Rewarding good teaching: A matter of demonstrated proficiency or documented achievement?

Good teaching can be construed from two perspectives. From one point of view, teaching is seen as a developmental process in which the individual acquires knowledge and skills through practice. Recognition is then based on the teacher meeting specified proficiency criteria as measured by such procedures as student evaluation of teaching questionnaires and colleague appraisal. A second perspective is to view good teaching in terms of instructional achievements. Here judgements are often based on a teacher's portfolio submission where assessments are made on the extent to which the teacher has contributed to the quality of teaching within the institution. This paper describes developments at the University of New South Wales in recognizing and rewarding good teaching based on the second perspective, and on how teaching staff are assisted in developing teaching portfolios to document teaching achievements. These developments are discussed in relation to the issues of what constitutes evidence for 'good teaching' and concerns that teaching staff have raised about the process of documenting teaching.