ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING 2

6 PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT METHODS

Learning Outcomes:
At the end you are expected to:
a) Define a portfolio;
b) Create an e-portfolio and
c) Explain the advantages of portfolio assessment.

A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the student’s efforts,
progress and achievements in one or more areas. The collection 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). Within the context of this
definition, a portfolio continually grows and accumulates as the student progresses in the
particular learning task. Each addition to the portfolio is carefully planned and selected by the
student and demonstrates his progress. In fact, the overall purpose of creating a portfolio is to
enable the student to demonstrate to others his/her learning progress. The greatest value of
portfolios is that, in building them, students become active participants in the learning process
and its assessment. In sharp contrast, students do not have any control or influence in traditional
testing i.e. the teacher decides on the items to be included in the test. The sense of “ownership”
on the part of the students that goes with portfolio assessment makes it quite attractive to
learners, in general.
This Module concentrates on the topic called portfolio assessment methods. Portfolio
assessment is one of the several authentic and non-traditional assessment techniques in
education. The use of portfolio assessment that 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. One area of application of portfolio assessment,
for instance, may be in the accreditation of experiences towards a degree (see for example
CHED’s Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency and Accreditation Program (ETEEAP). In this
modality, experiences of managers or workers are accredited towards a Bachelor’s degree (or
higher) depending on the portfolio presented by the students to a panel or expert evaluators.

Features and Principles of Portfolio Assessment

Portfolio assessment possesses several features and essential characteristics which
are enumerated below:
a. A portfolio is a form of assessment that students do together with their teachers. The
teachers guide the students in the planning, execution and evaluation of the contents of
the portfolio. Together, they formulate the overall objectives for constructing the
portfolio. As such, students and teachers interact in every step of the process in
developing a portfolio.
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. It is the
teachers’ responsibility to assist the students in actually choosing from among a
possible set of choices to be included in the portfolio. However, the final selection
should be done by what the students themselves since the portfolio represents what the
students believe are important considerations.
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c. A portfolio provides samples of the student’s work which show growth over time. By
reflecting on their own learning (self-assessment), students begin to identify the
strengths and weaknesses in their work. These weaknesses then become improvement
goals.
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. If the criteria are not clear at the
beginning, then there is a tendency to include unessential components in the portfolio
and to include those which happen to be available at the time the portfolio is prepared.
At each step of the process, the students need to refer to the agreed set of criteria for
the construction and development of the portfolio.

Purposes of Portfolio Assessment

Why should we resort to portfolio assessment methods?
Portfolio assessment has several purpose and rationale for its use.
First, portfolio assessment matches assessment to teaching. The final outputs to be
assessed are products of classroom discussions and classroom works 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’ formed
abilities based 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
objectives 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 therefore are assured that the goals are achieved.
Third, portfolio assessment gives a profile of learners’ abilities in terms of depth, breadth,
and growth. In terms of depth, portfolio assessment enables the students to demonstrate quality
work done without pressure and constraints of time present in traditional testing through the help
of resource such as reference materials and the help of other students. In terms 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 developed 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 know goals. This is
achieved at each stage of the process since the students continually refer to the set of goals and
objectives set at the beginning.
Sixth, portfolio assessment caters to individuals in a heterogenous class. Such 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 skills. 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 necessarily have to interact and collaborate to complete the tasks.
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Eighth, portfolio assessment develops independent and active learners. Students must
select and justify portfolios choices; monitor progress and set learning goals. Traditional testing
cannot achieve this educational objective no matter how skillfully the tests are constructed.
Ninth, portfolio assessment can improve motivation for learning and thus achievement.
When students are empowered to prove their own achievement and worth, they become highly
motivated to pursue the learning tasks. 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 student-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.

Essential Elements of the Portfolio

Every portfolio must contain the following essential elements:
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.
2. Table of Contents with numbered pages
3. Entries – both core (items students have to include) and optional (items of students’
choice). The core elements will be required for each student and will provide a common
base from which to make decisions on assessment. The optional items will allow the folder
to represent the uniqueness of each student. Students can choose to include “best”
pieces of work, but also a piece of work which gave trouble or one that was less
successful, and 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; i.e., first drafts and
corrected/revised versions.
6. Reflections can appear at different stages in the learning process (for formative and/or
summative purposes) and at the lower levels can be written in the mother tongue or by
students who find it difficult to express themselves in English.
For each item – 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. 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?
• What do I want to improve in the item?
• How do I feel about my performance?
• What were the problem areas?

