. Cerbin
simply suggests that we make those musings systematic and
doable, resulting in recommendations to ourselves about what
we can do the next time around, or even the next class period.
(Hutchings, p. 51)
Since the early 1990's Laurie Richlin and Brenda Manning have been developing a curriculum for faculty and administrators interested in improving their teaching evaluation
system. The curriculum, arranged in a series of over 100 assignments, is a comprehensive process that begins with course
portfolios. (Richlin and Manning, 1996) Peter Seldin's book,
The Teaching Portfolio, offers a bliefer method, and contains
several useful examples across the disciplines. What follows
here is a gUide that combines both approaches beginning with
course portfolios as building blocks for a teaching portfolio.

Getr.ing S ar ed-r.he Course Par fa io
Just as with a theatrical portfolio, getting started on a teaching
portfolio means overcoming inertia. For this reason, and also
for the synergy that multiple points of
view provide, it's best to join in a circle
with two to four other faculty, preferably not in your department, who \vish
to create their own portfolios. At Indiana University of Pennsylvania there is
a forum for this type of exchange
through the Center For Teaching E.xcellence, and many colleges and universities now have sin1.ilar teaching
improvement centers which can put
you in touch with like-minded colleagues. Perhaps you will form a
breakfast club, or a montilly
roundtable. The networking available
through the internet provides other
possibilities for exchange. However
constructed, experience shows that
many points of view are necessary for
success. Another success builder is
choosing the right course. It seems
best to begin \\'ith a course that is going well, because it \vill reveal your
strengths and more of the core values
of the self-that-teaches.
Connecting work on your course
portfolio to occasions that already exist also raises your chances for success. Few of us have the ltL\l.IIY to add
more to a schedule packed with production meetings and construction
deadlines. If you are already preparing
for a job search or documenting your
teaching for a promotion application,
then the portfolio is a useful and efficient means of organizing information
you may already be reviewing.

Techniques
to get at
the shared

assumptions
must generate

dialogue about
substantive
issues.
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SPRING

I 9 9 9

T LJ&T

Like designing a production, it's also important to answer
some conceptual or franting questions before beginning. For
instance, why are you preparing the portfolio and what do you
hope to learn from it? Is it for promotion and tenure documentation, or are you interested in improving your teaching?
When I prepared my first course portfolio I was struggling
\\~th how to improve a new course, Fundamentals of Theatrical
Design. The portfolio revealed a disconnect between an imPOrt.1I1t course goal-suldents discovering and using their
own visual creati\~ty-and my evaluation methods-more
than half of a student's grade depended on te:-"1book-based exanlinations. When I next apply for promotion I will create a
teaching portfolio documenting that discovely and how I now
match my evaluation method to my course goal.
Other important framing questions can help linlit the
scope, and therefore the workload, of the portfolio. Do you
want to know about the usefulness of your textbook? Do you
want to gather information about how student perceptions of
technology change from the beginning to the end of the term?
Are you looking for how course projects demonstrate the objectives you expect your SUIdents to learn? How can the information gathered be analyzed and presented?
While this final franting question is important, I only have
a vague notion of its answer until I make some discoveries
along the way. The purpose of the question is to ensure that
you are gathering meaningful information that can be organized and compared. If you gather too much disjointed and
haphazard information with no eye on how you can use it, then
you can expect to be frustrated to the point of abandoning the
portfolio before it has a chance of exllibiting a meaningful picture of your teaching.

Get ing ar. Shared Assump ions
In every theatre program there are shared assumptions at
work. William Cerbin points out that, "...departments create
local cultures that exert strong inlluence over their members.
They define expectations, set standards, sanction behavior,
and encourage values and attitudes toward teaching and learning." (Cerbin p. 102) And don't assume your values are
shared by all. It is imperative that you find a match between
your values and the values of your institution, especially if you
are building to\\'ard something to promote yourself to an audience \\~th little knowledge about theatrical design or technology. As difficult as it nlight sound, there are probably some
resources that already exist. For instance what is your
instiUltion's nlission statement? Does your department have a
mission statement? If so, then match your definition of teaching effectiveness to it. And don't overlook your institution's
teaclling support center. For instance, IUP's Center for Teaching Excellence has a written definition of teaching effectiveness
that is widely recognized on canlpus.
Some assumptions, however, are only contained in the
cululI'a1 fabric of the department and institution. Techniques
to get at the shared assumptions must generate dialogue about
substantive issues. The process of listing and ranking descriptors of tbe excellent professor mentioned at the beginning of

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