Faculty Development

Faculty Portfolios

Jackson State University requires each tenure-track faculty member to develop and maintain a faculty portfolio consisting of the five-year Productivity and Professional Development Plan (PPDP) and a performance portfolio that documents his or her performance in the following areas: teaching, advisement and mentoring, research and grantsmanship, university service, faculty development and additional achievements.

Productivity and Professional Development Plan

The Productivity and Professional Development Plan includes sections for the faculty member's vision statement and for his or her goals for teaching, advisement, research and service. It is a forward-looking document. Below are additional tips for completing the PPDP.

Develop a clear vision statement that speaks to your individual aspirations and the goals of the university. Since it outlines your overall approach to the duties of a professor, it is probably the most important section. This statement should mirror closely your own desires and aspirations. Yet, it should be consonant with Jackson State's mission statement, the goals of the Office of Academic Affairs and Student Life and the relevant academic units, i.e. the college, school and the department.

Set specific goals and activities. Each set of goals must be accompanied by a set of implementing activities, i.e. objectives, expected outcomes, timetables and required resources. With each of these categories, precision is a virtue. In particular, the expected outcomes should be measurable and the timelines realistic. Teaching and advisement goals should be student-centered.

The PPDP can be obtained from the Office of Academic Affairs and Student Life. (Click here to download the PPDP as a Microsoft Word form.) For more information about using Quantum, click here.

Documentation of Performance

The performance portfolio documents the faculty member's teaching effectiveness, advisement and mentoring, research and grantsmanship, university service and professional development. Additional activities, e.g. sponsoring extracurricular activities and community service can be documented in an additional achievements section.

Formats for the performance portfolio vary, but it must be well-organized and informative to be effective. It should not be an archive, though each faculty member should keep one. As artists and photographers know, a portfolio is selective and representative while addressing the concerns of the relevant audience. Its contents should be pertinent and meaningfully interpreted. One approach is to develop a summative narrative that responds to each of the major domains--teaching, advisement and mentoring, research and grantsmanship, university service and professional development--and refers to documentation in appendices.

Teaching Effectiveness

For each course include a course description, the semester in which it was taught, the number of credit hours , the enrollment and a summary of student feedback received. Combine this with quantitative data like SIRS results, if possible, display them graphically. With open-ended data from the mid-course evaluations or other instruments, look for common themes, choose representative quotes and include areas of strength and areas of improvements. Also include independent studies and advisement of senior theses and projects, masters' theses and projects and dissertations. Curriculum development including design of additional courses or significant reworking of existing courses. (Be sure that you have syllabi, bibliographies and, if necessary, the proper forms to document changes to the curriculum.)

In the appendices, include evidence of course materials and feedback. For course materials include course syllabi, course handouts or packets, assignments, examinations, reading lists, work plans for independent study or research and study aids, software or manuals you have developed. For feedback include mid-course assessments, SIRS results, advisement reports, exit interviews specific to the course or instructor, teaching awards and letters from students, alumni and employers or academic advisors of alumni.

Advisement and Mentoring

For this section consider two areas of advisement: curricular advisement (e.g. advising students on course selection) and mentoring of students. In the narrative for this section, note the number of your advisees per semester or year and, if possible, retention and graduation rates for these students over time. Also, if you have mentored individual students or small groups of students, include those activities. Documentation of this mentoring can include letters from mentored students, documentation of their participation in research or other professional development conferences (which often names the mentor) and extra assignments, tutorials or other learning aids designed for them.

Research and Grantsmanship

This is the area of documentation with which faculty members tend to be most familiar. For papers and presentations, include complete citations in the narrative. In the appendices include award letters (for publication, presentation and grants), copies of the first page of books, copies of articles published or presented, copies of grant reports and copies of grant evaluations.

Service

The performance portfolio focuses on university service, not community service (see additional achievements below). Documentation should include letters of selection or appointment to departmental, school, college and university committees and authorship of major committee, departmental or university reports (e.g. accreditation reports).

Faculty Development

Faculty development should increase scholastic capital, i.e. the resources of strategies, knowledge, experience and skills permitting one to teach and conduct research productively. Thus, documentation of faculty development should reflect development and not simply change. The performance portfolio requires documentation of attendance at at least three professional development activities. In addition, professional development can include taking post-graduate courses to keep abreast of one's discipline, participating in workshops or seminars on teaching and research practices, publishing work or leading workshops on teaching and research practices, learning to use technology effectively for teaching and research, participating in formal teaching circles or fellows programs. Documentation should include letters or receipts indicating participation, colleagues' or evaluators letters noting the use of improved teaching and/or research methods, certificates of completion for courses and workshops, transcripts for post-graduate work, letters of award for fellowships or post-doctoral study.

Additional Achievements

In this section, include relevant information and documentation that does not fit in the above categories such as community service, leadership in professional organizations (e.g. the American Political Science Association), service as a reviewer for journals or textbooks and work with student organizations (e.g. departmental clubs or other student organizations).