PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT

INTRODUCTION: Portfolio assessment is an evaluation tool used to document students learning through a series of students –developed artifacts. Portfolio assessment is considered a form of authentic assessment, it offer an alternative or an addition to traditional methods of grading and high stakes exams.

MEANING:

Portfolio assessment is the systematic, longitudinal collection of students’ work created in response to specific, known instructional objectives, and afterwards evaluated in relation to the same criterion. The assessment is done by measuring the individual sections as well as the portfolio as a whole against the specified criterion, which match the objectives toward a specific purpose.

A portfolio is a purposeful collection of independent work that exhibits the student’s efforts, progress and achievements in one or more areas of curriculum. The collection must include the following:-

Student participation in selecting contents. Criteria for selection and judging merits. Evidence of a student's self-reflection on the criterion.

DEFINITIONS OF PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT:Paulson, Paulson, Meyer (1991), “The collection must include student participation in selecting contents, the criteria for selection, the criteria for judging merit and evidence of student self-reflection.”

Stiggin (1994) has defined portfolio as, “collection of student’s work that demonstrate achievement of improvement.”

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Porter & Cleland(1995), “A collection of artifacts accompanied by a reflective narrative that not only helps the learner to understand and extend learning, but invites the reader of the portfolio to gain insight about learning and the learner.”

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

Venn (2000), “A student portfolio is a systematic collection of student’s work and related material that depicts a student's activities, accomplishments, and achievements in one or more school subjects. The collection should includes evidence of student reflection and self-evaluation, guidelines for selecting the portfolio contents, and criteria for judging the quality of the work. The goal is to help students assemble portfolios that illustrate their talents, represent their writing capabilities, and tell their stories of school achievement.”

Butler(2006), “A portfolio is a collection of evidence that is gathered to show person’s learning journey over time and demonstrate their abilities.”

TYPES OF PORTFOLIOS:

There are a variety of portfolio types, each designed to help assess either the process or the products of learning.

1.) Process oriented portfolio assessment: Process portfolios, by contrast, concentrate more on the journey of learning rather than the final destination or end products of the learning process. In the composition class, for example, different stages of the process—an outline, first draft, peer and teacher responses, early revisions, and a final edited draft—may be required. A process reflection may discuss:

Why a particular strategy was used?2

What was useful or ineffective for the individual in the writing process? and

How the student went about making progress in the face of difficulty in meeting requirements?

A process reflection typically focuses on many aspects of the learning process, including the following:

What approaches work best? Which are ineffective, information about oneself as a learner, and

strategies or approaches to remember in future assignments?

2.) Product oriented portfolio assessment/Showcase portfolios/ Display, or Best Works Portfolios : A Product Portfolio assessment demonstrates mastery of a learning task or a set of learning objectives and contains only the best work. Teachers use process portfolios to help students identify learning goals, document progress over time and demonstrate learning mastery. In general, teachers prefer to use process portfolio because they are ideal for documenting the stages that students go through as they learn and progress.

Product or Showcase portfolios highlight the best products over a particular time period or course. Students are often allowed to choose what they believe to be their best work, highlighting their achievements and skills. Showcase reflections typically focus on the strengths of selected pieces and discuss how each met or exceeded required standards.

For example, a showcase portfolio in a business class, the showcase portfolio may include a resume, sample business letters, a marketing project, and a collaborative assignment that demonstrates the individual's ability to work in a team.

Students, as well as their teachers, become most committed to the process when they experience the joy of exhibiting their best work and interpreting

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its meaning. Many educators, who do not use portfolios for any other purpose, engage their students in the creation of display portfolios. The pride and sense of accomplishment that students feel make the effort well worthwhile and contribute to a culture for learning in the classroom.

Purposes/ Objectives of Display Portfolios: The purpose of a display portfolio is to demonstrate the highest level of

achievement attained by the student. A display portfolio may be maintained from year to year, with new

pieces added each year, documenting growth over time. But students may select to put many types of items in their portfolio of

best works—a drawing they like, a poem they have written, a list of books they have read, or a difficult problem they have solved.

