Professional Learning

Portfolio Construction

Dr Chris Reading
Professional Development Lecture Series
University of New England
1 March 2006
 Overview

• stages in portfolio creation

• portfolio structure
• sample portfolio entries
 Portfolio stages
• portfolio planning - purpose, audience, process
• working portfolio - standards, evidence, tools
interject personality
• reflective portfolio - for standards & artifacts
portfolio turns professional
• connected portfolio - organize, link
• presentation portfolio - record, present, evaluate
 Stage 1
portfolio planning
• what is the purpose of the portfolio?
• who will be the audience for the portfolio?
• what process will you use to create the
portfolio?

You know you are ready for next stage when you have:
• identified purpose and primary audience
• identified standards/goals as organizers
• selected development software (HTML or PDF)
 Stage 2
working portfolio
• identify content of standards and evidence
needed
• select software tools
• identify storage and presenting medium
• gather multimedia materials
• INTERJECT PERSONALITY

You know you are ready for next stage when you have:
• collected artefacts
• interjected personality into the artefacts
 Types of evidence
• artefacts – academic work
• reproductions – student work
• attestations – academic progress, volunteer
work
• productions – documents prepared JUST for
portfolio e.g. goal statements, reflections,
captions (on EACH piece of evidence)
 Stage 3
reflective portfolio

• write a reflective statement for each standard

• select artefacts that represent the goals
• write reflective statements for each artefact
• set learning goals for the future

Campbell, Melenyzer, Nettles, Wyman (2000)

Portfolio and Performance Assessment in Teacher Education
 Reflection guide

• What? What is important to share about this

artefact?

• So What? Why has this artefact been chosen

for inclusion?

• Now What? What are the implications for

future teaching experience?
 Portfolio turns
professional
You know you are ready for next stage when you have:

• selected relevant artefacts

• written reflective statements for the artefacts
• AND identified learning goals for the future
 Stage 4
connected portfolio

• organize artefacts (using hyperlinks)

• identify patterns through the linking
• final review and editing
• share with appropriate audience
• use to make learning or professional
development decisions
 Navigation tips

these are particularly important for electronic portfolios

but also relevant for paper-based

• ensure structure allows ease of navigation

• navigation should allow use choice
• there should be a seamless integration of
standards, artefacts & reflections
 Linking process ->
learning

You know you are ready for next stage when you have:

• inserted all artefacts and relevant reflections

• (hyper)linked the document to allow navigation

• sought peer review of the portfolio ready for

‘publishing’
 Stage 5
presentation portfolio
• record the portfolio on appropriate medium

• present to an audience (real or virtual)

• evaluate the effectiveness in light of portfolio

purpose
 Portfolio structure

Now how will the portfolio be arranged:

• around teaching standards

• NSW - Professional Teaching Standards

• other standards
 NSW Professional
Teaching Standards as a
structure
Overview
 Demonstration of
competence - based on
national standards
 Demonstration of
competence - based on
state standards
 Articulate what each
element means - e.g. 1
 Articulate what each
element means - e.g. 2
 Reflection guide -
revisited

• What? What is important to share about this

artefact?

• So What? Why has this artefact been chosen for

inclusion?

• Now What? What are the implications for future

teaching experience?
 What?
information reports
One aspect of the program I wrote for my third year practicum,
involved introducing my year six class to information reports.
The students had not done any previous work with information
reports, and I had never taught this text type either. As a result,
I foolishly endeavoured to introduce the structure, and all the
grammatical features of an information report in just one lesson.
The learning goals which I set for this lesson were entirely
inappropriate, as I intended to teach the students too many
new ideas in one lesson. As a result, the students had totally lost
concentration by the end of the lesson and any hope of
meaningful learning was lost.
 So what? information
reports
I had read in the text, Educational Psychology, about the
importance of ‘setting challenging but realistic goals for
students’ (McInerney & McInerney, 2002 : 210), because
achievement of these goals promotes students’ self efficacy
and motivation for learning. The teaching experience
recounted here may not have been particularly successful, but
it was very powerful in ensuring that I actually realised
the importance of identifying clear and appropriate
learning goals for my lessons, and that my ability to set
appropriate learning goals was one aspect of my teaching
practice that required improvement.
 Now what? information
reports
I still value my tendency to over plan for each lesson so that I do not
run short of valuable learning experiences for my students. However,
since this incident, I have made a conscious effort when preparing
lessons to ensure that I acquire a more thorough understanding of
the level my students are working at, but more importantly I have
taken the time to break any new concept I am teaching into
simplified steps, order these steps in a logical sequence, and present
this sequence at a rate which young minds can realistically manage.
I have had significantly more success with lessons since adopting this
approach to planning. Consequently, I will continue using this
approach in my future teaching to ensure that the lessons I plan, and
the inherent learning goals are appropriate to the students I am
teaching and will provide the most meaningful learning experiences
possible.
 Possible artifacts
(evidence)

• academic work
• teacher planning
• student work
• extra-curricular activities
• teaching episodes
• awards, prizes
• recommendations
Portfolio work sample

It is essential that
teachers are
competent in
reporting the students
achievements to their
parents so their
parents can clearly
see what their child
has achieved.
Lessons on length

I will also aspire to

extend the children
who need it by
including estimation
activities, which
use the skills they
have learnt in a
more challenging
manner.
Austswim instructor

I realise the value of

assessment in this
situation as it can act
as a benchmark for
the instructor who
has the child the
following year.
Tennis coaching
reference
I am required to
organise students
into ability and age
groups, teach one
of these groups
and ensure every
student behaves
appropriately.
 Behaviour
management plan

If I can communicate
my boundaries to my
students, I will ensure
that my classroom
will be an effective
learning environment
for my students.
 Sharing

QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (LZW) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
 Don’t forget
• delete and modify contents of the portfolio as you
develop professionally
• include the best evidence that you have for each
standard
• seek advice from others before, during and after the
process
• explain and justify all the portfolio inclusions