is our student portfolio valued?
TRANSCRIPT
Nurse Education Today (2004) 24, 4–13
NurseEducationToday
intl.elsevierhealth.com/journals/nedt
Is our student portfolio valued?
Gina Dolana,*, Gavin Fairbairnb,1, Sue Harrisa,2
a School Of Care Sciences, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd CF37 1DL, UKb Education Deanery, Liverpool Hope University College, Hope Park, Liverpool L16 9JD, UK
Accepted 1 August 2003
Summary A student portfolio was introduced for pre-registration nursing students at the University of Glamorgan inOctober 1997. The impetus for doing so was the recognised need to address:
• the ‘theory–practice’ divide;• the need to provide nurse students with skills that will enable them to maintain the Professional Profile forregistration purposes (UKCC, 1994).
This article reports a research study evaluating the student portfolio. The main objectives of the evaluation were toinvestigate whether the portfolio addressed the perceived needs and to identify if students were experiencingpotential benefits by using the portfolio. Semi-structured interviews and focus groups were conducted with studentsand staff about their usage and perceptions of the portfolio. These findings were used to inform the design of thequestionnaire to investigate students’ experiences of using the portfolio, and their views about its usefulness. Thequestionnaires (n ¼ 219) confirmed the impression that students are not making frequent use of the portfolio. Studentsmainly discussed sections relating to academic aspects of the course. The summative assessment (essays) section wasdiscussed by the greatest proportion of students (51% n ¼ 108). More students (74%) felt that too little time was spenton the portfolio than any other aspect of the course. Although many students and staff appreciate the potential valueof using the portfolio, it is not a requirement of the course and so tends not to be treated as a high priority. Many of therecommendations from this study focussed on ways of integrating the portfolio into the course in order to increase itsuse. The results of this study have informed the development of an All Wales Student Portfolio introduced in April 2002(Welsh Assembly Government, 2002).
�c 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction
In an earlier article (Harris et al., 2001) we de-scribed the development and implementation of astudent portfolio for pre-registration nurses. Thatarticle mainly focused on the potential benefits ofusing portfolios, but also highlighted our intention
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +01443-483185; fax: +01443-483140.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (G. Dolan), [email protected] (G. Fairbairn), [email protected] (S. Harris).
1 Tel.: +44-0151-291-3948, +0151-291-3000; Mobile: 0773-487-8478.
2 Tel.: 01443-483097; fax: 01443-483095.
0260-6917/$ - see front matter �c 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserdoi:10.1016/j.nedt.2003.08.002
to evaluate such benefits. In this article we presentsome of the quantitative findings from an evalua-tive study we carried out.
Background
A student portfolio was introduced for pre-regis-tration nursing students at the University of Gla-morgan (Wales) in October 1997. The impetus fordoing so was the recognised need to address:
• the ‘theory–practice’ divide, in other words thegap that exists between what theory suggestsshould be done and what nurses do in reality.
ved.
5Is our student portfolio valued?
• the need to provide nurse students with skillsthat will enable them to maintain the Profes-sional Profile that they are required to keep onceregistered (UKCC, 1994).
Many attempts have been made to reduce oreradicate the theory–practice divide, but it stillprevails. A portfolio in which there is a reflectivecomponent seemed to be a way of providing atangible bridge between theory and practice bylinking the knowledge students gain through clini-cal experience, with the knowledge they gain inthe classroom. This may also help to reduce the‘reality shock’ commonly experienced by studentsduring clinical placements (Rafferty et al., 1996).
Including preparation for PREP (statutory pro-fessional development in the UK) within the pre-registration curriculum offers student nurses theopportunity to become familiar with portfolio/profile keeping and to develop useful reflectiveskills. This provides a link between a school pupil’sNational Record of Achievement and their UKCC(now Nursing and Midwifery Council, NMC) requiredProfessional Profile. It also supports the importantprinciple of life-long learning, which was so centralin the Dearing Report (NCIHE, 1997).
