The old saw about learning "everything you always wanted to know about sex but were afraid to ask" applies perfectly to Professor Selden's book if you are willing to substitute "teaching portfolios" for "sex". He has created a well-organized how-to-do-it manual that provides guidance to academics in a straightforward manner.

The teaching portfolio, according to Selden, is an evaluation and diagnostic technique possessing over twenty years of application. It is used to demonstrate teaching activities and effectiveness for promotion and tenure decisions or simply for self-improvement. Selden suggests that teaching portfolios have assumed greater relevance as an evaluative technique because teaching is being taken more seriously today. The result of this increased emphasis, as Selden appropriately observes, is that teachers are being held accountable for their performance as never before.

Each teaching portfolio is unique because the material selected for inclusion is produced by the individual, or by others about the individual, or is the product of student learning within a course taught by the individual. The process is not particularly burdensome; Selden estimates that a portfolio should require only 12 to 15 hours to develop. Indeed, it only takes him two pages to describe the "seven steps to create a portfolio". The apparent ease of completing those steps should give heart to the academic contemplating a process which, at first glance, might well be viewed with a jaundiced eye.

Selden strongly recommends the involvement of a mentor in the portfolio compilation process as a means of enhancing its objectivity. This cautionary suggestion has merit, as the tendency to polish one's own apple to the detriment of its eating is pretty much universal. However, Selden stresses the critical point which both parties must understand -- the mentor is to serve as a guide and not a director.

As to the portfolio's actual effectiveness, in terms of both improved teaching performance and greater prospects of promotion or tenure, Selden provides an enthusiastic "yes." He quotes commendations from various professors to bolster his belief. That there are benefits to be derived from evaluating one's own teaching is unquestionable. But when it comes to promotion or tenure determinations, perhaps a word of caution might be prudent. Will a teaching portfolio really be that effective? Only if the criteria that define the context within which that determination is made are properly oriented. Currently prevailing criteria, which focus primarily on the quantity of published work and seemingly endless lists of other academic accomplishments, may have little relevance to a teaching portfolio.

But aside from that quibble, there is not much to fault in this book. Selden provides 23 sample teaching portfolios, spread over 194 pages and representing numerous scholarly disciplines, as guides. These examples offer excellent insights into the content and style of a portfolio--fortunately, if one style does not suit the reader there are others from which inspiration can be drawn. Several articles on specific aspects of portfolio preparation and use are included, along with a reasonably detailed index. Also, the book definitely benefits from Selden's uncomplicated, jargon-free writing.

George C. Yates
The University of North Carolina at Asheville