Lynevell P.

Nonato BSED Filipino 3B

Purposes of Portfolio Assessment
Why should we resort to portfolio assessment methods?
First, Portfolio Assessment matches Assessment to teaching. The final outputs to be assessed are
products of classroom discussion and classroom work and are not simple diversions from the
tedium of classroom activities. Unlike test items which mainly measure cognitive skills, portfolio
assessment can assess other components of the students form abilities on classroom discussions.
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. In cognitive testing, the objective 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 therefor assured
that the goals are achieved.
Third, Portfolio Assessment given a profile of learners’ abilities in terms of depth, breadth, and
growth. In terms of depth, portfolio assessment enables to students to demonstrate quality work
done without pressure and constraints of time present in traditional testing through the help
resources such as reference materials and the help of other students. In term of breadth,
portfolio assessment can show a wide range of skills to be demonstrated in the final output.
Finally, in terms of growth, portfolio assessment shows efforts to improve and develop and
clearly demonstrates students’ progress over time.
Fourth, 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 graphic outputs of
students in a variety of ways which demonstrate skills develop by the students.
Fifth, Portfolio Assessment develops awareness of students, own learning. Students have to
reflect on their own progress and the quality of their work in relation to known goals. This is
achieve at each stage of the progress since the students continually refer to the set of goals and
objective set at the beginning.
Sixth, Portfolio Assessment caters to individuals in a heterogeneous class. Such as 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.
Seventh, portfolio assessment develops social skill, 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 necessary have to interact and collaborate to complete the tasks.
Eighth, Portfolio Assessment develops independent and active learners. Students must select and
justify portfolio choices; monitor progress and set learning goals. Traditional testing cannot
achieve this educational objective n matter how skilfully the test are constructed.
Ninth, Portfolio Assessment can improve motivation for learning and this achievement. When
students are empowered to prove their own achievement and worth they become highly
motivated to pursue the learning task, it is when they lose this feeling of empowerment that they
feel inadequate and become less motivated as in traditional classroom testing.
Tenth, Portfolio assessment provides opportunity for students-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 testing.