The concept of "portfolio" for many has long been associated with the modeling business, namely with a series of photographs of a girl who are required to participate in a competition or to work in a modeling agency. Now a portfolio is a necessary thing for specialists in many fields. It contains examples of work that was performed by a specific professional.
For example, a web master places links or screenshots to the sites he created, a designer uploads examples of drawings, leaflets, postcards, and so on, a content writer writes his texts for websites and public pages on social networks, a copywriter puts successful cases for promoting goods and services, and also their selling texts.
Features of hiring a teacher at a university
Documents about education, resumes and, if there are awards, certificates of advanced training, recommendations from the previous place of work are usually required from the teacher. However, for applicants for a place in elite schools and higher educational institutions, in particular in leading universities and institutes, the requirements are much higher, and the selection is stricter.
Let us consider in more detail the minimum requirements that apply to job seekers as a teacher in a university:
- Professional education. Secondary (technical schools and vocational schools) is usually not enough for teaching in a higher educational institution.
- Availability of scientific publications. For a school teacher, this does not matter, but for a university teacher it has, and a huge one.
- Certificate of professional development. It is especially important for teachers of middle years and older, as they received their diplomas at least 10-15 years ago, and since then many changes have occurred in the field of education. Further training is a confirmation of professional growth.
- Work experience (optional). Recommendations from previous jobs. Sometimes they accept young teachers with no experience.
- Diplomas, awards, teaching or scientific titles, regalia (optional).
Pay attention to the fact that for higher education institutions it is important not only education, but also labor and scientific experience. Many universities do not even take teachers who do not have scientific titles and have never written scientific papers.
Why do I need a teacher portfolio
Portfolio is both a new and an old concept. The old, because it has existed for a long time, and the new, because over the past decades the concept has received a new life and has been actively used.
A teacher who has a portfolio emphasizes with this fact his desire to develop and keep up with the times.
In addition to hiring, a portfolio may be needed before certification. In this case, it becomes not just optional, but necessary.
The difference between a resume and a portfolio
In the resume, the teacher indicates general information about education, contact details, main skills, work experience, awards and titles.
Portfolio involves a detailed list of everything that was done by the teacher for a certain period.
General structure
Portfolio for hiring or for certification of a teacher - this is primarily an official document. It should not be bright and colorful, official and concise design will be quite enough.
The teacher’s portfolio must include:
- General information, similar to how this is done in a resume: teacher, specialty, education, work experience. Contact details and photos are optional.
- A portfolio should have a structure. Ideally, its beginning should be content.
- Data on continuous professional development (those same scientific works).
- Relevant data in each section.
- If necessary, you can add photocopies of protocols and magazine pages certified by the signature of the authorized person and the seal of the institution.
Please note that the requirements for a university teacher's portfolio are higher than for a school teacher's portfolio.
What sections can be
Information on education, work experience and scientific activity is indicated briefly, ideally in the form of a table. The main part consists of sections of the portfolio that highlight the activities of the teacher in relation to students:
- General performance. There may be charts showing performance growth.
- Extracurricular work. Organization of community work days, entertainment or cultural events, excursions.
- Participation and victories of students prepared by this teacher in contests, contests and conferences.
- Organization of educational and scientific events: conferences, seminars, master classes.
- Own participation and victories in competitions, conferences, seminars.
- Training courses.
- Internships in the specialty.
In the certification of teachers, the portfolio plays one of the key roles. With education and continuing education courses, everything is clear: a person who does not have a teacher’s diploma will not be hired, and continuing education courses are a prerequisite for continuing professional activities. Therefore, the portfolio is examined to determine whether the applicant has the right to continue working further and whether he is worthy of the assignment of a new pedagogical title.
Nuances for Linguistic Teachers
It is worth noting that the portfolio of a language teacher is slightly different from the portfolio of his colleagues. It is important for the linguist to prove that he really knows the language he teaches at a decent level. If earlier it was enough to say: “I have completed foreign language and have gone through many courses,” now this is completely insufficient.
Practice has shown that many graduates of philological faculties, including those with a red diploma, were not able to apply their knowledge of the language while communicating with its native speakers. Most noted that the “living” language is completely different from the one taught at the school. If earlier (until about the 2000s) it was difficult to verify how relevant the curriculum was to reality, and there was no such need, now it has become a requirement.
In the current conditions of globalization, students learn the language on the basis that it can be useful to them in real life, so preference is given to those teachers who teach that very real and “living” language, and do not follow outdated principles. In particular, an internship or study abroad provides a huge advantage.
Portfolio Design Options
The portfolio of the teacher of the ACT for certification should be concise. Only diagrams and graphs can be bright, but their design should be maintained in accordance with the principles of an official business style.
An approximate design of the teacher’s portfolio and samples of this document can be found on the official websites of the education department, they are compiled on the basis of the requirements in each specific region and the features of certification in it.
The portfolio for the interview is created on the basis of the same rules: structure, official design style, the availability of certified photocopies of documents, concise information. The difference is that there is no need for strict observance of requirements aimed directly at preparing a portfolio for certification.
Many teachers post their portfolio on the website of the educational institution in which they work, or on a personal Internet page, in a personal blog. This is usually done in order to form the opinion of current and potential students and their parents about themselves. In this case, it is undesirable, and sometimes even unacceptable, to upload photocopies and scans of documents, as required in the portfolio for certification, otherwise they can be taken over by attackers. The portfolio can be bright, made with an interesting design that suits the design of the page. Snapshots of the video are used as a report on the events held.
Conclusion
So, preparing a teacher’s portfolio is a fairly responsible task. In order to comply with the principles and requirements for its design, it is necessary to take into account the purpose for which this document is necessary.