The Professional Portfolio
The portfolio is a professional tool for collecting and sharing data/artifacts. According to Dr.Wolf of the University of Colorado, “Porfolios have much to offer the teaching profession.” In applying the professional portfolio to the education arena, Dr. Wolf suggests that the portfolio contain a combination of teaching artifacts (lesson plans, student work samples, parent newsletters, etc.) and written reflections. Teacher and professional development expert, Dora Dillon, compares a portfolio to a garden. “It takes planning and hard work, requires weeding out the unnecessary elements, and promotes positive feelings!” I agree with Ms. Dillon planning and hard work certainly play pivotal roles in the development of the portfolio. My district utilizes a similar idea (career ladder portfolios). It’s always a great feeling when the portfolio is complete and it can be shared during CLAI season for presentation.
ePortfolios: Constructing Meaning Across Time, Space and Curriculum (2006)
Carmean & Christie (2006) define the effective use of ePortfolios to be “a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits a learner’s efforts, progress in one or more areas (p. 5).” Furthermore, it provides a functional tool for selecting and presenting their achievements and records (p. 4). An ePorfolio can be “as simple as a collection of a student’s best work or as complex as an alternate assessment. The use of ePortfolios in education is a versatile, high utility, and progressive idea in public education. ePorfolios can be used to engage learners and encourage innovation. Daneilson an Abrutyn (1997) in Carmean & Christie (2006) identify a five-stage process of portfolio creation: conception, collection, selection, reflection, and connection. An emphasis on the production/creation of quality artifacts for increasing motivation and as an assessment instrument permeates ePorfolios: Constructing Meaning Across Time, Space, and Curriculum. Ultimately, the goal [in higher education] is to spur students to harvest, select, then reflect on their skills and academic development progressively while projecting their future goals and enhancing their self-efficacy in the larger context of collegial interaction and presentation.
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4 comments:
It's amazing to me that in all of the years that I have done portfolios, I never really realized the potential they have for driving further learning. Because students become acutely aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, there becomes this sort of jumping off point from whenever the portfolios are reviewed. I have always compiled portfolios throughout the year for my students and then let them choose the works that go inside. This year, I think I will try to review work at every quarter with my students so that they can complete a written assessment of thw works they choose as their best per term and explain why. By the end of the year, their portfolio will be almost complete, little work will have to be done to organize AND students will have critiqued their own learning / assignments 3 times before the end of the year!! That is most certainly becoming a reflective thinker / learner!!
I am hoping that when I start the portfolio process this year that the "selection" process will help spark student motivation and independent thinking on what they have learned and achieved through each piece of learning evidence. I am also hoping to use this same idea with my own portfolio...gone are the days of cute scrapbook style portfolios...we need to find a way to persuade others to want to find out more about our teaching and learning.
I like the last part about setting goals. I see this as an important part to a portfolio, that is, if it is to succeed. The purposes and outcomes that you mention in connection to portfolios are all great, and a portfolio does have this potential. What is often lacking is motivation. Somewhere along the line the student has to understand what he needs to learn in order to be successful. Not just in terms of testing, but in terms of life. There also needs to be an understanding about where that learner is and a plan on how to get to a goal. Setting goals with the student will both motivate them and give them a tangible direction. Once a goal is met they will truly feel success along with the pride in what they have created in their portfolio.
I have done many kinds of portfolios over the years and found that my kids would want to save everything, which ends up being a collection of nothing that shows growth and reflection. One of the things I would like to try this year are e-folios. I think initially it will require a lot of work just to set it up, but then it would require students to put in a little more thought into what it should include. Organization on my part would be important here.
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