PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT

METHODS
PORTFOLIO
• A purposeful collection of student
work that exhibits the student’s
efforts, progress and achievements in
one or more areas.
PORTFOLIO
• Must include student participation in
selecting contents, the criteria for
selection, the criteria for judging
merit and evidence of student self-
reflection. (Paulson, Paulson, Meyer
1991)
PORTFOLIO
• Continually grows and accumulates
as the student progresses in a
particular learning task. Each
addition to the portfolio is carefully
planned and selected by the student
and demonstrates his progress.
PORTFOLIO
• Students become active participants
in the learning process and its
assessment. The sense of
“ownership” on the part of the
students that goes with portfolio
assessment makes it quite attractive
to learners, in general.
PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT METHODS
• One of the several authentic and non-
traditional assessment techniques in
education.
• Became popular in the early to late
1980’s in response to the growing clamor
for more “reasonable” and authentic
means of assessing students growth and
development in school.
1. FEATURES AND PRINCIPLES
a)A portfolio is a form of assessment that
students do together with their teachers.
The teachers guide the students in
planning, execution and evaluation of
the contents of the portfolio. Together,
they formulate the overall objective for
constructing the porfolio.
1. FEATURES AND PRINCIPLES
b.) 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.
1. FEATURES AND PRINCIPLES
c.) A portfolio provide samples of the
students’ work which show growth over
time. By reflecting their own learning (self-
assessment), students begin to identify the
strengths and weaknesses in their work.
These weaknesses then become
improvement goals.
1. FEATURES AND PRINCIPLES
d.) The criteria for selecting and assessing
the portfolio contents must be clear to the
teacher and the students at the outset of
the process. At each step of the process,
the students need to prefer to the agreed
set of criteria for the construction and
development of the porfolio.
2. PURPOSES OF PORTFOLIO
ASSESSMENT
Fist, portfolio assessment matches
assessment to teaching.
Second, portfolio assessment has clear goals.
In fact, they are decided on at the beginning
of instruction and are clear to teacher and
students alike.
Third, portfolio assessment gives a profile of
learners’ abilities in terms of depth, breadth
and growth.
2. PURPOSES OF PORTFOLIO
ASSESSMENT
Fourth, portfolio assessment is as tool for
assessing a variety of skills not normally
testable in a single setting for traditional
testing.
Fifth, portfolio assessment develops
awareness of students’ own learning.
Sixth, portfolio assessment caters to
individuals in a heterogeneous class.
2. PURPOSES OF PORTFOLIO
ASSESSMENT
Seventh, portfolio assessment develops
social skills. Students interact with each
other students in the development of their
own porfolios.
Eighth, portfolio assessment develops
independent active learners.
2. PURPOSES OF PORTFOLIO
ASSESSMENT
Ninth, portfolio assessment can improve
motivation for learning and thus
achievement.
Tenth, portfolio assessment provides
opportunity for student-teacher dialogue.
3. 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). The cover letter
summarizes the evidence of a student’s
learning and progress.
3. ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF THE
PORTFOLIO
2. Table of Contents with numbered pages
3. Entries – both core (items students have
to include) and optimal (items of student’s
choice). The core elements will be
required for each student and will provide
a common base from which to make
decisions on assessment. The optimal
items will allow the folder to represent
3. ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF THE
PORTFOLIO
uniqueness of each student. Students
can choose to include “best” pieces of
work, but also a piece of work which give
reasons why.
4. Dates on all entries, to facilitate proof of
growth over time.
5. Drafts of aural/oral and written products
and revised versions
3. ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF THE
PORTFOLIO
6. Reflections can appear at different
stages in learning process (for formative
and summative purposes) and at lower
levels can be written in the mother lounge
or by students who find it difficult to
express themselves in English.
3. ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF THE
PORTFOLIO
For each items – a brief rationale for
choosing the item should be included. This
can relate to students’ performance, to
their feelings regarding their progress
and/or themselves as learners.
3. ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF THE
PORTFOLIO
Students can choose to reflect upon some
or all of the following:
• What did I learn from it?
• What did I do well?
• Why (based on the agreed teacher-
student assessment criteria) did I choose
this item?
3. ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF THE
PORTFOLIO
• What do I want to improve in the item.
• How do I feel about my performance?
• What were the problem areas?
4. STAGES IN IMPLEMENTING
PORTFOLIO ASSSESSMENT
Stage 1: Identifying teaching goals to
assess through portfolio
Stage 2: Introducing the idea of portfolio
assessment to your class
Stage 3: Specification of portfolio content
Stage 4: Giving clear and detailed
guidelines for portfolio presentation
4. STAGES IN IMPLEMENTING
PORTFOLIO ASSSESSMENT

