HOW TO CREATE A DOSSIER

HOW TO CREATE A DOSSIER
REAPPOINTMENT, TENURE, OR PROMOTION

For Instructional Support Faculty, September 2009

1. What is a dossier?

The dossier is your documentation of and self-assessment of your instructional support activities and overall job performance as an instructional support faculty member. You are required to assemble and submit the dossier to your Division Personnel Committee in support of your application for reappointment, tenure or promotion. It is a qualitative assembling or collection of evidence of your instructional support activities and other professional development activities. It brings together in one place, materials documenting your strengths, weaknesses, accomplishments, and goals in the area of instructional support as well as providing information about your other professional activities.

2. What is its purpose?

Its primary purpose is to provide you and your peers with an opportunity to reflect on your instructional support activities and other professional activities in a systematic way. Its other purposes are: to improve job performance; to encourage improvement strategies at the individual and divisional levels; to enhance the profile of the support of instruction in the overall evaluation process for personnel decision-making. Your dossier should reflect the community colleges' emphasis on teaching and learning, and the value of instructional support in the overall faculty evaluation process.

3. Who evaluates it?

Your peers on your Division Personnel Committee (also, your Tenure and Promotion Review Committee in the case of a tenure and/or promotion application), your Division Chair, your Dean, the Dean of Academic Affairs, and the Chancellor.

4. How do I go about preparing it?

The following steps for preparing your dossier are presented here as simple, helpful suggestions rather than as prescriptive (you have to do it) steps:

Clearly state your philosophy and responsibilities:
Briefly state your philosophy. Describe your individual approach or style. In other words, how do you communicate with teaching faculty and students. There often exists between colleagues in your division (or subject area) an informal understanding concerning responsibilities and criteria for success. You might summarize these understandings in a short paragraph or two. Where such an understanding does not exist, you should include a brief statement of your own assumptions concerning your professional responsibilities and obligations.
Select items for inclusion in your dossier that demonstrate effective job performance:
A list of the possible items that you might include in your dossier is presented in Question 5. Paying close attention to your statement philosophy/style in Step 1, you should select those items which are most applicable to you and prepare a statement about your accomplishments in each area. Your item choices will reflect your personal preference and style.
Present the items in your dossier in an orderly manner with first priority/emphasis given to instructional support:
Materials in your dossier should be arranged in a manner that makes your dossier clear and easy to evaluate. The arrangement should emphasize instructional support and your personal/professional emphasis, focus, or goals. For example, if you wish to demonstrate improvement, entries that in the short run lead to improvements could be emphasized.
Compile the documentation:
You should keep copies of all printed items referred to in your dossier. These materials are not part of the dossier, but are back-up information in case "original" evidence is requested by your Division Personnel Committee. The most important and relevant materials in support of your dossier could be put into an appendix that could be submitted along with your dossier. These appendix materials might include letters from your division chair and students.
(Optional) Add exemplary materials to your dossier:
You might include a few pages of materials which illustrate some of the major evidence referred to in your dossier. For example, unsolicited letters of praise from students, professional or community groups might well be worth including in your dossier. The advisability of this step depends on your personal preference, but it is likely to be especially important when you are confronting a major personnel evaluation such as tenure or promotion.

5. What should my dossier include?

There is no single correct recipe for preparing your dossier. Since it is a highly personalized product, like a fingerprint, no two are exactly alike. For teaching faculty, it is highly recommended that student evaluations be included in your dossier. But, a good dossier will normally contain items from the following three broad areas: (1) the products of good teaching, (2) materials from oneself, and (3) information from others. Here is a suggested list of items that you might include in each of these areas.