Audience Since the student selects her or his own best works, the audience for a

display portfolio is that student and the other important individuals, such as parents and older siblings, to whom the student chooses to show the portfolio.

Other audiences include a current teacher or next year's teacher, who may learn a lot about the student by studying the portfolio.

In addition, a student may submit portfolios of best works to colleges or potential employers to supplement other information; art students have always used this approach.

The contents of these portfolios are determined by the interests of the audience and may include videos, written work, projects, resumés, and testimonials. The act of assembling a display portfolio for such a practical purpose can motivate high school students to produce work of high quality.

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3) Evaluation portfolios/ Assessment Portfolios:

Evaluation portfolios may vary substantially in their content. Their basic purpose, however, remains to exhibit a series of evaluations over a course and the learning or accomplishments of the student in regard to previously determined criteria or goals. The primary function of an assessment portfolio is to document what a student has learned. Essentially, this type of portfolio documents tests, observations, records, or other assessment artifacts required for successful completion of the course. An Economics evaluation portfolio may include tests, Debate, and written explanations of how one went about solving a problem. Unlike the showcase portfolio, evaluation portfolios do not simply include the best work, but rather a selection of predetermined evaluations that may also demonstrate students' difficulties and unsuccessful struggles as well as their better work. Students who reflect on why some work was successful and other work was less so continue their learning as they develop their metacognitive skills.

PurposeThe primary purpose of an assessment portfolio is to document student learning on specific curriculum outcomes. As such, the items in the portfolio must be designed to elicit the knowledge and skill specified in the outcomes. It is the assessment tasks that bring the curriculum outcomes to life; only by specifying precisely what students must do and how well they must do it .Assessment portfolios may be used to demonstrate mastery in any curricular area. They may span any period of time, from one unit to the entire year. And they may be dedicated to one subject or many subjects. The criteria for moving on and the types of necessary evidence must be established. Then the portfolio is compiled and assessed.

4) Online or e-portfolios.

Online or e-portfolios may be one of the above portfolio types or a combination of different types, a general requirement being that all

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information and artifacts are somehow accessible online. A number of colleges require students to maintain a virtual portfolio that may include digital, video, or Web-based products. The portfolio assessment process may be linked to a specific course or an entire program. As with all portfolios, students are able to visually track and show their accomplishments to a wide audience.

5. Working Portfolios/ Diagnostic Portfolio:A working portfolio is so named because it is a project “in the works,” containing work in progress as well as finished samples of work. It serves as a holding tank for work that may be selected later for a more permanent assessment or display portfolio. A working portfolio is different from a work folder, which is simply a receptacle for all work, with no purpose to the collection. A working portfolio is an intentional collection of work guided by learning objectives.PurposeThe major purpose of a working portfolio is to serve as a holding tank for student work. The pieces related to a specific topic are collected. In addition, the working portfolio may be used to diagnose student needs. Here both student and teacher have evidence of student strengths and weaknesses in achieving learning objectives, information extremely useful in designing future instruction.

6. Documentary Portfolio:

As the name implies, this approach involves a collection of work over time showing growth and improvement reflecting students learning of identified outcomes. This portfolio is called a growth portfolio in the literature. The Collection becomes meaningful when specific items are selected out to focus on particular educational experiences or goals.

PROCESS AND STEPS OF CREATING PORTFOLIO:

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Portfolio creation is the responsibility of the learner, with teacher guidance and support, and often with the involvement of peers and parents. The audience can participate in the assessment of the portfolio. Academics have developed portfolio instruction, assessment criteria, and gained appropriate administrative support. During the development process, they found answers to their own questions, as well as addressed issues concerning portfolio assessment coming from colleagues, students and parents. Concerns are often focused on reliability, validity, process, evaluation, and time

Design and Development

According to Barton & Collins, 1997, three main factors guide the design and development of a portfolio are: 1) purpose, 2) assessment criteria, and 3) evidence

1) Purpose

The primary concern in getting started is knowing the purpose that the portfolio will serve. This decision defines the operational guidelines for collecting materials. For example,

Does the goal to use the portfolio as data to inform program development?

