PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT METHODS

Historical perspective
Portfolios widely used for many years Late 80s interest in portfolios for assessment (Belanoff and Dickson 1991) 90s saw advent of e portfolios A shift in emphasis away from assessment to learning?

Definitions
collection of student work that demonstrates achievement or improvement (Stiggins 1994) a portfolio is a collection of evidence that is gathered together to show a persons learning journey over time and to demonstrate their abilities (Butler 2006)

Definitions
student writing over time, which contains exhibits showing the stages in the writing processes a text has gone through and the stages of the writers growth as a writer, and evidence of the writers self-reflection on her/his identity and progress as a writer (Hamp-Lyons
1996)

Definitions
portfolios are prepared with a particular audience in mind, are selective and call for judgments (Calfee and Freedman 1996)

Definitions
a purposeful collection of student work that illustrates efforts, progress, and achievement in one or more areas [over time]. The collection must include: student participation in selecting contents, the criteria for selection, the criteria for judging merit, and evidence of selfreflection (The Northwest Evaluation Association
cited in Barret 2005)

Definitions main characteristics

They are collections of work, different from a single timed impromptu essay or a class essay carried out over a semester. They are purposeful in that they demonstrate, exhibit or provide evidence of achievement, improvement, the writers self reflection, the writing process and the writers growth.

The degree to which these characteristics are evidenced in portfolios largely depends on their purpose.

A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the students 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.

 The purpose of creating a portfolio is to enable the student to demonstrate to others learning and progress.
The value is that, in building them, students become active participants in the learning process and its assessment.

Features and Principles of Portfolio Assessment

1. A portfolio is a form of assessment that students do together with their teachers. 2. A portfolio represents a selection of what the students believe are best included from among the possible collection of things related to the concept being studied.

3. A portfolio provides samples of the students work which show growth over time 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.

Purposes of Portfolio Assessment

1. Portfolio assessment matches assessment to teaching. 2. Portfolio assessment has clear goals. They are decided on at the beginning of instruction and are clear to teacher and students. 3. Portfolio assessment gives a profile of learner abilities in terms of depth, breadth and growth.

4. Portfolio assessment is a tool for assessing a variety of skills not normally testable in a single setting for traditional testing.

5. Portfolio assessment develops awareness of own learning by the students. 6. Portfolio assessment caters to individuals in a heterogeneous class.

7. Portfolio assessment develop social skills. Students interact with other students in the development of their own portfolio.

8. Portfolio assessment promotes independent and active learners.

9. Portfolio assessment can improve motivation for learning and thus achievement. 10.Portfolio assessment provides opportunity for student-teacher dialogue.

Essential Elements of the Portfolio

1. Cover Letter About the author and What my portfolio shows about my progress as a learner (written at the end, but put at the beginning) 2. Table of Contents with numbered pages 3. Entries both core (items student have to include) and optional (items of students choice)

4.

Dates on all entries, to facilitate proof of growth over time. Draft of aural/oral and written products and revised version; e.g., first drafts and corrected/revised versions. Reflections can appear at different stages in the learning process (for formative and/or summative purposes) and at the lower levels can be written in the mother tongue.

5.

6.

For each item a brief rationale for choosing the item should be included.
Students can choose to reflect upon some of the following:
What did I learn from it? What did I do well? Why did I choose this item? What do I want to improve in the item?

How do I feel about my performance?

What were the problem areas?

Planning for Portfolio Assessment

Steps for Planning and Implementing Portfolio Assessment
Determine Purpose Identify Physical Structure Determine Source of Content Determine Student SelfReflective Guidelines and Scoring Criteria Review with Students

Portfolio Content Supplied by Teacher and/or Student

Student SelfEvaluation of Contents

Teacher Evaluation of Contents and Student SelfEvaluation

StudentTeacher Conference

Portfolios Returned to Students or School

Purpose
Involves specific learning targets the targets that reflect all contents are broader and more general
development as a reader speaks clearly Adapts writing styles to different purposes

The use of the portfolio

Documentation Showcasing Growth Evaluation

Identify Physical Structure

What will it look like? Where are they stored so that students can have easy access to it? Do I have boxes to put them in? What is the actual arrangement of documents in the portfolio?

Stages in Implementing Portfolio Assessment

1. Identifying teaching goals to assess through portfolio 2. Introducing the idea of portfolio assessment to your class

3. Specification of portfolio content

4. Giving clear and detailed guidelines for portfolio presentation

5. Informing key school officials, parents and other stakeholders

6. Development of a portfolio

Types of Portfolios
The types of portfolios differ from each other depending on the purposes or objectives set for the overall classroom assessment program.
As a rule, portfolio assessment is used where traditional testing is inadequate to measure desired skills and competencies.

Types of portfolio
a process portfolio a showcase portfolio an assessment portfolio A dossier portfolio A reflective portfolio A classroom portfolio A positivist portfolio A constructivist portfolio A personal portfolio A structured portfolio An employment portfolio A working portfolio

Types of Portfolios
1. Documentation Portfolio involves a collection of work over time showing growth and improvement reflecting students learning of identified outcomes.
growth portfolio can include everything from brainstorming activities to drafts to finished products.