Once we acknowledged the potential usefulnessof portfolios in addressing the theory–practice di-vide and the need to prepare students for PREP, itbecame apparent that there were other potentialbenefits, including the fact that they could provide:
• a focus for discussion for the student and pre-ceptor and/or the student and personal tutor;
• a vehicle for the development of reflective skills;• a means of assessment;• an increase in student autonomy for their
learning.
The portfolioOur portfolio takes the form of a ring binder whichallows material to be added or removed easily. It isdesigned as an interactive, flexible manual inwhich the student is encouraged to reflect, carryout self-appraisals, devise and record what theydo, in relation to action plans, thus taking re-sponsibility for the direction of their own devel-opment. The portfolio comprises two parts, a mainportfolio and a live portfolio.
The main portfolio has four sections, which fo-cus on the student’s development as a person andon their development:
• of responsibility for monitoring their progress;• of study skills and the ability to assess these
skills;• of skills for preparing job applications.
The live portfolio was designed to be smaller andmore portable than the main portfolio, thus en-abling the student to interchange documents toallow easy access to relevant material - whether,for example, they are undertaking clinical place-ments, working at home, or engaged in study in theuniversity.
Evaluation of a student portfolio inpre-registration nurse education
In order to evaluate the extent to which studentsmight benefit from use of the portfolio that wedeveloped, we carried out a study which focusedon the use that they were making of it. The studyhad three specific objectives:
1. To investigate whether the portfolio for pre-registration nursing students is helpful in ad-dressing the divide between theory and practice.
2. To investigate whether the portfolio for pre-registration nursing students was successful inaddressing the need to prepare students forPREP.
3. To determine whether students were experienc-ing potential benefits by using the portfolio.
Methods
The project had a two-stage design. The first stage,which utilised interviews and focus groups withstudents and tutors and management staff, pro-duced a number of interesting findings. These wereused in developing a questionnaire for the secondstage, which aimed to investigate students’ expe-riences of using the portfolio, and their viewsabout its usefulness. Focus groups that are used forthis purpose – i.e. to generate contextual data toinform a survey, are often described as pre-pilotfocus groups (Bloor et al., 2001). For the purposesof this paper we intend to focus on the results fromthe questionnaire.
Recruitment
Students from four cohorts were invited to com-plete the questionnaire. These cohorts had beguntheir studies over a two year period:
• October 1997 (n ¼ 76)• April 1998 (n ¼ 80)• October 1998 (n ¼ 83)• April 1999 (n ¼ 87)
6 G. Dolan et al.
Total eligible population¼326.This population comprised all students issued
with a portfolio. Due to the large sample size in thestudy, an interview-administered questionnairewould have been expensive and time consumingand therefore was not considered to be a feasibleoption (McColl et al., 2001). A self-completionsurvey was therefore selected. Students were ap-proached at the beginning of lectures and asked tocomplete the questionnaire, which were thencollected on completion. Participation was on avoluntary basis, and assurances were given that allinformation shared would be confidential andanonymous; verbal or written consent was ob-tained.
Questionnaire design
The questionnaire was divided into nine sectionsand mainly comprised closed questions. A varietyof different question styles were adopted, de-pending on the information sought, including tickboxes, rating scales and a Likert type 7-point scale.In addition, one open-ended question was includedat the end, enabling students to provide generalcomments about the portfolio.
The questionnaire was piloted with 10 studentsfrom the October 1998 cohort, who were not in-cluded in the main study. Following minor amend-ments, a revised questionnaire was distributed tostudents from the four cohorts.
Analysis
The questionnaire was fairly lengthy and provided alarge source of quantitative data, which, with theexception of the open-ended question, was pre-coded to allow it to be easily entered into SPSS(Statistical Package for Social Sciences). Descrip-tive statistical analysis highlighted the most inter-esting results.