To report progress? To identify special needs? For program accountability? For all of these?

2) Assessment Criteria

Once the purpose or goal of the portfolio is clear, decisions are made about what will be considered success (criteria or standards), and what strategies are necessary to meet the goals. Items are then selected to include in the portfolio because they provide evidence of meeting criteria, or making progress toward goals.

3) Evidence 7

According to Barton and Collins (1997), evidence can include artifacts (items produced in the normal course of classroom or program activities), reproductions (documentation of interviews or projects done outside of the classroom or program), attestations (statements and observations by staff or others about the participant), and productions (items prepared especially for the portfolio, such as participant reflections on their learning or choices) . Each item is selected because it adds some new information related to attainment of the goals.

KEY ELEMENTS FOR EFFECTIVE PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT:The developer should take care of following elements when preparing portfolio assessment:

1. Criterion of evaluation:

Clear criteria for evaluation, including what must be included in the portfolio for evaluation are vital to successful portfolio assessment. When teachers develop clear criteria and understanding of these criteria can help reduce or eliminate criticism about subjectivity or unfairness of grading, a common criticism of those who prefer standardized assessments.

2. Comprehensive Portfolio:

The more precise and comprehensive will be the portfolio, the more objective will be the assessment.

3. Clear Instructions:

Through explicit direction, instructors should make clear all guiding principles or policies for what may or may not be included in the portfolio.

4. Reflective and Review:

Fernsten & Fernsten(2005), “Reflective pieces require students to articulate and review components of the portfolio and are a part of a comprehensive assessment. Reflections allow students the time and space to

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analyze their achievement in relation to class standards, evaluate their final products, and determine growth as well as needs.”

5. Metacognitive Exercise:

The portfolio should be based on metacognitive exercise to finding out how they know what they know about the learning that has taken place can be an invaluable learning tool and helps participants take responsibility for their own learning.

Steps in Portfolio Assessment:

According to Ven(2005), following steps should be taken for the portfolio assessment:

STEP1: The teacher and the student need to clearly identify the portfolio contents, which are samples of student work, reflections, teacher reservations, and conference records.

STEP2: The teacher should develop evaluation procedures for keeping track of the portfolio contents and for grading.

STEP3: The teacher needs a plan for holding portfolio conferences, which are formal and informal meetings in which students review their work and discuss their progress. Because they encourage reflective teaching and learning, these conferences are an essential part of the portfolio assessment process.

PURPOSE OF PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT: Portfolios are a form of alternative/authentic assessment in which a student's progress is measured over a period of time in various learning contexts.The purpose of portfolio assessment is as following:1. PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT MATCHES ASSESSMENT OF TEACHING:The final outputs to be assessed are products of classroom discussions and classroom work and are not simple diversions from the tedium of classroom activities.

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2. PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT HAS CLEAR GOALS:

In fact, goals are decided on the beginning of instructions and are clear to teacher and student alike. In cognitive testing the objectives are set at the beginning but the actual items may or may not reflect achievement of such objectives. In portfolio assessment however the students control the items to be included and therefore are assured that the goals are achieved. 3. PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT GIVES A PROFILE OF A LEARNER ABILITIES IN TERM OF DEPTH, BREADTH AND GROWTH: Portfolio assessment enable the students to demonstrate quality work done without pressure and constraints of time presents in traditional testing through the help of resource.4. PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT IS A TOOL FOR ASSESSING A VARIETY OF SKILLS: Portfolio assessment is a tool for assessing a variety of skills not normally testable in a single setting for traditional testing. The portfolio can show written, oral and graphics output of students in a variety of way which demonstrate skills developed by students.5. PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT DEVELOPS AWARENESS OF OWN LEARNING STUDENTS: Students have to reflect on their own progress and the quality of their work in relation to known goals. This is achieved at each stage of the progress since the students continually refer to the set of goals and objectives set at the beginning.6. PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT CATERS TO INDIVIDUALS IN A HETEROGENEOUS CLASS: Such a flexibility is attributed to the fact that Portfolio Assessment is open-ended so that students can demonstrate their abilities on their own level and caters to differential learning styles and expression of varying strengths.7. PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT DEVELOPS SOCIAL SKILLS:

