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 person’s 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 writer’s growth as a writer, and evidence of the writer’s 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 self-reflection” (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 writer’s self reflection”, “the writing process” and “the writer’s 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 student’s 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 student’s 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 student’s choice)

4. Dates on all entries, to facilitate proof of growth over time.

5. Draft of aural/oral and written products and revised version; e.g., first drafts and corrected/revised versions.

6. 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.

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

Determine Source of Content

Identify Physical Structure

Portfolio Content Supplied by Teacher and/or Student

Review with Students

Determine Student Self-Reflective Guidelines and Scoring Criteria

Portfolios Returned to Students or School

Student-Teacher Conference

Teacher Evaluation of Contents and Student Self-Evaluation

Student Self-Evaluation of Contents

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

Description

1 – 3

Shows limited awareness of portfolio goalsHas difficulty understanding the process of revisionDemonstrates little evidence of progress over timeLimited explanation of choices madeHas difficulty relating to self/peer assessment

4 – 7

Reflects awareness of some portfolio goalsUnderstands the process of revision to a certain extentDemonstrates some evidence of progress over timeExplains choices made in a relevant wayRelates to self/peer assessment

8 – 10

Reflects awareness pf portfolio goalsUnderstands the process of revisionDemonstrates evidence of progress over timeFully explains choices made Reaches high level of reliability in self/peer assessmentDraws conclusions about his/her learning

“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 student’s ability, which is then added to the portfolio

Prepare certificates which comment on the portfolio strengths and suggest future goals.

Student-Teacher ConferencesThe 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 individual’s strengths and weaknesses.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Portfolio Assessment

Advantages DisadvantagesPromotes 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

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