Response rates
Of the 326 eligible students, 247 (67%) attendedlectures during which the questionnaires weredistributed. Of these, 219 agreed to complete thequestionnaire, which provided a response rate of89%. The researcher was present while the studentscompleted the questionnaire which may have in-creased the response rate (Jackson & Furnham,2000). The response rate reveals that eleven per-cent (n ¼ 28) of the students who attended the
lectures chose not to complete the questionnaire,and so although the researcher was present, allstudents did not feel compelled to complete thequestionnaire.
Since participation was on a voluntary basisstudents who failed to complete the questionnairewere not questioned about their decision and wethus have no indication about why they made thischoice. Some may have been apprehensive aboutcommenting about the portfolio because they havea poor opinion of it, while others may have felttheir opinion was of no interest because they hadmade little use of the portfolio. In any case theresults we obtained probably provide the best casescenario of opinions about, and usage of, the stu-dent portfolio.
Results
The results of the questionnaire survey are dividedinto seven sections:
Discussing the main portfolio
One of the reasons for introducing the studentportfolio was so that it could be used as a focus fordiscussion, for example between students and tu-tors. Students were asked whether they had everdiscussed any of the sections of the portfolio withothers including tutors and preceptors. The port-folio is divided into 19 sections, which are listed inTable 1.
The majority of students had not discussed manyof the sections of the portfolio. Only six students(3%) had discussed all of the sections, while 18%(n ¼ 40) reported never having discussed any ofthem. Students mainly discussed sections relatingto academic aspects of the course. For example,about half reported that they had discussed sec-tions about essay planning and writing; placementsrecord; record of academic progress; referencingguidelines, and formative assessment. The sum-mative assessment (essays) section was discussedby the greatest proportion of students (51%n ¼ 108).
Only 16% or less of students had discussed anyof the sections focusing on careers, such as ca-reer planning and choices, CVs, job searching andPREP. We would have expected students whowere approaching the end of the course to haveused them however, there seems to be no rela-tionship between the stage of the course stu-dents have reached and whether they have usedthem.
Table 1 Sections of the student portfolio.
Section of the portfolioAcademic sections1. Summative assessment (essays)2. Essay planning and writing3. Placements record4. Record of academic progress5. Referencing guidelines6. Formative assessment (critical incidents)
Planning and preparation7. Record of absences8. Exam planning and techniques9. Approaches to study
Miscellaneous10. Summary of meetings11. Life experiences12. Expectations of nursing course
Career sections13. Stress management14. Career planning15. CV16. Self and group advocacy17. Educational opportunities (PREP)18. Factors affecting career choices19. Job searching
7Is our student portfolio valued?
Other uses of the main portfolio
The questionnaire investigated how frequentlystudents use the portfolio for purposes other thanas a basis for discussion. The two main additionaluses are reading the portfolio and writing in it. Only33% of students or less had used any of the sectionsin these ways during the last 3–4 months and nonewas used by even half. The most frequently used
Table 2 How useful do you feel the portfolio is?
Purpose of the portfolio Rating of importance (%)
No purposeat all (0)
1–20 21– 40 41–
Source of information 6 20 13 32Preparation for PREP 15 24 15 30Monitoring academic
progress12 15 10 30
A tool for personaldevelopment
11 21 11 32
A reflective tool 8 21 8 27Linking theory and
practice17 27 18 23
Resource for developingskills
14 27 20 23
A focus for discussion 21 28 15 23
section was one offering guidelines about refer-encing; 33% of students had used this section duringthe previous 3–4 months. We would have expectedall students to have used the summative assessmentsection which provided information about essays.However, they tend not to do so, perhaps becausethey are given additional information during thecourse about essays. Only 8% of students or less hadever used these sections that focus on careers, andonly 4% or less used these sections during the pre-vious 4 months. These sections appeared to be leastrelevant to most students.