Students interact with other students in the development of their own portfolios. Sometimes they are assessed on work done in groups or in pairs so that they necessarily have to interact band collaborate to complete the Tasks. 8. PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT DEVELOPS INDEPENDENT AND ACTIVE

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LEARNERS. Students must select and justify portfolio choices monitor progress and set learning goals. Traditional testing cannot achievement this educational objective no matter how skillfully the tests are constructed.9. PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT CAN IMPROVE MOTIVATION FOR LEARNING AND ACHIEVEMENT: When students are empowered to prove their own achievement and worth they become highly motivated to pursue the learning tasks. It is when they lose this feeling of empowerment that they feel inadequate and become less motivated as in traditional classroom setting.10. PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT PROVIDES OPPORTUNITY FOR STUDENT-TEACHER DIALOGUE. It enables the teacher to get to know every student .Moreover, Portfolio Assessment promotes joint goal-setting and negotiation of grades which can never happen in traditional setting.

STRATEGIES TO MAKE THE PORTFOLIO A VEHICLE FOR ASSESSMENT AS LEARNING:

1. Student portfolios are most effective when they are used to evaluate student learning progress and achievement:When portfolios are used to document and evaluate the knowledge, skills, and work habits students acquire in school. Teachers can use them to adapt instructional strategies when evidence shows that students either are or are not learning what they were taught. 2. Portfolios can help teachers monitor and evaluate learning progress over time:Tests and quizzes give teachers information about what students know at a particular point in time, but portfolios can document how students have grown, matured, and improved as learners over the course of a project, school year, or multiple years. For this reason, some educators argue that portfolios should not just be compilations of a student’s best work, but rather they should include evidence and work products that demonstrate how students improved over time. For example, multiple versions of an essay can

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show how students revised and improved their work based on feedback from the teachers or their peers.3. Portfolios help teachers’ determine whether students can apply what they have learned to new problems and different subject areas:A test can help teachers determine, for example, whether students have learned a specific mathematical skill. But can those students also apply that skill to a complex problem in economics, geography, civics, or history? Can they use it to conduct a statistical analysis of a large data set in a spreadsheet? Or can they use it to develop a better plan for a hypothetical business. (Educators may call this ability to apply skills and knowledge to novel problems and different domains “transfer of learning”). Similarly, portfolios can also be used to evaluate student work and learning in non-school contexts. For example, if a student participated in an internship or completed a project under the guidance of an expert mentor from the community, students could create portfolios over the course of these learning activities and submit them to their teachers or school as evidence they have met certain learning expectations or graduation requirements.4. Portfolios can encourage students to take more ownership and responsibility over the learning process: In some schools, portfolios are a way for students to critique and evaluate their own work and academic progress, often during the process of deciding what will be included in their portfolios. Because portfolios document learning growth over time, they can help students reflect on where they started a course, how they developed, and where they ended up at the conclusion of the school year. When reviewing a portfolio, teachers may also ask students to articulate the connection between particular work products and the academic expectations and goals for a course. For these reasons, advocates of portfolios often recommend that students be involved in determining what goes into a portfolio, and that teachers should not unilaterally make the decisions without involving students. For related discussions, see student engagement and student voice.

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5. Portfolios can improve communication between teachers and parents: Portfolios can also help parents become more informed about the education and learning progress of their children, what is being taught in a particular course, and what students are doing and learning in the classroom. Advocates may also contend that when parents are more informed about and engaged in their child’s education, they can play a more active role in supporting their children at home, which could have a beneficial affect on academic achievement and long-term student outcomes.6. Specify the upper size limits for portfolio items (for example, maximum numbers of pages of evidence, and a maximum number of words in the critical reflection).7. Use Standard Format and Structure:

Be clear about the format you want students to use in portfolio structure and presentation. Provide either a pro-forma or detailed guidelines for the design of the structure.

