Portfolio Assessment

A Portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the students’ efforts, progress and achievements in one or more areas. The collection must include student participation in selecting contents, the criteria for selection, the criteria for judging merit and evidence of student self-reflection. Within the context of this definition, a portfolio continually grows and accumulates as the student progresses in the particular learning task. The over-all purpose is to enable the student to demonstrate to others learning and progress. Its greatest value: student becomes active participants in the learning process and its assessment. The sense of ownership on the part of the students that goes with portfolio assessment makes it quite attractive to the learners in general.

Portfolio assessment is one of the several authentic and non-traditional assessment techniques in education. It is gaining popularity since early 1980s in response to the growing clamor for more “reasonable” and authentic means of assessing students’ growth and development in school. One area of application of portfolio assessment is in the accreditation of experiences towards a degree (CHED’s ETEEAP – Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency and Accreditation Program). In this modality, experiences of managers or workers are accredited towards a Bachelor’s degree (or higher) depending on the portfolio presented by the students to a panel of expert evaluators.

Features of Portfolio Assessment:
1. A portfolio is a form of assessment that students do together with their teachers. Teachers guide the students in the planning, execution and evaluation of the contents of the portfolio. Teachers and students interact in every step of the process in developing a portfolio

2. A portfolio represents a selection of what the students believe are best included from among the possible collection of things related to the concepts being studies. It is the teachers’ responsibility to assist the students in actually choosing from among a possible set of choices to be included in the portfolio. However, the final selection should be done by the students themselves since the portfolio represents what h\the students believe are important considerations.

3. A portfolio provides samples of the students’ work which show growth overtime. By reflecting on their own learning (self assessment), students begin to identify the strengths and weaknesses in their work. These weaknesses then become improvement goals.

4. The criteria for selecting and assessing the portfolio contents must be clear to the teacher and the students at the outset of the process. If the criteria are not clear at the beginning, then there is a tendency to include among unessential components in the portfolio and to include those which happen to be available at the time the portfolio is prepared.

Purposes of Portfolio Assessment:
1. matches assessment to teaching – assess other components of the students’ formed abilities based on classroom discussions.
2. has clear goals –decided on at the beginning of instruction and are clear to the teacher and students alike
3. gives a profile of learner abilities in terms of depth (quality of work), breadth (wide range of skills assessed) , and growth (efforts to improve and progress over time).
4. tool for assessing a variety of skills not normally testable in a single setting for traditional testing
5. develops awareness of own learning by the students
6. caters to individuals in a heterogeneous class
7. develops social skills in the development of their own portfolios
8. develops independent and active learners
9. improve motivation for learning and thus achievement
10. provides opportunity for student teacher dialogue.

Essential Elements of the Portfolio
1. Cover Letter – “about the author” “ what my portfolio shows about my progress
2. Table of Contents – with numbered pages
3. Entries – both core (required) and optional (uniqueness of student)
4. Dates of all entries – to facilitate proof of growth over time
5. Drafts of aural/oral and written products and revised versions
6. Reflections – at different stages in the learning process
a. What did I learn from it?
b. What did I do well?
c. Why did I choose this item?
d. What do I want to improve in the item?
e. How do I feel about my performance?
f. What were the problems areas?

Stages of Implementing Portfolio Assessment:

Stage 1: Identifying teaching goals to assess through portfolio

Stage 2: Introducing the Idea of Portfolio Assessment

Stage 3: Specification of Portfolio Content

Stage 4: Giving clear and detailed guidelines for presentation

Stage 5: Informing Key officials and other stakeholders

Stage 6: Development of the Portfolio

Guide for Self-reflections and Self-assessment:
• What did I learn from that activity?
• Which is my best piece?
• How can I improve this?
o Brainstorming
o Portfolio partners

Types of Portfolios
1. Documentation Portfolio
a. Involves collection of work over time showing growth and improvement reflecting students’ learning of identified outcomes
b. Also called “growth portfolio” in the literature
c. Include everything from brainstorming activities to drafts to finished products
d. Include the best and weakest students’ work

2. Process Portfolio

a. Demonstrates all facets or phases of the learning process
b. Contain an extensive number of reflective journals. Think logs and other related forms of metacognitive processing
c. Useful in documenting student’s over-all learning process
d. Show how students integrate knowledge or skills and progress towards both basic and advanced mastery

3. Showcase Portfolio
a. Shows the best of the students’ output and products
b. Best used for summative evaluation of students’ mastery of key curriculum outcomes.
c. Include students’ very best work, determined through a combination of student and teacher selection.
d. Only completed work should be included.
e. Include photographs, videotaped and electronic records of students’ completed work
f. Include written analysis and reflections by the students upon the decision-making process used to determine which works are included.

Assessing and Evaluating the Portfolios
Portfolio offer a way of assessing student learning that is different from the traditional methods. It provides the teacher and students an opportunity to observe students in a broader context: taking risks, developing creative solutions, and learning to make judgments about their own performances.

Detailed rating criteria may be evolved to evaluate the finished portfolio presented by students. They should include the following:

1. thoroughness (including evidence of students’ monitoring of their own comprehension, metacognitive refection, and productive habits of mid)
2. growth and development in relation to key curriculum experiences and indicators
3. understanding and application of key processes
4. completeness, correctness and appropriateness of products and process presented in the portfolio
5. diversity of entries (use of multiple formats to demonstrate achievement of designated performance standards)

(Source: Advanced Methods in Educational Assessment and Evaluation by Rosita De Guzman-Santos)

ACTIVITY:

1. For each of the following main elements of a portfolio, construct a rating scale or rubrics for evaluating students’ portfolio on the topic: Advance Methods in Educational Assessment
a. Cover Letter
b. Table of Contents and Introduction
c. Entries
d. Reflections
e. Summative Statements
f. Appendices and dates of drafts

2. Prepare and submit your Documentation Portfolio (follow the suggested guide in portfolio assessment) for the course in Advance Methods in Educational Assessment on or before May 30, 2009. Required entries include:
a. Course Syllabus
b. Hand-outs, Outputs
c. Drafts of rubrics presented in the class
d. Corrected /final rubrics presented
e. Test Papers
f. Reflection/reaction paper
g. Copy of a certificate or proofs (if any) of any training attended relating to authentic assessment
h. Sample hand-outs from seminar/training on authentic assessment
i. Copy of training session guide (if any) relating to task as Speaker/Trainer in Seminars on Educational Assessment
j. Copy of an abstract relating to a research conducted on authentic assessment either in basic or higher education.
k. Other documents relating to learning Advance Methods in Educational Assessment