These findings are mirrored by research intonurses’ use of professional portfolios by Richardson(1998) whose survey of 121 qualified nurses foundthat 32% had made no entries in their portfolio,which solely comprised of certificates, and that56% made irregular entries. Clearly the low usageof portfolios is a common problem.
Understanding of the main portfolio
Students were asked about how important they feltthe portfolio is for a number of different purposes.A list of eight possible purposes of the portfoliowere provided, based on the aims and potentialbenefits of using the portfolio (e.g. Preparation forPREP). Students were asked to give a rating foreach purpose on a scale from 0 (no purpose) to 100(major purpose). Table 2 shows the range of ratingsfor each purpose. The scale 0–100 has been sub-divided into seven categories (e.g. 1–20).
The portfolio as a focus for discussion receivedthe lowest ratings, with 21% of students givingthis a rating of 0, and 64% giving a rating of 40 orless. Each of the purposes received fairly low
60 61–80 81–99 Majorpurpose (100)
Total
21 6 2 100 (n ¼ 179)12 1 3 100 (n ¼ 150)17 11 5 100 (n ¼ 171)
16 7 3 100 (n ¼ 170)
22 10 5 100 (n ¼ 171)11 3 1 100 (n ¼ 161)
12 3 1 100 (n ¼ 160)
7 5 1 100 (n ¼ 155)
8 G. Dolan et al.
ratings with a maximum of 37% of students givingany purpose 61 or above (use as a reflective tool).A box for ‘other purpose’ was provided for stu-dents who wished to state an additional purposeof the portfolio. Only 13 students (6%) put arating in the ‘other purpose’ box, and of these,five rated every purpose as 0, and did not suggestan ‘other’ purpose. Far more people viewed theportfolio as unimportant than viewed it vital foreach of the intended aims. Interviews indicatedthat although students felt use of the portfoliocould be valuable, they perceived it as a lowpriority.
All of the purposes have a median value of 50or lower, and the portfolio as a purpose for dis-cussion has a very low median of 25. This lowrating reinforces the impression that students arenot discussing the portfolio, thus increasing ourlevel of confidence in the responses to the firstquestion about the extent to which students hadactually discussed the portfolio with tutors andothers.
The low ratings are disappointing, as one of themain reasons for introducing the portfolio was inorder that it could be used as a focus for discussion(Harris et al., 2001). Earlier survey work about theviews of student nurses’ use of portfolios had indi-cated that the portfolio was valued as a discussiontool as it provided a structure for discussions(Gerrish, 1993; Mitchell, 1994). However, both ofthese studies were based on assessment portfolios,which were likely to have had more meaning for thestudents because they had a relationship to grades.
Allocation of time
Students were asked about their opinion of theamount of time spent on various aspects of thecourse, including the student portfolio. Chart 1
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Using the student portfolio
Reading research
Practical skills sessions
Presentations
Personal tutorials
PTG's
Exams
Lectures
Assignments
Clinical placements
Percentage of students
Too little time About right time Too much time
Chart 1 What do you think about amount of time spenton different aspects of the course?
shows the responses, which have been divided intotoo little time, about the right amount of time andtoo much time.
The majority of students felt that most aspectsof the course had too little time allocated toor spent on them. However, just under a third(32%) felt that clinical placements and assign-ments had too little time allocated to them; thisis double the percentage of students who gavethe highest rating for too much time, which wasfor assignments.
More students (74%) felt that too little timewas spent on the portfolio than any other aspectof the course. This may be as a result of thetime-consuming nature of portfolio development,highlighted in the literature. Gerrish (1993)looked at students’ perceptions of portfolios andfound that some had difficulties in completing aportfolio because doing so took so much time.Our portfolio is not assessed and so studentsmay neglect it because they consider their workon it to be less important than assignments andexams.