8. Use of Rubric:Develop a rubric incorporating criteria and standards for assessing the work. Use it to guide students' self and peer evaluations, and when you communicate assessment feedback to students. An assessment rubric guides students when they design their portfolio and when they self-assess or conduct peer reviews of the work. When developing a rubric, limit the number of different learning outcomes that the portfolio addresses

9. Use Criterion to Assessment:Inform all assessors that they do not necessarily need to read every word of a portfolio (particularly of the evidence) to be able to form a confident judgment on the basis of the critical reflection.Avoid re-reading any preliminary work submitted, focusing instead on how the feedback has affected the final work.

10. Use Peer or Self-Assessment:

Use the reflections based on self and peer assessment to reduce the need to read all the primary-source contents of the portfolio. Or allow students to

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include pre-assessed work, so that markers can just review the assessments rather than the primary evidence.

11. Brief and train assessors in portfolio assessment.Trained Assessor and Briefing of portfolio to assesse will help to promote greater consistency in the interpretation of criteria.

12. Collaborative Marking:Where you can incorporate collaborative marking, do so, to promote greater consistency in the interpretation of criteria.

13. Use Technology:

ePortfolio software such as https://mahara.org/ and https://www.pebblepad.co.uk/ has been developed specifically for use in higher education.

Local applications such as the eMed system(https://emed.med.unsw.edu.au/) developed by the UNSW School of Medicine provide a structured framework for integrating the development and assessment of graduate attributes.

14. Exploit other universally available applications for portfolio development and presentation: Exploit other universally available applications for portfolio development and presentation for example:

While the Microsoft Office suite of tools is not designed for portfolio development, you and your students can use it to publish content in a variety of formats: Word document, PowerPoint presentation, Excel spreadsheet.

The Apple iLife suite of tools opens up an even greater variety of publishing options, including video editing and DVD compilation.

Use freely available tools such as Open Office and Google. Google Docs allows a user to select who has permission to view files. Google Sites provides an easy-to-use web format for publishing online.

15. Blogs: Blogs can be set up online at no charge (for example, using Wordpress, Blogger, Livejournal). The user has control over what is published,

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can publish web content easily, and can permit or prevent viewers commenting as they wish.

16.Critical Reflection:

Emphasise the importance of critical reflection, which requires students to make their own sense of the work they have done (Ross, 2009).17. Test Unique Knowledge and Experience:Require students to apply theoretical or other ideas to particular topics of which they have unique knowledge and experience.18. Reward Students for Quoting Resources: Reward students for including appropriately integrated and referenced sources from published literature.19. Include an oral component :

Include an oral component in the presentation of the portfolio - for example, a structured interview (Burch & Seggie, 2008).

20. Ensure fairness for Diverse Need Students:

Portfolio assessment may raise diversity issues. For example, students with disabilities, for whom learning and assessment adjustments have been made, may need to submit a modified form of portfolio, or to be supported in the preparation of their portfolio. Responding to individual circumstances is the best way of ensuring that all students have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their learning and achievements.

21. Ensure reliable:

Work strategically to make the assessment as reliable and invulnerable to plagiarism or inappropriate collaboration as possible. Involve students in negotiating the specific form of the portfolio and in devising the assessment criteria. Students will understand the task better, and be more aware of its relevance.

22. Ensure invulnerable to plagiarism:

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Work strategically to make the assessment invulnerable to plagiarism or inappropriate collaboration as possible. Involve students in negotiating the specific form of the portfolio and in devising the assessment criteria. Students will understand the task better, and be more aware of its relevance.

