Lesson 5: Exhibit evidence of teaching effectiveness
Integrating evidence
Now that you’ve situated the context for your teaching, you’ll want to provide evidence of the positive impact of your teaching. You’ll also want to reflect on the meaning of the evidence for your teaching and learning practice.
A reader will want to see evidence of your strengths and areas for growth and see evidence of your claims; you can also include things that did not go as planned to demonstrate your willingness to expand your practice and to critically reflect on your learning.
Activity
You might not have evidence for all of these components in your dossier. Refer back to the expanded descriptions of the dossier components and the reference Guide for Providing Evidence of Teaching. These documents will provide you with opportunities to think about the kinds of evidence you have or could collect and how you might use them to exemplify your teaching philosophy.
“What if I don’t have evidence?” It is common for new or emerging teachers to think they have no evidence for their teaching dossier. Be open to the examples and think creatively ─ you may discover you do have some evidence! If you do not have evidence make a goal how you will collect and exhibit in future versions of your dossier.
Reflecting on the evidence
The dossier should capture your authentic voice and be grounded in a strong reflective narrative, providing the reader with a clear understanding of your beliefs, approaches, contributions, expertise, and strengths. This reflective narrative is often woven throughout each section and should situate the information, providing meaning and context to guide the reader towards an understanding of:
Motivation
Why you do what you do to support teaching and learning.
Impact
The scope, context and impact of your contributions.
Learning
What you have learned through these experiences, including how this will inform your future practice.
Growth
How you plan to continue growing and improving into the future.
It is not enough to just exhibit your evidence. Your reflection on the evidence serves to both situate the evidence within your context as well as to explain the significance of the evidence. For example, a USRI score (summative evaluation) stated out of context doesn’t provide the reader a picture of how you engage and encourage your students – this is where your narrative adds to the scope of your evidence.
Activity
References
Kenny, N., Berenson, C., Radford, S., Nikolaou, N., Benoit, W. Mueller, R., Paul, R., & Perrault, E. (2018). A guide to providing evidence of teaching. https://taylorinstitute.ucalgary.ca/sites/default/files/Content/Resources/Teaching-Dossiers/Guide-for-Providing-Evidence-of-Teaching.pdf
Lesson checklist
- Identify the types of evidence that demonstrate your teaching effectiveness
- Select, integrate and exhibit evidence into your dossier
- Critically reflect on the evidence and ensure alignment with your philosophy
More lessons
Lesson 6: Review and summarize
Lesson 1: Organize and identify your purpose