Skill development
One of the aims of introducing the portfolio wasthe intention that by using it students may developa variety of skills. They were asked a generalquestion about how confident they were at per-forming 9 different skills:
• Self and group advocacy• Self assessment• Reflection• Job application• Exams• Assertiveness skills• Stress management• Referencing• Essay planning
Responses were divided into three estimates ofconfidence taken from a seven-point scale, cate-gorised as low (1–2), average (3–5) and high(6–7). The majority of students expressed an av-erage amount of confidence in their developmentof each of the skills. However, in all cases theamount of low confidence outweighed the amountof high confidence. Each of these skills is an im-portant part of the nursing course and it is there-fore worrying that the amount of high confidence isso rare. The greatest number of students (justunder a third) were least confident at job appli-cations and stress management. Most students didnot have high confidence in their ability to perform
9Is our student portfolio valued?
any of the skills. The skill in relation to which thehighest number of students had high confidencewas the ability to reference; however this onlyrepresented 13% of students.
We would have expected to find that students inthe later stages of the course had higher levels ofconfidence in most of the skills. However, therewas no relationship between the expressed levelsof confidence at these skills and the stage of thecourse.
Factors influencing skills development
Students were asked about which factors have in-fluenced their development of each skill.
Experiences before the courseAbout one-fifth of students felt that their experi-ences before the course had a major influence ontheir assertiveness skills and on their ability tocomplete job applications. Self-assessment, re-flection, advocacy and referencing were the skillson which experiences before the course werethought to have had the least influence. This is apositive result, as at least 76% of students were ofaverage confidence or higher in these skills andwere therefore likely to have developed them as aresult of the course.
Forty-four percent of students felt they had notdeveloped skills in writing job applications. How-ever, it is positive that the majority (61%) of thosewho thought they had developed this skill werestudents from the October 97 and April 98 cohortswho were approaching the end of the course. Theseare the students for whom this skill is of most im-mediate importance.
Influences from using the student portfolioStudents seem to believe that using the portfoliohas had little influence on their development ofskills. At least two thirds or more feel that theportfolio only had a minor influence upon theirdevelopment of skills (with the exception of ref-erencing and reflection). Nearly 20% of studentsfelt the portfolio had a major influence upon theirability to reference. Overall this is disappointing,but as current usage of the portfolio is limited it isunlikely that it would have a significant impact onskill development.
Other course influencesInfluences from aspects of the course other thanthe portfolio had the greatest overall perceivedimpact on the development of skills. In particular,one third of students felt that other aspects of the
course had a major influence on their referencingskills. Other aspects of the course had the leastinfluence on job application and stress manage-ment skills.
Influences outside the courseFor the majority of skills, experiences outside thecourse were perceived by students to have had aminor influence on their skill development. Asser-tiveness and stress management skills have beenmost influenced by aspects outside the course, andreferencing skills have been least influenced.
Statements about the portfolio
Although most of the questionnaire focuses onstudents’ usage of the portfolio, we were also in-terested in their opinions of it. Students wereasked to indicate whether they agreed or disagreedwith statements about the portfolio by selectingone category from a 7-point scale which rangedfrom strongly agree to strongly disagree. The re-sponses were collapsed from seven categoriesdown to three categories of ‘agree’, ‘undecided’and ‘disagree’.
Linking theory and practiceOnly 27% of students agreed that the portfolio hadhelped them to understand clinical practice. This isperhaps to be expected, when we consider thatsome of the sections which focused on clinicalpractice were given such limited use. Just over halfof the students felt that the portfolio had nothelped them to link theory and practice. However,since 63% had never used the portfolio as a result ofclinical experiences this is hardly surprising.
Preparation for PREPThe majority of students (52%) agreed that themain portfolio would be useful for professionalprofiling in the future. They thus appeared to rec-ognise the potential use of the student portfolio ingetting ready for PREP. However, most had madelimited use of it for this purpose and less than half(44%) felt that the portfolio had adequately pre-pared them for future profiling.