USES OF PORTFOLIOS:A major contribution of portfolios is that they allow students to document aspects of their learning that do not show up well in traditional assessments. Some examples follow.1. Community ServiceCommunity service is now required in many schools. Since this type of activity is not well suited to traditional assessments such as tests and quizzes, portfolio assessment provides an excellent vehicle for assessing the goals of a community service curriculum. Students can collect examples of service, select the best ones, reflect on their experiences, and determine future goals. The community, in addition to the school, may be an audience for this portfolio.2. Interdisciplinary UnitAn interdisciplinary unit of study that includes many different content areas is often difficult to evaluate using traditional methods of assessment. A portfolio can provide a way to include many types of work that indicate proficiency in various disciplines. Entries might show evidence of growth in a single content area or a combination of areas. The cumulative effect of work in many disciplines, all relating to a single theme or topic, can be illuminating to the student as well as to others. An interdisciplinary unit on the rainforest, for example, could culminate in a portfolio containing samples of student accomplishment in writing, math, social studies, and art.3. Subject Area PortfoliosStudent learning in some areas is greatly enhanced through the use of portfolios to document learning. Portfolios are well established in writing. But there are many other excellent applications of the technique. A foreign language portfolio could have cultural artifacts relating to religion, art, and

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celebrations, as well as evidence of written and spoken proficiency in the language. A social studies portfolio could have interviews, projects, models, and reports. And art portfolios are well recognized as the optimal means of capturing the best of student performance in the arts, with drawings, slides, and examples of music composed or performed.4. College AdmissionMany colleges now request samples of student work from candidates for admission. Portfolios of best works are well suited to this purpose. Anything may be included in such a portfolio, including written work, videos, or projects, and the contents may be customized to suit the purposes of the student and the institution. The goal of assembling a portfolio for college admission has the additional benefit of providing powerful motivation for students during their high school years.4. EmploymentSome employers request samples of work from prospective employees. As with portfolios prepared for college admissions, students can use employment portfolios to document those features of their preparation that they believe would best convince an employer of their expertise in areas such as basic skills, problem solving and adaptability, and collaborative work skills. This movement toward employment portfolios is being fueled, in large part, by the national school to work movement, through which employers are insisting on a better-educated workforce.5. Skill Area PortfoliosIt is often desirable to demonstrate that students have acquired skills in specific areas, such as public speaking, problem solving, or the use of technology. Because these are assessment portfolios, attention must be paid to establishing relevant criteria, setting acceptable standards of performance, and selecting pieces that meet those standards. Because these skills also cut across disciplines, educators must determine whether students may demonstrate the skills in any manner they choose, or whether specific tasks will be established for them.

5. Improve reliability

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Student assessment portfolios are inherently individual and complex. Because of this, you need to construct assessment criteria carefully so that assessors can apply them consistently.

6. Manage workload

Plan carefully so that workloads for both students and staff remain manageable.

7. Plagiarism and Portfolios:

Portfolios by their nature make plagiarism less likely than other assessment forms. But some students can still collaborate inappropriately and present other sources as their own. Make sure that assessment processes reflect the importance of academic integrity:

8. Evaluating programs:

Evaluating programs that have flexible or individualized goals or outcomes. For example, within a program with the general purpose of enhancing children's social skills, some individual children may need to become less aggressive while other shy children may need to become more assertive.

9. To Gear Child Needs:

Each child's portfolio assessment would be geared to his or her individual needs and goals.

10. Ensure involvement in decisions:

Allowing individuals and programs in the community (those being evaluated) to be involved in their own change and decisions to change.

11. To develop Insight:

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Providing information that gives meaningful insight into behavior and related change. Because portfolio assessment emphasizes the process of change or growth, at multiple points in time, it may be easier to see patterns.

12 As a Tool of Communication:

Providing a tool that can ensure communication and accountability to a range of audiences. Participants, their families, funders, and members of the community at large who may not have much sophistication in interpreting statistical data can often appreciate more visual or experiential "evidence" of success.

13. Allow assessment possibility for Complex and Important Aspects:

Allowing for the possibility of assessing some of the more complex and important aspects of many constructs (rather than just the ones that are easiest to measure).

Advantages of Portfolio Assessment 1. Portfolios can include evidence of specific skills and other items at one

particular time, performance and progress over time, under different conditions.

