The academic educator’s portfolio is a collection of materials that document academic performance and achievements, supplementing the curriculum vitae, in order to showcase a faculty member’s most significant accomplishments. A decade ago, a survey of medical schools revealed frustration in the nonuniform methods of measuring faculty’s medical education productivity. A proposed solution was the use of an academic educator’s portfolio. In the academic medical community, compiling an academic portfolio is always a challenge because teaching has never been confined to the traditional classroom setting and often involves active participation of the medical student, resident, or fellow in the ongoing care of the patient. Diagnostic radiology in addition requires a knowledge base that encompasses basic sciences, imaging physics, technology, and traditional and molecular medicine. Teaching and performing research that involves this complex mix, while providing patient care that is often behind the scenes, provides unique challenges in the documentation of teaching, research, and clinical service for diagnostic radiology faculty. An academic portfolio is seen as a way to explain why relevant academic activities are significant to promotions committee members who may have backgrounds in unrelated academic areas and may not be familiar with a faculty member’s work. The academic portfolio consists of teaching, research, and service portfolios. The teaching portfolio is a collection of materials that document teaching performance and documents the educator’s transition to a more effective educator. A research portfolio showcases the most significant research accomplishments. The service portfolio documents service responsibilities and highlight any service excellence. All portfolios should briefly discuss the educator’s philosophy, activities, methods used to implement activities, leadership, mentoring, or committee roles in these respective areas. Recognizing that academic programs have differing needs, this article will attempt to provide some basic guidelines that may help junior faculty in diagnostic radiology develop their teaching, research, and service portfolios.
Introduction
Traditionally, faculty hired to teach at universities have been primarily rewarded for research and publications, even though they are expected to support the three missions of university academic life: research, teaching, and service. However, leadership of many universities now utilizes a broader definition of scholarship that recognizes the importance of teaching as an expression of scholarship and includes a more serious consideration of teaching and educational accomplishments in the promotions process. Two factors have caused academic healthcare centers to search for newer ways to measure and reward academic productivity: changes in the finances of healthcare and the consideration of whether the medical community was well served by de-emphasizing the value of medical teaching, which is the core of academic medicine . This has resulted in some challenges for faculty members and the promotions committee alike as they decide what constitutes excellence as an educator.
One valuable tool faculty can use to help demonstrate excellence during the promotions and tenure process is an academic portfolio. The portfolio is a collection of materials that document academic performance and achievements, supplementing the curriculum vitae (CV), in order to showcase a faculty member’s most significant accomplishments . A survey of medical schools revealed frustration in the nonuniform methods of measuring medical education productivity, particularly concerns of sporadic faculty evaluation, lack of standardized methods for gathering peer evaluation of teaching, lack of understanding on the part of the faculty for the requirements for promotion and tenure, and lack of provision of documentation of educational excellence. A proposed solution to the problem of documentation of the scholarly activity was the use of an academic educator’s portfolio . In each case, the portfolio is seen as a way to explain why activities are significant to promotions committee members who may have backgrounds in other unrelated areas and may not be familiar with a faculty member’s work. Increase in the use of academic portfolios has since been documented .
So are academic portfolios effective? Beecher et al. studied the effect of academic portfolios and came to the conclusion that they helped bring to the surface dilemmas in educational practice, resulting in faculty seeking support when educational activities did not work and hence helped reformulate educational practices . In our own experience over the last decade, the use of academic portfolios has aided the mission of our departmental promotions and tenure committee’s readiness of our faculty for institutional promotion with a 100% success rate.
In the medical community, documenting educational effectiveness is a challenge because teaching has never been confined to the traditional classroom setting and often involves active participation of the medical student, resident, or fellow in the ongoing care of the patient. As well as showing how the faculty member is an active teacher in a variety of settings, the teaching portfolio can also contain materials that help prove they are effective educators. Current trends require that educators develop programs to systematically help them modify their teaching based on a variety of feedback mechanisms. The portfolio is a place where faculty can show not only what curricula they develop but also how they reflect on these programs and why they change them over time .
In addition to their teaching accomplishments, faculty must also showcase ongoing research, whether it is basic, translational, or clinical research. Whereas the CV summarizes research activities, the portfolio can serve as a place to explain the significance of that research, outline the pathway as the junior researcher moves from working under a mentor toward independence, and can help expand on how certain collaborations can benefit the researcher and university alike. As well as highlighting grant-funded research, the portfolio can showcase the contributions of faculty members as research mentors, explaining topics from the time spent working with medical students, residents, and fellows in research endeavors to how faculty members encouraged their mentees to present at regional, national, or international meetings.
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Getting Started
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Writing the Portfolio
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Housing the Portfolio
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Improving the Portfolio
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Keeping the Portfolio Updated
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Summary
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Teaching Portfolio
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Contents of the Teaching Portfolio
Background/Introduction
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Teaching Philosophy
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Teaching Responsibilities
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Teaching Methods
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Educational Activities
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Table 1
Example of a Table Showing Invited Interdepartmental, National, and International Lectures Given
Lecture Date/Length Course/Audience Preparation Time Gastrointestinal radiology
Hepatobiliary imaging April 12, 2014/30 minutes National Hepatobiliary conference—200 physicians 16 hours
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Educational Leadership/Committees
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Mentoring Activities
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2012–2013. Dr. Tom Smith (PGY III). Project—Role of diffusion weighted imaging in screening for hepatocellular carcinoma. Accepted for presentation at RSNA, Chicago, Dec. 2014. (Describe the role of resident in the project. Describe how you guided the resident in the educational endeavor.)
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Evidence of Teaching Excellence
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Table 2
Sample of Resident Evaluation of Your Teaching
Category January–March 2014 April–June 2014 July–September 2014 October–December 2014 Clinical presentation View box teaching Promotes active learning Dictations Scholarly activity Overall average score
Table 3
Sample of Resident Evaluation of a Clinical Rotation That You Supervise
Category January–March 2014 April–June 2014 July–September 2014 October–December 2014 Teaching Didactic conferences Faculty responsiveness Rotation scheduling Overall satisfaction
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Medical Education Research
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Personal Educational Development
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Research Portfolio
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Contents of the Research Portfolio
Research Philosophy
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Research Responsibilities
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Research Leadership/Committees
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Mentoring Activities
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Evidence of Research Excellence
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Research Presentations and Manuscripts
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Personal Research Development
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Service Portfolio
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Contents of the Service Portfolio
Service Philosophy
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Service Responsibilities
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Quality Assurance
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Service Leadership Positions
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Service Committee Membership
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Mentoring Activities
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Evidence of Service Excellence
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Personal Educational Development
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Miscellaneous
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Conclusions
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Appendix A
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Appendix B
Summary Outline
Toolbox
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Academic Portfolios
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References
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