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Electronic Portfolios: The What, Why and How of transforming learning in your school
This article pulls together research and practice in the United Kingdom and the United States on the development of electronic portfolios as tools for school improvement and learning enhancement.
The term electronic portfolio has been used quite loosely to describe the electronic transmission and storage of data generated by students. To see electronic portfolios in this context is to misrepresent the potential of the them to transform teaching and learning effectiveness.
The electronic portfolio is not an end in itself; it is a mechanism to enable learners of all ages and teachers to focus on the quality and continuity of their learning.
What are electronic portfolios?
Electronic portfolios are selective and purposeful collections of student work made available on the Internet. Portfolios focus on the students' reflections on their own work. They are records of learning, growth, and change. They provide meaningful documentation of students' abilities. Electronic portfolios provide information to students, parents, teachers, and members of the learning and employment community about what students have learned or are able to do. They represent a learning history.
Teachers and students may construct portfolios specific to one subject area, or across the curriculum. Portfolios may also be more inclusive, containing samples of work across curricular areas, such as PSHE, Key Skills or Citizenship. They may also include relevant experience from outside the taught curriculum such as involvement in community groups, clubs and societies as well as part time employment.
Portfolios bring together curriculum, teaching and learning and assessment. Through the use of portfolios, teachers and students can develop a shared understanding of what constitutes quality work, and acquire a common language for evaluating students' accomplishments.
The ability to use a portfolio approach frees the teacher and student from the normal constraints of a timetable slot, a limited amount of time and limited learning resources. Learning can now take place on a more flexible basis because by definition, electronic portfolios confer an anywhere anytime learning facility on teacher and students.
The use of portfolios has the potential to transform learning. Electronic portfolios can lead to classrooms that are more student-centred rather than teacher-centred, students accept more responsibility and become agents in their own education.
There is growing use of portfolios and extended assignments in the classroom in the form of files and extended project based work. The electronic portfolio, however, is a new option allowed by the increase of technology in the classroom, providing yet another perspective on what students can do. Electronic portfolios can include varied media such as text, graphics, video and sound, going beyond just paper and pencil work.
A student using an Electronic Portfolio is demonstrating the ability to select the appropriate media to suit the needs of the audience as well as, by necessity, demonstrating proficiency in ICT.
Why use electronic portfolios?
The transition from the traditional classroom, delineated by teacher, textbooks or teacher-made resources and a limited range of teaching strategies to a broader teaching and learning diet is already underway.
This transition needs to be carefully planned if it is to be successful for the learners and manageable for the teachers.
Fundamentally, the teachers must embrace new technologies to take advantage of electronic portfolios, but they must also confront new opportunities and challenges to established teaching practices that the new technology highlights.
So what are the advantages of using electronic portfolios that justify such an effort?
Electronic portfolios foster active learning.
The model that states that learning is something poured into students at a rate and format controlled by the teacher is not valid for developing effective lifelong learners.
Research on effective learning highlights a spectrum of potentially successful methodologies - all of which emphasize that students become active and effective learners only when they assume ownership and control of their learning.
Portfolios help students to set goals for learning, review their goals periodically, and assume responsibility for their own learning. They also allow parents to be informed partners in their child's learning. This makes profiling and self-evaluation key to a dynamic model of student learning.
Assessment becomes a pro-active part of the student's learning process and not a summative exercise imposed by the teacher.
Electronic portfolios motivate students.
The fact that work generated for the student portfolio is potentially available for a world audience numbering millions gives focus and motivation to the quality and accuracy of the work. Students appreciate that they must select language, presentation styles and format appropriate to their audience.
When a student can internalize the need for spelling and grammatical accuracy on the basis of the needs of an international audience, rather than because it is a teacher-imposed expectation, you have a sound basis for progression.
Being able to access previous work simply and effectively also gives a platform on which to improve on previous performance.
Electronic portfolios are instruments of feedback.
Electronic portfolios allow for the evaluation of the efficiency of learning goals, the effectiveness of learning strategies, and the clarity of knowledge presentation. Put together, this leads to a system of feedback where several processes in the educational cycle may be evaluated simultaneously. Reducing administrative workload for teachers and bearing down on learning improvement.
Not only do they provide feedback to students, but they also create a means for exchanging feedback and comparative performance data between teachers within the school, at the point of transition between schools, and for the tracking of individual students over time.
Moreover, the management information provided in the electronic portfolio is qualitative rather than quantitative and is inspirational as well as informative.
Electronic portfolios are instruments of discussion on student performance.
Portfolios may serve as concrete instruments for teacher-student, parent-teacher, parent-student and student-student discussion. It is possible to gain a better understanding of a student's abilities by examining the student's work across the curriculum.
Electronic portfolios have the potential to transform parent consultations since portfolios can provide a more detailed picture of the student's achievements than test scores and letter grades. Electronic portfolios allow parents to examine teacher expectations, curriculum standards, and the students' achievements conveniently and efficiently. Moreover this data is available on an ongoing basis rather than in the limited span of a parent interview. This overview allows the parent consultation to be an action-planning meeting for the future rather than a review of past performance.
Electronic portfolios exhibit "benchmark" performance.
Electronic portfolios provide an efficient method for displaying student work that meets high standards. Teachers can illustrate what constitutes particular levels of performance against actual examples of student work.
Teaching and learning points can be illustrated and used to inform improvement. Assessment becomes an integral part of the learning rather than a separate and rather mysterious process to which the student is not invited.
Electronic portfolios are accessible.