2. Use of a combination of testing instruments lends validity and reliability to the portfolio.

3. Encouraging self-directed learning.4. Enlarging the view of what is learned.5. Fostering learning about learning.6. Demonstrating progress toward identified out comes.7. Creating an intersection for instruction and assessment.8. Providing a way for students to value themselves as learning.9. Offering opportunities for peer-supported growth.10. Linking assessment to instruction means that you are sure that you are

measuring what you have taught. 11. Portfolios reveal any weaknesses in instructional practices. This is a way

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of providing for systemic validity. 12. Portfolio assessment is by nature incorporated fully into instruction: there

is no time lost on assessment. Assessment is a true learning experience, and not external to the learning process.

13. Student assessment portfolios promote positive student involvement. As students create their portfolios, they are actively involved in and reflecting on their own learning.

14. Increased metacognition has a positive impact on a student's self-confidence, facilitates student use of learning strategies, and increases the student's ability to assess and revise work.

15. Student motivation to continue studying and succeeding in language learning tends to grow in such an environment.

16. Portfolios offer the teacher and student an in-depth knowledge of the student as a learner. This means that the teacher can individualize instruction for the student.

17. Weak areas can be strengthened and areas of mastery built upon. Learners are involved in this process of tracking their learning and can take control of their learning.

18. Using assessment portfolios gives the teacher opportunities to involve parents in their children's language learning. Parental involvement is an important factor in educational success.

19. Promoting student self-evaluation, reflection, and critical thinking.

20. Measuring performance based on genuine samples of student work.

21. Providing flexibility in measuring how students accomplish their learning goals.

22. Enabling teachers and students to share the responsibility for setting learning goals and for evaluating progress toward meeting those goals.

23. Giving students the opportunity to have extensive input into the learning process.

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24. Facilitating cooperative learning activities, including peer evaluation and tutoring, cooperative learning groups, and peer conferencing.

25. Providing a process for structuring learning in stages.

26. The benefits of portfolio assessment are numerous. To begin with, they are a more individualized way of assessing students and have the advantage of demonstrating a wide range of work.

27. Portfolio assessment research substantiates the idea that students greatly benefit from assessments that go beyond simple letter grades and involve participants in the evaluation process.

28. By taking part in the development of their portfolios, analyzing the criteria for what constitutes good work, and learning to evaluate their own work through guided reflective practices, students grow and develop in their knowledge and understandings.

29. Portfolio assessment is part of a substantial body of research documenting the student benefits that emerge from an awareness of the processes and strategies involved in learning.

30. They may also be used in conjunction with other types of required assessments, such as standardized or norm referenced tests.

31. Often, portfolio contents are selected collaboratively, allowing students an opportunity to make decisions about their work and encouraging them to set goals regarding what has been accomplished and what needs further work, an important skill that may serve them well in life endeavors.

32. Portfolio assessment can promote a dialog between teacher and students about the individualized nature of the work.

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33. Too often, students may have papers or projects returned with a number or letter grade only and fail to understand what might be necessary for improvement.

34. Most importantly, portfolio assessments provide an authentic way of demonstrating skills and accomplishments. They encourage a real world experience that demands organization, decision making, and metacognition. Used in a thoughtful, carefully planned way, portfolio assessment can foster a positive outlook on learning and achievement.

35. Providing opportunities for students and teachers to discuss learning goals and the progress toward those goals in structured and unstructured conferences.

36. Enabling measurement of multiple dimensions of student progress by including different types of data and materials. (Venn, 2000, p. 538)

37. Allows the evaluators to see the student, group, or community as individual, each unique with its own characteristics, needs, and strengths.

38. Serves as a cross-section lens, providing a basis for future analysis and planning. By viewing the total pattern of the community or of individual participants, one can identify areas of strengths and weaknesses, and barriers to success.

39. Serves as a concrete vehicle for communication, providing ongoing communication or exchanges of information among those involved.

40. Promotes a shift in ownership; communities and participants can take an active role in examining where they have been and where they want to go.

