Module 6:

PORTFOLIO

Introduction:
A Portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the students’ 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. Within the context
of this definition, a portfolio continually grows and accumulates as the student progresses in the particular
learning task. The over-all purpose is to enable the student to demonstrate to others learning and progress.
Its greatest value: student becomes 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 the
learners in general.

Explore:
Portfolio

Portfolio assessment is one of the several authentic and non-traditional assessment techniques in
education. It is gaining popularity since early 1980s in response to the growing clamor for more “reasonable”
and authentic means of assessing students’ growth and development in school.

The major purpose of a working portfolio is to serve as a holding tank for learner work (Danielson &
Abrutyn, 2000). A portfolio may also be used to diagnose learners’ needs. Both learners and teachers should
have evidence of the learners’ strengths and weaknesses in achieving learning objectives. This type of
assessment allows teachers to be more accurate in evaluating learners’ mastery of the content

One area of application of portfolio assessment is in the accreditation of experiences towards a

degree (CHED’s ETEEAP – Expanded Tertiary Education Equivalency and Accreditation Program). 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 of expert evaluators.

Features of Portfolio Assessment:

1. A portfolio is a form of assessment that students do together with their teachers. Teachers guide the
students in the planning, execution and evaluation of the contents of the portfolio. Teachers and students
interact in every step of the process in developing a portfolio

2. A portfolio represents a selection of what the students believe are best included from among the possible
collection of things related to the concepts being studies. 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 the students themselves since the portfolio represents
what h\the students believe are important considerations.

3. A portfolio provides samples of the students’ work which show growth overtime. 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.
 4. 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 among unessential components in the portfolio and to include those which happen to be
available at the time the portfolio is prepared.

Purposes of Portfolio Assessment

1. matches assessment to teaching – assess other components of the students’ formed abilities based
on classroom discussions
2. has clear goals –decided on at the beginning of instruction and are clear to the teacher and students
alike
3. gives a profile of learner abilities in terms of depth (quality of work), breadth (wide range of skills
assessed), and growth (efforts to improve and progress over time)
4. tool for assessing a variety of skills not normally testable in a single setting for traditional testin
5. develops awareness of own learning by the student
6. caters to individuals in a heterogeneous class
7. develops social skills in the development of their own portfolios
8. develops independent and active learners
9. improve motivation for learning and thus achievement
10. provides opportunity for student teacher dialogue.

From a teacher’s perspective, a portfolio can provide a holistic evaluation of the learners’ written
language proficiency. These products or outputs can be used as concrete evidence and as bases for
teachers’ instructional decisions because they provide learners’ general and individual performance.

For the learners, a portfolio can serve as tool for self-reflection. Questions like, “What have I
learned?’” “What do I still need to learn?” and “How can I get through it?” can be provided to learners as
reflection guides for their own learning. Below are sample portfolios with the learners’ outputs:

Essential Elements of the Portfolio

1. Cover Letter – “about the author” “ what my portfolio shows about my progress
2. Table of Contents – with numbered pages
3. Entries – both core (required) and optional (uniqueness of student)
4. Dates of all entries – to facilitate proof of growth over time
5. Drafts of aural/oral and written products and revised versions
6. Reflections – at different stages in the learning process
a. What did I learn from it?
 b. What did I do well?
c. Why did I choose this item?
d. What do I want to improve in the item?
e. How do I feel about my performance?
f. What were the problems areas?

Stages of Implementing Portfolio Assessment:

Stage 1: Identifying teaching goals to assess through portfolio
Stage 2: Introducing the Idea of Portfolio Assessment
Stage 3: Specification of Portfolio Content
Stage 4: Giving clear and detailed guidelines for presentation
Stage 5: Informing Key officials and other stakeholders
Stage 6: Development of the Portfolio

Guide for Self-reflections and Self-assessment:

• What did I learn from that activity?
• Which is my best piece?
• How can I improve this?

 Brainstorming
 Portfolio partners

Types of Portfolios

1. Documentation Portfolio
a. Involves collection of work over time showing growth and improvement reflecting students’ learning of
identified outcomes
b. Also called “growth portfolio” in the literature
c. Include everything from brainstorming activities to drafts to finished products
d. Include the best and weakest students’ work

2. Process Portfolio
a. Demonstrates all facets or phases of the learning process
b. Contain an extensive number of reflective journals. Think logs and other related forms of metacognitive
processing
c. Useful in documenting student’s over-all learning process
d. Show how students integrate knowledge or skills and progress towards both basic and advanced
mastery

3. Showcase Portfolio
a. Shows the best of the students’ output and products
b. Best used for summative evaluation of students’ mastery of key curriculum outcomes.
c. Include students’ very best work, determined through a combination of student and teacher selection.
d. Only completed work should be included.
e. Include photographs, videotaped and electronic records of students’ completed work
f. Include written analysis and reflections by the students upon the decision-making process used to
determine which works are included.

If properly utilized, a portfolio assessment can help teachers monitor and evaluate their learners’ progress
and achievement effectively.
Here are some suggestions on how we can maximize the use of learners’ portfolio.
1. Communicate clearly to the learners the objectives and rubric for the portfolio.
2. Ensure that the collected works of learners are related to the learning objectives. With this, sufficient
work must be collected to provide ample evidence of learners’ achievement.
3. The teacher may provide an individual record of the learner for him or her to monitor his or her own
progress weekly.
4. Keep a daily checklist of each learner’s outputs. The checklist shows all the portfolio requirements for
a particular grading period with the names of each learner.
5. Monitor the completeness of the portfolio. If the work is not complete, the learner may be given a chance
to finish it.
6. Review and evaluate the component and items in the portfolios to determine whether the learners
complied with the requirements.

Assessing and Evaluating the Portfolios

Portfolio offer a way of assessing student learning that is different from the traditional methods. It
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. They
should include the following:
1. thoroughness (including evidence of students’ monitoring of their own comprehension, metacognitive
refection, and productive habits of mid)
2. growth and development in relation to key curriculum experiences and indicators
3. understanding and application of key processes
4. completeness, correctness and appropriateness of products and process presented in the portfolio
5. diversity of entries (use of multiple formats to demonstrate achievement of designated performance
standards)

Teachers may keep track of their learners’ outputs by using a daily checklist. The checklist shows all
the portfolio requirements (e.g., localized materials, journalistic writings)

The sample portfolio assessment rubrics presented in this module may be modified or may serve as basis
for developing your own, to suit your future learners’ needs and learning objectives.
Experience:

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