2. Process Portfolio demonstrate all facets or phrases of the learning process

Contains an extensive number of reflective journals, think logs and other related forms of metacognitive processing. Useful in documenting students overall learning process Can show how students integrate specific knowledge or skills and progress towards basic and advanced mastery

3. Showcase Portfolio shows the best of the students outputs and products.
Best used for summative evaluation of students mastery of key curriculum outcomes. Should include students best work, determined through a combination of student and teacher selection.

Only completed work should be included

Compatible with audio-visual artifact development, including photographs, and electric record of students completed work

Should include written analysis and reflections by the student upon the decision-making process used to determine which works are included

Assessing and Evaluating the Portfolio

Portfolio assessment 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
(Paulson, Paulson and Meyer, 1991)

Rating criteria
Thoughtfulness (including evidence of students monitoring of their own comprehension, metacognitive reflection, and productive habits of mind) Growth and development in relationship to key curriculum expectancies and indicators Understanding and application of key processes Completeness, correctness, and appropriateness of products and processes presented in the portfolio Diversity of entries (e.g., use of multiple formats to demonstrate achievement of designed performance standards)

In evolving an evaluation criteria, teachers and students must work together and agree on the criteria to be applied tot eh portfolio.

Such evaluative criteria need to be set and agreed prior to the development of the portfolio. The criteria to be used may be formative (i.e., throughout the instructional time period) or summative (i.e., as part of culminating project, activity or related assessment to determine the extent to which identified curricular expectancies, indicators, and standards have been achieved)

Sample of Rating Scale for Cover Letter

Grade
13

Description
Shows limited awareness of portfolio goals Has difficulty understanding the process of revision Demonstrates little evidence of progress over time Limited explanation of choices made Has difficulty relating to self/peer assessment Reflects awareness of some portfolio goals Understands the process of revision to a certain extent Demonstrates some evidence of progress over time Explains choices made in a relevant way Relates to self/peer assessment Reflects awareness pf portfolio goals Understands the process of revision Demonstrates evidence of progress over time Fully explains choices made Reaches high level of reliability in self/peer assessment Draws conclusions about his/her learning

47

8 10

collaborative approach significant

aspect of portfolio assessment

Students and teacher work together to identify significant or important artifacts and processes to be captured in the portfolio.
to determine grades or scores to be assigned

 For grading and scoring, rubrics, rules and scoring keys can be designed for a variety of portfolio components. Letter grades might also be assigned, where appropriate. For summative purposes, a panel of interviewers be designated to evaluate the students portfolio based on the agreed set of criteria.

 Each portfolio entry needs to be assessed with reference to its specific goals Self and peer-assessment can also be used for formative evaluation, with students having to justify their grades with reference to the goals and to specific pages in the portfolio.

The teacher provides feedback on the portfolios:

Write a letter about the portfolio which details strengths and weaknesses and generates a profile of a students ability, which is then added to the portfolio Prepare certificates which comment on the portfolio strengths and suggest future goals.

Student-Teacher Conferences
The main philosophy embedded in portfolio assessment is shared and active assessment.
For formative evaluation process, The teacher should have short individual meetings with each student, in which progress is discussed and goals are set for future meeting The student and the teacher keep careful documentation of the meetings noting the significant agreements and findings in each session.

For summative evaluation purposes,

Students can negotiate for the appropriate grade to be given using as evidence the minutes of the regular student-teacher conferences.

Notes from conferences have to be included in the portfolio as they contain joint decisions about the individuals strengths and weaknesses.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Portfolio Assessment

Advantages
Promotes student self-assessment Promotes collaborative assessment Enhances student motivation Systematic assessment is ongoing Focus on improvement not comparison with others Focus on students strength Assessment process is individualized Allows demonstration of unique accomplishments Provide concrete examples for parent conferences Products can be used for individualized teacher diagnosis Flexibility and adaptability

Disadvantages
Scoring difficulty may lead to low reliability

Teacher training needed

Time consuming to develop criteria, score and meet with students Students ,may not make good selections of which materials to include Sampling of student products may lead to weak generalization Parents may find portfolio difficult to understand

Research in Portfolio Assessment

Impact: Richardson (2000) study involved classroom observations teacher and student interviews and examination of student writing and teacher response.
Found that students regard teacher responses as directives. Were not prepared to make independent judgments largely because of the threat of grades

Impact
Herman and Winter (1994) based on self-reports from teachers and others implementing portfolios appears to have positive effects on instruction Vermont principals affirmed that the portfolio assessment program had beneficial effects on curriculum and instruction

Impact
Hirvela and Sweetland (2005) used 2 case studies showing the 2 students did not strongly endorse the portfolios as used in 2 different courses.
Seemed to need more explanations of what portfolio approaches were meant to achieve Even with a 5% final course grade students saw the portfolio as essentially summative in nature