The portfolio as a means of assessmentFifty one percent of students were positive abouthaving an assessed portfolio. Slightly more (54%)felt that they would not include personal infor-mation if the entire portfolio was assessed. Thesefindings are consistent with other research. Forexample, both Gerrish (1993) and Mitchell (1994)
10 G. Dolan et al.
highlighted the experiences of students who feltconstrained in using a portfolio, because they didnot feel it was appropriate to include personalexperiences in an assessment portfolio.
Increasing student autonomy for their learningThe portfolio does not seem to facilitate an in-crease in students’ autonomy in relation to theirlearning. Most students (53%) felt the portfolio hadnot helped them to make decisions about the waysin which they learn, while (39%) felt that theportfolio does not encourage independent learn-ing. This is disappointing, as evidence from otherresearchers suggests that many students benefitfrom the opportunity to become more involved inchoosing the ways in which they learn (see, forexample, Gerrish, 1993).
Students’ overall opinions of the portfolioA list of nine statements focusing on the aims andpotential benefits of using the portfolio were de-vised. Students were asked to indicate whetherthey agreed or disagreed with each statement byselecting one category from a 7-point scale whichranged from strongly agree to strongly disagree.The statements focus on the following four aims ofthe portfolio to:
• link theory and practice;• prepare for PREP;• provide a means of assessment;• increase student autonomy for their learning.
Each statement was allocated a possible score of1–7 points depending on the category selected onthe 7-point scale. For positive statements, thecategory of ‘strongly agree’ was allocated sevenpoints, and for negative statements ‘stronglyagree’ was allocated one point. Students were gi-ven a score between 9 (negative) and 63 (positive)to indicate their overall opinion of the portfolio.The rating scores were fairly evenly distributedbetween the range of scores from 9 to 60. Just overhalf (52%) of the students generated a score of themedian (33) or above, showing that a small majorityof students had a positive opinion of the portfolio.
Discussion
This study aimed to investigate whether the use ofa portfolio with pre-registration student nurses wassuccessful in addressing the theory/practice di-vide, and in getting students ready for PREP, and todetermine whether students were experiencingpotential benefits by using the portfolio. This
section will summarise the main findings, whichaddress these objectives.
Use of the student portfolio
The results clearly show that the majority of pre-registration nursing students at this University arenot using many of the sections of the portfolio.Each of the sections is used by less than half of thestudents. Students are not required to use theportfolio in order to pass the course and thereforeit is perceived as a low priority by both studentsand staff. In order to increase use of the portfolio,it will probably have to be further integrated intothe course. Since some areas addressed also appearin other modules of the course, one way ofachieving this would be to use the portfolio as aresource for teaching them. An example of this iswork on assertiveness in the skills module. Anotherway forward might be to make more use of theportfolio as an assessed part of the course, makingit a requirement that students must pass in order toachieve an overall pass. This in turn may encouragestudents to use the aspects of the portfolio whichare not assessed. The benefits of doing so would, ofcourse, have to be balanced against the possibilitythat using the portfolio in assessment might makestudents shy of using it as a way of recording andworking with personal issues relating to their pro-fessional development, which is potentially one ofthe principle benefits of a portfolio of this kind.However, this could be avoided by arranging thatwhen the portfolio is assessed students can ar-range, if they wish, for this element to be removedor sealed during assessment.
The portfolio as a focus for discussion
The majority of students gave a less than averagerating for the importance of the portfolio as a focusfor discussion and they rarely discuss any of itssections with tutors, preceptors or others. Perhapsthe reason for this is that the portfolio is notsummatively assessed. Where they do discuss it,they tend to do so with tutors on a less thanmonthly basis.