Stages in Implementing Portfolio Assessment

The following constitute the stages in the implementation of portfolio assessment in
classrooms:
Stage 1: Identifying teaching goals to assess through portfolio
The usual first step of organizing portfolio assessment is to establish the teaching goals.
It is very important at this stage to be very clear about what the teacher hopes to achieve in
teaching. These goals will guide the selection and assessment of students’ work for the portfolio.
ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING 2

In order to do this, the teacher should ask himself the question “What do I want the students to
learn?” and choose several goals to focus on; for example, general goals such as improvement
in fluency of speech or independent reading, and specific goals such as scanning a text or telling
a story. The Enhanced Basic Education Curriculum (k to 12) contains many examples of goals
(called “benchmarks”) that show progress towards the overall standards of a subject matter to
be learned. It is often suggested that this stage be done together with the students asking them
what they want and what they need to learn in the particular subject matter.

Stage 2: Introducing the idea of portfolio assessment to your class.

Portfolio assessment is a new thing for many students who are used to traditional testing.
For this reason, it is important for the teacher to introduce the concept to the class. Perhaps, he
can start by explaining the meaning of the word "portfolio" from portare (carry) and foglio (sheet
of paper). If you can invite artists or architects to come and visit your class bringing with them
their own set of portfolios, then this will help convey the principle of a portfolio as a selection of
a student's work, showing progress in different areas or skills. It is also a good idea to show the
students examples of existing portfolios prepared by other classes or by other students. If you
have your own portfolio, then this will also help in conveying the information to the students
(exemplar method).
In order to convince your students that portfolio assessment is worth a try, ask them to
enumerate their problems with traditional testing. Tell them that portfolio assessment will assess
them in a much fairer way than traditional testing would. It is also important to inform the students
how much weight the portfolio will have in the computation of their final grades and just what is
going to be replaced by the portfolio.

Stage 3. Specification of Portfolio Content

Specify what and how much have to be included in the portfolio - both core and options
(it is important to include options as these enable self-expression and independence). Specify
for each entry how it will be assessed. The students should be acquainted with the scoring
guides/rating scales that will be used before performing the task. Portfolio entries can take many
forms written, audio and video-recorded items, artifacts (e.g., a T-shirt, an annotated drawing, a
model), dialogue journals, etc.

Stage 4. Giving clear and detailed guidelines for portfolio presentation

There is a tendency for students to present as many evidence of learning as they can
when left on their own. The teacher must therefore set clear guidelines and detailed information
on how the portfolios will be presented. Explain the need for clear and attractive presentation,
dated drafts, attached reflections or comment cards. Moreover, it will help if the teacher explains
how the portfolio will be graded and when it needs to be ready (final and mid-way dates).

Stage 5. Informing key school officials, parents and other stakeholders.

Do not attempt to use the portfolio assessment method without notifying your department
head, dean or principal. This will serve as a precaution in case students will later complain about
your new assessment procedure.
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Stage 6. Development of the Portfolio

Both students and teacher need support and encouragement at this stage in the process
of portfolio development. The students particularly should get this from an understanding and
patient teacher. Teachers will get it by doing portfolio assessment as teamwork in their staff or
joining or initiating a support group to discuss questions with colleagues as they arise. Some
portion of the class-time can be devoted to student-teacher dialogues and conferences with
other teachers in relation to the task of preparing the portfolio. It is necessary to stress the
importance of reflection and self-assessment while preparing the portfolio itself since these are
essentially new skills for the students. Reflection and self-assessment require practice. There
are certain essential questions that the teachers can use to guide students in reflections and
self-assessment such as:
• What did I learn from that activity?
• Which is my best piece?
• How can I improve this? This can be done by class brainstorming (what are some possible
reasons for including an item in your portfolio?) or in pairs - "portfolio partners" - who help
each other select samples of their work (written comments on their work from a peer can
also be included in the portfolio).
Initially, we advise teachers to begin with more guided and closed forms of reflection and
slowly proceed to more open reflective comments. Writing reflections is a life-skill which is very
essential for the students and is, therefore, time well spent for the teacher.
Finally, since portfolios are essentially done by the students outside of the regular class-time,
we need to ensure that indeed the portfolio represents the students' work and accomplishment.
In order to do this, require that some items be done completely in class. You might also decide
to have a test (preferably with corrected version) included as a core item together with reflection
on what the student learned from doing the test and revising it. Furthermore, you may ask the
students to explain in their reflections who helped them to improve their work (a peer, a parent,
a spell-checker) and what they learned from revising their work.