Materials From Oneself - Descriptive materials on your current responsibilities and practices
1. List of instructional support materials prepared for teaching faculty and students.
2. Information on your availability to teaching faculty and students.
3. Summary of steps taken to identify problems and to design procedures which alleviate problems.
4. Summary of steps taken to encourage faculty and student use of instructional support facilities and progrms.
5. Description of how computers, audio-visual equipment, or other non-print materials are used in your instructional support.
6. Steps taken to emphasize the interrelatedness and relevance of instructional support.
Materials From Oneself - Description of steps taken to evaluat and improve one's overall job performance.
1. A reflective statement of your teaching philosophy and contribution to the teaching mission of the Division and College.
2. A personal statement describing your professional goals for the next five years.
3. Description of steps taken to improve resulting from self-evaluation.
4. Reading journals on improving instructional support and attempting to implement acquired ideas.
5. Reviewing new instructional support materials for possible application.
6. Exchanging instructional supportmaterials with a colleague from another institution.
7. Conducting research contributing directly to instructional support.
8. Becoming involved in an association or society concerned with the improvement of instructional support and the improvement of teaching and learning.
9. Attempting instructional support innovations and evaluating their effectiveness.
10. Using general support services such as the Faculty Development Committee or the Faculty Development Resource Center to search out materials for improving your job performance.
11. Participating in seminars, workshops, and professional meetings intended to improve your job performance.
12. Participating in course or curriculum development.
13. Pursuing a line of research that contributes directly to your instructional support.
14. Preparing a textbook, pamphlet or other instructional support materials.
15. Editing or contributing to a professional journal on instructional support.
Information From Students:
1. Student course and teaching evaluation data which suggest improvements or produce an overall rating of effectiveness or satisfaction with your instructional support work.
2. Unstructured (and possibly unsolicited) written evaluations by students, including written comments and letters received.
3. Documented reports of student satisfaction with professional contacts with you (e.g. student advising).
4. Interviews or evaluations collected from students who attended an instructional support workshops you might have conducted.
5. Honors received from students, such as a nomination or award for "excellence."
Information From Colleagues:
1. Statements from colleagues who have observed your job performance, either as members of a faculty committee or as independent observers of a particular insturctional support workshop that you might have conducted for faculty or students.
2. Statements from colleagues (or a community advisory group) who have systematically reviewed the instructional support materials/programs that you have adopted.
3. Written comments from those who teach courses for which you provide special instructional support services.
4. Evaluation of contributions to curriculum/course development and improvement.
5. Statements from colleagues from other institutions.
6. Honors or recognition, such as a distinguished service award.
7. Requests for advice or acknowledgement of advice received from colleagues or students.
8. Statements from colleagues recognizing your contribution to the academic community.
9. List of activities undertaken as a member of various faculty committees.
Information From Other Sources:
1. Statements about teaching achievements from administrators at one's own institution or other institutions.
2. Alumni ratings or graduate feedback.
3. Comments from parents of students.
4. Reports from employers of students (e.g., in work-study or internship)
5. Invitations to conduct workshops from other colleges or outside agencies.
6. Professional recognition/awards; invitations to present a paper at a conference.
7. Other kinds of invitations based on one's professional reputation (e.g., a media interview on a successful innovation).
8. Statements from non-academic community organizations recognizing your contribution or service.

6. How much information is needed?

There is no simple answer to this question. It should be a minimum amount that fairly represents your teaching and overall job performance. Experience suggests that a maximum of 4-8 pages plus supporting appendix materials should be sufficient. Keep in mind that your dossier is a living document that changes over time. You will be adding new items and removing other items.

7. Where do I get help in preparing my dossier?

Other faculty: your division chair or a trusted colleague in your division, program, or subject area.
A dossier preparation workshop featuring faculty who are willing to share their suggestions and helpful hints (these workshops are organized by the Faculty Development Committee).
Model Dossiers located in the library (ask at the front desk).
Other faculty members writing dossiers at the same time. People collaborating in groups can be very beneficial -- and others can help make the task enjoyable.
The Faculty Development Coordinator (Jerry Cerny) by phone (Ext. 215), e-mail (jerry@hcc.hawaii.edu), or mailbox. Jerry can help you obtain information about linking up with faculty who have volunteered to serve as dossier consultants or to obtain answers to specific questions.

Conclusion

These sources of help are meant to provide you with assistance in the preparation of your dossier. Ultimately, the burden of the work involved in preparing and writing your dossier falls on you and requires your careful attention, time, and effort. It is best to keep good records of activities, materials, and thoughts as you go through the year. When it comes time to write the dossier, you will have items ready to jog your memory and to include. Also, you should start writing the dossier well in advance of its due date. Writing it all a week or a weekend before it is due will probably result in a document you will be disappointed in later. If it is written entirely at the last minute, it will also probably interfere with your performance in the classroom.

In summary, your dossier is not simply a tool to make you look good to your Division Personnel Committee and others. It is a careful, thoughtful gathering of materials that demonstrate your self-evaluation and evaluation by others of your effectiveness in providing instructional support and overall job performance. Preparing your dossier will force you to think about the effectiveness, think about your personal instructional support activities activities, rearrange your priorities, rethink your strategies, think about ways to improve your effectiveness, and plan for the future. It may seem like a real chore, but its principal effect should be that of improving your instructional support and job performance -- and that should make it more than worthwhile. Approached correctly, it can be very educational -- and enriching.

Sources

Office of Instructional Development and Technology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Center For Teaching Excellence, University of Hawaii at Manoa

The Teaching Professor (October 1991).