The portfolio could be an important part of thecourse and yet many students and staff seem un-aware of its contents. In spite of the fact that manystudents do not use the portfolio as a focus fordiscussion, a large majority feel that too little timehas been allocated to the portfolio during thecourse. This may indicate that students appreciatethe potential value of using and discussing the
11Is our student portfolio valued?
portfolio, but have little time to do so. It is likelythat students prefer to spend time discussing as-sessed aspects of the course with their tutors ra-ther than using the portfolio. Evidence from arecent survey of practice nurses (Rae & Cook, 2000)revealed that using the portfolio as a focus fordiscussion was a valuable exercise, particularlyduring one-to-one sessions. These students weredeveloping portfolios for assessment, which clearlyhad an impact on their perceived value. It maytherefore be a useful to establish structured ses-sions for our students during the course, whichfocus on discussing the portfolio.
One of the potential benefits of using the port-folio is that doing so can help students to developreflective skills. Students are encouraged to reflecton critical incidents for their formative assess-ments. Although use of the portfolio is limited,using it to develop reflective skills was given thehighest rating of all of the aims of the portfolio.This section was the second most widely used, andone of the most discussed sections of the portfolio.Some students may therefore have developed theirreflective skills as a result of using the portfolio.
Most students have an average degree of confi-dence or higher in their ability to reflect. However,even though skill in reflective practice was one ofthe skills most influenced by the portfolio, only 9%of students felt that it had a major influence ontheir reflective skills.
The portfolio as a reflective tool
Most students have an average degree of confidenceor higher in their ability to reflect, and one of thepotential benefits of using the portfolio is that doingso can help students to develop reflective skills.Indeed, although use of the portfolio is limited,students rated its potential to help them to developreflective skills most highly among all of our aims forthe portfolio, and this section was the second mostwidely used and discussed sections. This might sug-gest that the portfolio could have a major impact onstudents’ development of reflective skills. However,only 9% felt that it did have such an impact.
The critical incident section is currently a for-mative assessment and is not a course requirementfor students. In order to maximise the extent towhich their reflective skills can be developed as theresult of writing reflectively about such incidentsthen the possibility of summatively assessing thiswork incidents must be considered. This would in-volve reassuring students that what was underconsideration was not their performance in theincidents about which they wrote, but their ability
to reflect on and plan for changes in their perfor-mance, in order that reflection that takes placeand is recorded, is meaningful and worthwhile.
Most students reported average confidence inthe most of skills listed in the questionnaire. Theportfolio has the potential to address all of theseskills. However students perceived other courseinfluences to be the main influence in their devel-opment of these skill, perhaps because they areunaware of the potential that the portfolio has inthis area.
Preparation for PREP
The PREP section of the portfolio provides specificinformation about PREP, and along with otheraspects of the portfolio it was expected that thiswould help to prepare students for PREP. How-ever, less than half felt that the portfolio hadadequately prepared them for PREP. This is notsurprising, since only 13% had ever used this sec-tion of the portfolio and 5% or less had discussedPREP with others. Students should be aware thatthat upon registration they are required to main-tain a professional portfolio for re-registrationpurposes, but these results might suggest thatthey do not fully understand the implications ofPREP, especially when they are at an early stageof the course.
An increase in students’ autonomy for theirlearning
It is difficult to measure whether students felt anincrease in autonomy for their learning. Only 23%felt that using the portfolio helped them to makedecisions about the ways in which they learn.However, as use of the portfolio is so limited it isunlikely that many students would have benefitedin this way.
The theory–practice divide
Though one of the main reasons for introducingthe portfolio was to facilitate students in linkingwhat they have learnt in the classroom to theirclinical practice, the most widely used elementsare academic sections (e.g. referencing) whichmay not be relevant to clinical practice. Use ofthe portfolio to link theory and practice receivedthe second lowest rating as one of the perceivedpurposes of the portfolio. A third or less of thestudents felt that the portfolio has not helped
12 G. Dolan et al.
them to link theory and practice, and 63% hadnever consulted the portfolio as a result of clinicalexperiences. It appeared that many students didnot perceive that using the portfolio could helpthem to link theory and practice in a variety ofways; for example, they did not seem to realisethat reflection on practice might impinge on thetheory–practice gap.
