ALSS 102 For Science

Lesson 1: Portfolio

MR. BAGAI K
“Don’t let someone who Centre for Business Management,
has never been in your Entrepreneurship and General Education
Department of Academic Literacy and
shoes tell you how to tie Social Sciences
your laces” bagaik@biust.ac.bw
What is a Portfolio?
 ‘A portfolio is a file or folder where you bring together
materials on a theme’ (Cottrell,2013: 55).

A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that

tells the story of a student's efforts, progress, or
achievement in a given area over a period of time.

It is more than a file or folder.

 Types of Portfolios
 Professional
 Academic / Learning

Types of Academic/learning portfolio:

-Course portfolio
- Research portfolio
 Purpose of a Portfolio

 It keeps related documents together.

It helps you stay organised.
 It helps the process of reflection
It gives the process of self-evaluation and personal
development a higher focus in your life.
 In some vocations, you can take it to job interviews.
 It can hold relevant information when you need them
such as applying for job.
 Important to note that employers value soft skills in the following
areas:
 Managing yourself: Intra-personal skills
 self-reliance, self-awareness & focus, capacity to learn, plan
action & take the initiative, resourcefulness, motivation & realism.
 Managing people: people skills
 Networking, team-working, communication skills in negotiating,
persuading & influencing, customer focus, leadership & ability to
support and motivate others, cultural awareness, languages etc.
Managing projects: task management skills
 Ability to get on with tasks without close supervision,
devising & implementing an action plan, attention to detail,
being logical, methodical & systematic, applying
technology, numerical reasoning, problem-solving,
versatility, flexibility, willingness to take risks, being results
oriented & solution focused, business awareness, work
ethic etc.
 Why use a portfolio as part assessment? (two reasons.)

 The grading system tells almost nothing about what a student has
learned or is able to do.
 A well-designed portfolio system can accomplish several important
purposes:
It can motivate students.
 It can provide explicit examples to assessor (lecturer/ examiner) and
prospective employers about what students know and are able to do.
It allows students to chart their growth over time and to self-assess
their progress.
It encourages students to engage in self-reflection.
 Portfolio Structure & Content
Portfolio creation
 The following must be taken into account:
What will it look like? Its physical and conceptual structure.
Structure - actual arrangement of documents used to
demonstrate student progress.
What goes in?
Depend on intended audience – examiner , prospective
employer , lecturers etc.
How and when to select?
When documents should go into the portfolio.
Date materials included - include explanation for their inclusion.

Evaluating Portfolios – Establish evaluation standards (to be

determined by lecturer / examiner)

Passing Portfolios on – Can be returned to students or shared with

other students and lecturers.

In summary
". . . portfolio creation offers students a way to take charge of
their learning; it also encourages ownership, pride, and high self-esteem"
(Frazier and Paulson, 1992: p. 64).
 Cover page
 Each student should produce their own portfolio.
 Design a cover page of your portfolio.
 Cover page should indicate that the document is
a portfolio.
 Full Names & BIUST ID numbers.
 Course code & Title.
 Year the portfolio was produced.
 Name of Lecturer & Tutor
 Organisation

Provide a table of content for your portfolio.

 Select & re-arrange the following table of content items chronologically in
your portfolio.
 Written assignments.
 Presentation notes.
Lecture notes.
 Research notes.
Tests.
 Group reports( for meetings).
 Charts, graphs, tables etc.
 List of books read.
 Self-evaluation of your learning.
 Your learning objectives.
 your comments about the course.
 Hand-outs.
 Course guides.
 Include any other relevant materials.
Subdivide your portfolio materials.
 Label the subdivisions clearly.
The portfolio should be nicely bound.
Points to note:
 A portfolio is not just a collection of student work, but
a selection - You must be involved in choosing and
justifying the pieces to be included.
 It provides samples of the student’s work which
show growth over time by reflecting on their own
learning (self-assessment).
 Include the dates for each entry.
 Decide on the leader of the group & times when
you meet (one or twice a week).