41. Portfolio assessment offers the possibility of addressing shortcomings of traditional assessment. It offers the possibility of assessing the more complex and important aspects of an area or topic.

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42. Covers a broad scope of knowledge and information, from many different people who know the program or person in different contexts ( eg., participants, parents, teachers or staff, peers, or community leaders).

43. Keeping in mind the effect on student and staff workloads, you might want to encourage students to include evidence of their progressive learning, such as:

o earlier drafts of completed worko review feedback on these drafts, reflections on this feedback, ando evidence of how they have acted on feedback to advance their

knowledge and understanding.44. Encourage students to consider how they might recycle the content of

their portfolio for inclusion in a different type of portfolio, such as one that will support an application for employment. Explore with them how such a portfolio would serve its own distinctive purpose.

45. Define the portfolio structure as simply as possible, to allow students scope for creative interpretation. For example, minimum requirements could include:

o a contents page, ando explicit links between evidence of achievement (the artefacts) and claims

made about learning. These will help the reader find their way through the portfolio.

46. Give examples of the types and formats of evidence to include. Show the students the full diversity of ways in which the evidence can be interpreted and presented (see Baume, 2003).

47. Show how the assessors apply assessment criteria, using sample portfolio excerpts - for example, show how a student's own reflective commentary can contextualise a portfolio item, or provide a rationale for and a critique of the collection in relation to the course / program learning outcomes.

DISADVANTAGES:-1. Requiring extra time to plan an assessment system and conduct the

assessment.2. Gathering all of the necessary data and work portfolios bulky and difficult

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to manage.3. Developing a systematic and deliberate arrangement system is difficult,

but this step is necessary in order to make portfolios more than random collection of student work.

4. Scoring portfolios involves the extensive use of subjective evaluation procedures such as rating scales and professional judgment and this limits reliability.

5. Scheduling individual portfolio reference is difficulty and the length of each conference may interfere with other instructional activities.

6. May be seen as less reliable or fair than more quantitative evaluations such as test scores.

7. Can be very time consuming for teachers or program staff to organize and evaluate the contents, especially if portfolios have to be done in addition to traditional testing and grading.

8. Having to develop your own individualized criteria can be difficult or unfamiliar at first.

9. If goals and criteria are not clear, the portfolio can be just a miscellaneous collection of artifacts that don't show patterns of growth or achievement.

10. Like any other form of qualitative data, data from portfolio assessments can be difficult to analyze or aggregate to show change.

11. Evaluating programs that have very concrete, uniform goals or purposes. For example, it would be unnecessary to compile a portfolio of individualized "evidence" in a program whose sole purpose is full immunization of all children in a community by the age of five years. The required immunizations are the same, and the evidence is generally clear and straightforward.

12. Allowing you to rank participants or programs in a quantitative or standardized way (although evaluators or program staff may be able to make subjective judgements of relative merit).

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13. Comparing participants or programs to standardized norms. While portfolios can (and often do) include some standardized test scores along with other kinds of "evidence", this is not the main purpose of the portfolio.

SummaryPortfolios may take many different forms and may be used for many different purposes. They may be used to diagnose, document, or celebrate learning. Regardless of their primary purpose or audience, they have the power to transform the learning environment in the classrooms where they are used. The magic of portfolios lies not in the portfolios themselves, but in the process used in creating them and the school culture in which documented learning is valued.

-External resources

Australian e-Portfolio Project. Outcomes from an ALTC-funded project.Barrett, D. Creating ePortfolios with Web 2.0 Tools. Examples of e-portfolio creation using diverse applications.Baume, D. (2003). Supporting Portfolio Development. Continuing Professional Development Series No. 3, LTSN Generic Centre, UK Higher Education Academy.Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) (2008). Effective practice with ePortfolios: Supporting 21st century learning. InfoKit on ePortfolios. UNSW Student Portfolios Support Site. A website providing guidance and support to students in developing a portfolio for career and employment purposeshttps://emed.med.unsw.edu.au/https://launchpad.net/mahara/17.10https://www.pebblepad.co.uk/https://support.apple.com/downloads/ilife

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