A portfolio is a formative assessment that measures the progress of a student, as well as his strengths and challenges. A good portfolio will be a broad spectrum of a student's work, and will serve as not only a place to store completed work, but will also include self-reflections and recommendations for improvement. The article below will explain the significance, function, features, benefits and considerations of portfolio assessment.
Significance
Portfolio assessment is important because it measures the progress of a student and examines the instructional process, not just the final product. Authentic educational assessments, such as portfolios, provide multiple levels of learning evidence and demonstrate what a student knows and how he uses this knowledge. Traditional assessments, such as tests, demonstrate how knowledge can be memorized and regurgitated, but portfolio assessments measure conceptual development over a period of time. However, tests and other traditional assessments do have purposes, and can even be included in portfolios. According to Meg Sewell, Mary Marczak, and Melanie Horn at the University of Arizona, "contents of portfolios (sometimes called 'artifacts' or 'evidence') can include drawings, photos, video or audio tapes, writing or other work samples, computer disks, and copies of standardized or program-specific tests. Data sources can include parents, staff, and other community members who know the participants or program, as well as the self-reflections of participants themselves" (Sewell, Marczak, and Horn). From this quote, it is clear that a solid portfolio includes multimedia artifacts, because a cross section of assessment in different learning styles can truly assess a student's development.
Function
The function of a portfolio assessment is to measure progress of a particular process over a specified length of time. Before beginning a portfolio, the student must be aware of the goals she is trying to accomplish with this project. Otherwise, she will be confused as to what artifacts to include. According to Sewell, Marczack and Horn, "If goals and criteria have been clearly defined, the 'evidence' in the portfolio makes it relatively easy to demonstrate that the individual or population has moved from a baseline level of performance to achievement of particular goals." A portfolio functions as a place to store materials so they are not forgotten and so that the student can continuously reflect on her growth in that particular subject area. According to David Sweet, a writer for the Education Consumer Guide Office of Research, "A portfolio may be a folder containing a student's best pieces and the student's evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the pieces. It may also contain one or more works-in-progress that illustrate the creation of a product, such as an essay, evolving through various stages of conception, drafting, and revision" (Sweet, 1993).
Features
Artifacts placed in the portfolio should be carefully chosen to represent the portfolio purpose and the most solid work done by the participant. The work should also show growth and progress, and can even include work-in-progress pieces. Occasionally, a student will flip through her portfolio and remove old work, replacing it with newer work that shows stronger development of a certain skill.
Most importantly however, a portfolio is only complete if it has a reflection, a summary of strengths and weaknesses, and a plan to improve. According to Elizabeth Aurbach, "Use the reflective narrative to make sure your readers quite understand what you are showing. Prepare reflections that place the artifacts in a context and explain why you have included each item" (Aurbach, 2005-2006). Creating a reflection places the responsibility of the learner on the student, allowing her to see, understand and conceptualize her own strengths and weaknesses. A portfolio changes the teacher's role from a one-size-fits all instructor into a mentor who works with each student's individual goals.
Benefits
According to Sewell, Marczak and Horn, portfolio assessment is useful because it "allows the evaluators to see the student, group, or community as individual ... serves as a cross-section lens, providing a basis for future analysis and planning ... serves as a concrete vehicle for communication ... promotes a shift in ownership ... assesses the more complex and important aspects of an area or topic, and covers a broad scope of knowledge and information" (Sewell, Marczak, and Horn). Unlike a test that measures only one type of intelligence and understanding, a portfolio is useful for comparing understanding across intelligences. A portfolio also allows the student to become more self-aware of his learning process. As Sweet asserts, "Portfolios can serve as a vehicle for enhancing student awareness of these strategies for thinking about and producing work--both inside and beyond the classroom," (Sweet, 1993). A portfolio teaches self-awareness and self-responsibility, skills that will serve a person well beyond the classroom.
Considerations
A portfolio is not useful all the time. It does not allow you to assess your students in a quantitative way, nor is it useful for programs "that have very concrete, uniform goals or purposes" (Sewell, Marczack, and Horn). Sewell, Marczack and Horn also assert that portfolios are not useful when you are "comparing participants or programs to standardized norms" (ibid). The main purpose of a portfolio is to measure an individual's progress, so it is best used in that particular context. Portfolios also take time, and that can be the biggest drawback of the entire process. According to Aurbach, "It takes time to get organized, time to gather the pieces, time to cull them, time to digitize them, and time to reflect about each artifact and about the whole collection," (Aurbach, 2005-2006). However, if you have the time and space to store them, portfolios can be a very useful way to assess student progress.
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