Types of Portfolios
Different types of portfolios exist for assessing student performance. These differ from
each other depending on the purposes or objectives set for the overall classroom assessment
program. As a general rule, portfolio assessment is used where traditional testing would be
inadequate to measure desired skills and competencies. Essentially, three types of portfolios
are normally cited in the literature with appropriate variants for each:
a) Documentation Portfolio- As the name implies, this approach involves a collection of
work over time showing growth and improvement reflecting students' learning of identified
outcomes. This portfolio is also called a "growth portfolio" in the literature. The
documentation portfolio can include everything from brainstorming activities to drafts to
finished products. The collection becomes meaningful when specific items are selected
out to focus on particular educational experiences or goals. It can include the best and
weakest of student work. It is important to realize here that even drafts and scratch papers
should be included in the portfolio for they actually demonstrate the growth process that
the students have been through.

b) Process Portfolio- The process portfolio in contrast demonstrates all facets or phases
of the learning process. As such, these portfolios contain an extensive number of
reflective journals, think logs and other related forms of metacognitive processing. They
are particularly useful in documenting students' overall learning process. It can show how
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students integrate specific knowledge or skills and progress towards both basic and
advanced mastery
c) Showcase Portfolio- The showcase portfolio only shows the best of the students'
outputs and products. As such, 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. In addition, this type of portfolio is especially
compatible with audio-visual artifact development, including photographs, videotapes,
and electronic records of students' completed work. The showcase portfolio should also
include written analysis and reflections by the student upon the decision-making
process(es) used to determine which works are included.

Assessing and Evaluating the Portfolios

According to Paulson, Paulson and Meyer, (1991, p. 63): "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 observe students in a broader context:
taking risks, developing creative solutions, and learning to make judgments about their own
performances."
Detailed rating criteria may be evolved to evaluate the finished portfolio presented by
students. In general, however, they should include the following:
• Thoughtfulness (including evidence of students' monitoring of their own comprehension,
metacognitive reflection, and productive habits of mind)
• Growth and development in relationship to key curriculum expectancies and indicators
• Understanding and application of key processes
• Completeness, correctness, and appropriateness of products and processes presented
in the portfolio
• Diversity of entries (e.g., use of multiple formats to demonstrate achievement of
designated performance standards)
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 will serve as guide to the students
when they actually prepare the portfolio requirement. Moreover, students and teachers work
collaboratively to determine grades or scores to be assigned. In this particular dimension, rubrics,
rules, and scoring keys can be designed for a variety of portfolio components. In addition, letter
grades might also be assigned, where appropriate. It is especially recommended that for
summative purposes, a panel of interviewers be designated to evaluate the students' portfolio
based on the agreed set of criteria at the beginning. It is important that the panel of interviewers
understand the decision-making process that the student underwent in selecting the items to be
included in the finished portfolio. (Source: Mindful School: Portfolio connection, Burke, Fogerty,
IRI/Skylight Publishing (1994))
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 too, 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. This actually makes the teacher's job of assessing the
portfolio much simpler, because the pupil has done the groundwork of proving how far each goal
is met in the portfolio. It takes some of the burden off the teacher and helps students to internalize
criteria for quality work. 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 just a
ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING 2

grade. One possibility is to write a letter about the portfolio, which details strengths and
weaknesses and generates a profile of a student's ability, which is then added to the portfolio.
Another option is to prepare certificates which comment on the portfolio strengths and suggest
future goals.
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 (i.e. with drafts and reflections) will be handed in, so that students know
whether they are on the right track. 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.

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