Stage 5: Informing key school officials,

parents and other stakeholders.
Stage 6: Development of the portfolio
5. TYPES OF PORTFOLIO
Different types of portfolios exist for
assessing student performance. Essentially,
three types of portfolios are cited in the
literature with different variants for each:
5. TYPES OF PORTFOLIO
A. Documentation portfolio- this approach
involves a collection of work over time
showing growth and improvement
reflecting students’ learning of identified
outcomes. It is called “Growth Portfolio” in
the literature. It can include everything
from a brainstorming activities to drafts to
finished products.
5. TYPES OF PORTFOLIO
B. Process Portfolio- in contrast
demonstrates all facets or phases of the
learning process. This portfolios contain an
extensive number of journals, think logs
and other related forms of metacognitive
processing.
5. TYPES OF PORTFOLIO
C. Showcase Portfolio - only shows the
best of the students’ outputs and
products. This type of portfolio is best used
for summative evaluation of students’
mastery of key curriculum outcomes.it
should include students’ very best work,
determined through a combination of
student and teacher selection. Only
completed work should be included.
6. ASSESSING AND EVALUATING THE
PORTFOLIOS
“Portfolios offer a way of assessing student
learning that is different from the traditional
methods. Portfolio assessment provides the
teacher and students an opportunity to
observes students in a broader context: taking
risks, developing creative solutions, and
learning to make judgments about their own
performances.”
Paulson and Meyer 1991
6. ASSESSING AND EVALUATING THE
PORTFOLIOS
Detailed rating criteria may be involved
to evaluate the finished portfolio
presented by students. In general, they
should include the following:
• Thoughtfulness
• Growth and development in
relationship to key curriculum
expectancies and indicators
6. ASSESSING AND EVALUATING THE
PORTFOLIOS
• Understanding and application of key
processes
• Completeness, correctness, and
appropriateness of products and
processes presented in the portfolio
• Diversity of entries
6. ASSESSING AND EVALUATING THE
PORTFOLIOS
In evolving the evaluation criteria, teachers
and students must work together and agree
on the criteria to be applied to the portfolio.
Such evaluative criteria need to be set and
agreed prior to the development of the
portfolio. The criteria themselves serves as a
guide for the students when they actually
prepare the portfolio requirement. Students
and teacher work collaboratively to
determine grades or scores to be assigned.
6. ASSESSING AND EVALUATING THE
PORTFOLIOS
Each portfolio entry needs to be assessed
with reference to its specific goal(s). since the
goals and weighting of the various portfolio
components have been clearly fixed in
advance, assessing the portfolios is not
difficult. Self and peer-assessment can be
used to, as a tool for formative evaluation,
with the students having to justify their grade
with reference to the goals and to specific
pages in the portfolio.
6. ASSESSING AND EVALUATING THE
PORTFOLIOS
After all the efforts that your students have
invested in their portfolios, it is
recommended that the teacher provide
feedback on the portfolios that is more
than a grade. One possibility is to write a
letter about the portfolio or to prepare
certificates which comment on the
portfolio strengths and suggest future
goals.
6. ASSESSING AND EVALUATING THE
PORTFOLIOS
Finally the teacher needs to give guiding
feedback. The finished portfolio may be
due only at the end of the semester, but it
is a good idea to set regular dates at which
time several portfolio-ready items will be
handled in, so that students know whether
they are on the right track.
6. ASSESSING AND EVALUATING THE
PORTFOLIOS
Alternatively, you can have a portfolio
project on a single unit of material so that
both teacher and students will acquire
experience in this kind of assessment over
a shorter period of time.
7. STUDENT-TEACHER
The main philosophy embedded in
portfolio assessment is “shared and active
assessment”. To this end, the teacher
should have short individual meetings with
each student, in which progress is
discussed and goals are set for a future
meeting.
7. STUDENT-TEACHER
Throughout the process, the student and
the teacher keep carefully documentation
of the meetings noting the significant
agreements and findings in each individual
session.
7. STUDENT-TEACHER
Throughout the process, the student and
the teacher keep carefully documentation
of the meetings noting the significant
agreements and findings in each individual
session.
7. STUDENT-TEACHER
Finally student-teacher conferences can also
be used for summative evaluation purposes
when the student presents his final portfolio
product and where final grades are
determined together with the teacher. Even at
this stage of the process, students can
negotiate for the appropriate grade to be
given using as evidence the minutes of the
regular student-teacher conferences.
7. STUDENT-TEACHER
It is for this reason that notes from these
conferences have be included in the
portfolio as they contain joint decisions
about the individual’s strengths and
weaknesses. These conferences can be
prepared for in pairs, when students
practice presenting their portfolio.