Although clinical preceptors may be in a goodposition to encourage students to link theory andpractice, they are unfamiliar with the portfolio. Itis therefore not surprising that since students viewthe portfolio as an academic or theoretical aspectof the course, they do not feel the portfolio hashelped them to link theory and practice.
The portfolio as a means of assessment
A portfolio which is entirely assessed might dis-courage some students from using it as a source ofpersonal development. However, over half of thestudents would welcome an assessed portfolio toreplace some of the current assessments, though54% would not wish to include personal informationin an assessed portfolio. As we have already said,however, it would be possible to seal certaincomponents while others are assessed.
Conclusions
The main conclusion from this project is that mostUniversity of Glamorgan nursing students are notusing the portfolio. Many of the students and staffappreciate the potential value of using the port-folio, but as use of the portfolio is not a require-ment of the course it tends not to be treated as ahigh priority. Many of the recommendations fromthis study focussed on ways of integrating theportfolio into the course in order to increase itsuse. The results of this study have informed thedevelopment of an All Wales Student Portfolio(Welsh Assembly Government, 2002).
The further evolution of the studentportfolio
Since the evaluation of our portfolio, and as a re-sult of an All Wales Initiative, the Student Portfoliowas introduced in March 2002 to the pre-registra-tion students in our School, and throughout Wales.This new portfolio was developed as one of anumber of curriculum developments that werenecessary to meet the Fitness for Practice recom-
mendations of the Peach Report (UKCC, 1999). Theportfolio was developed by the portfolio Sub-Groupof the Welsh Assembly All Wales Project Team,which comprised clinicians and educationalistsfrom all the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)and NHS Trusts throughout Wales.
The aims of this new student portfolio are to:
• recognise and assist in the student’s develop-ment and potential throughout the programme;
• become an individualised portfolio, containingevidence of the students have progressed inboth theoretical and practice elements of theprogramme;
• provide a framework for students to accumu-late evidence of the their personal and profes-sional development within the professionalcontext of nursing;
• prepare the student for the NMC requirement ofmaintaining a professional profile;
• meet the Quality Assurance Agency require-ments that all HE students complete a StudentProgress File (QAA, 2001);
• be a means of assessment;• strengthen the linkbetween theory andpractice;• encourage students to take responsibility for
their learning.(Welsh Assembly Government, 2002).
The Portfolio sub-group took on board feedbackfrom all the HEIs, particularly any previous expe-riences with portfolios. The findings from theevaluation of our portfolio at the University ofGlamorgan was helpful in supporting many of theabove aims, particularly the aim that the portfolioshould constitute part of the overall assessmentframework.
Each unit of assessment of the Diploma or De-gree programme is made up of 50% theory and 50%practice. The new student portfolio constitutes20% of each unit and, therefore, 20% of the totalsummative assessment of each programme. Fromthe evaluation of our portfolio, the new portfolioas a form of assessment should influence the valuethat students place on the portfolio, and conse-quently the use that is made of it.
The development of reflective skills, that wefeel is so important, will be encouraged in the newstudent portfolio by the ongoing nature of the as-sessment process: a reflective account needs to besubmitted every term (three terms per year). Eachreflective account, as well as linking theory learnedwith practice experience, must directly link to thestudent’s individual self assessment and actionplans.
The new student portfolio has yet to be evalu-ated, however, initial feedback from the March
13Is our student portfolio valued?
2002 group is positive with nearly all studentssuccessfully utilising a model of reflection in theirfirst reflective account.
Acknowledgements
Firstly we would like to thank the School of CareSciences for commissioning this important project.We would also like to thank the project boardmembers for their continued support, in particularLorraine Moran for her time and commitment tothe project and Professor Laurie Moseley for hisguidance in designing the questionnaire. We wouldlike to thank all the students, and tutors andmanagement staff who participated, for theirvaluable contributions to the project.
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