The major advantage of electronic portfolios over folders and notebooks is that they provide easy access to student performance. Students' work is readily accessible to students, parents, and other teachers over the Internet. This process introduces economy in storage, and ease of access from anywhere in the world.
More sophisticated systems are now making a distinction between publicly accessible information published to the web and password protected portfolios. The latter contain ongoing assignments in development or draft format or for submission as assessment or examination coursework.
Electronic portfolios can store multiple media.
A simple scanning process can securely store written work, direct it to the correct portfolio and log the work against appropriate subject categories. A staff authorization process can then confirm the process and authenticate the work or return the work to the student for redrafting.
The flexibility of the electronic portfolio means that samples of oral work, photographic images, artwork, and animation can now be captured and stored. This expands the profile of the student as a learner and makes for more exciting learning possibilities
Electronic portfolios are easy to upgrade.
The student portfolio develops with the student and can be used as the transition document between schools and academic year groups.
The structure of the portfolio can also be modified to reflect new priorities with additional categories being created to reflect new educational priorities.
To cement ownership, the portfolio should have an introductory element that the student can customise to reflect their individual interests.
Electronic portfolios allow cross-referencing of student work
The dynamic nature of web pages makes it possible to cross-reference student work in a meaningful way. Suppose a science project also contains samples of math problems the student solved while working on the project. Paper and pencil portfolios would require that copies of the same work would be filed under multiple headings. Using electronic portfolios, it is possible to create meaningful links between all work that is presented.
This reduces administrative workload and reduces reproduction and storage costs.
How to create electronic portfolios.
Innovative Schools will be interested in using portfolios as a foundation for their improvement strategies. It is important that electronic portfolios are seen in this broad context and not as another ICT initiative.
Carefully planned within a teaching and learning context, electronic portfolios should reduce teacher administration time whilst concentrating effort and insight on improving the quality of learning of all students. Quality data will be available for informing teaching strategies and helping parents to support their child's learning.
The following issues will need to be addressed if the transition from your current process to an electronic portfolio approach is to be a smooth one.
Deciding on the areas of assessment.
Teachers should never begin a portfolio project without a clear view of their purpose in collecting student work. A question teachers need to answer in beginning a portfolio project is, "What is the significant information I should collect?"
Portfolios are not meant to include everything that students produce. Therefore, before starting a portfolio project, teachers should identify the dimensions of learning they wish to display.
Different dimensions of the curriculum may be elaborated to provide indicators of progress that can be measured. Appropriate assessment opportunities can be confirmed within programmes of study and individual work modules.
The school will need to ensure that there is a clear assessment policy across the curriculum if tutors and parents are going to make sense of the data portfolios generate in each subject.
The department or subject leader portfolio is the most useful home for assessment and curriculum development material. The department portfolio works in the same way as the individual student portfolio, but is built collaboratively.
Selecting assessment measures.
Once you have decided on the area-specific categories of assessment, the next step is identifying the appropriate assessment measures for each.
There is a wide body of literature in the UK regarding assessment and the principles underpinning it. The DfES and OFSTED sites have a wide range of information, advice and practical examples.
Some US based work provides an interesting counterpoint to UK based work and sheds light on the scope and rationale of assessment procedures.
For each assessment category, you may choose different types of evidence based on students'
- products
- processes
- perceptions
Student products are their actual work. They may include essays, reports, lists of books that the student has read, a list of problems she has solved, a model she has built, or other work samples.
Besides finished work, evidence may be collected on the students' processes. This type of evidence includes students' goals for learning, outlines, and drafts, as well as strategy assessments.
Another important type of evidence to include in a portfolio is students' perceptions of their learning. These include their attitudes, motivations, and self-assessments of their learning.
Selecting portfolio content.
The emphasis need not be on collecting "best work" when creating a student portfolio. Instead, a wide range of work samples representative of the student's work will allow the viewer to examine progress. Process portfolios demonstrate student work throughout a learning task. At the beginning of the learning task students should answer questions such as:
- What do I plan to accomplish with this task?
- How I plan to get there
- My strategies for accomplishing this task
As the students progress, teachers and students may include interim evidence and notes on progress. Finally, when the students complete the task, they need to summarize what went into the learning task. Work samples, plans, outlines, final products and even unfinished products might be included in the portfolio.
Who should decide what to include in a portfolio?
One of the purposes of using portfolios is to make it possible for students to examine their own work from a critical perspective. For students to feel ownership of the portfolio, they need to have decision-making power about the selected materials. Material should generally be collected collaboratively by the teacher and the student.
Students should be allowed to review their portfolios periodically. They may do so as they add new materials to their portfolios, but structured opportunities for review provide more time for reflection. Students should also be encouraged to review and provide feedback for each other's work.
How should a portfolio be organized?
Portfolios should be organized to reflect an accurate picture of the student's development.
A portfolio should include:
- a table of contents,
- the date of the work,
- description of the task, and
- student reflection on the entry.
Each portfolio entry could have links to the areas of assessment that are involved in the project, or task.
Using electronic portfolios.
From the above it can be seen that the successful incorporation of electronic portfolios into the school is not a technical issue but a cultural one.
Reflective schools which have a culture of learning from success and failure will find the incorporation of electronic portfolios will inform learning and build a team building approach to teaching development.
Such schools will also find that the automation of administrative tasks will yield considerable time savings for teachers and students and the time, resources and energy saved can all be directed into the central task of improving learning.
For the student, the process of selecting, improving and evaluating work will stand them in good stead as they develop as effective lifelong learners. Indeed the electronic portfolio is the foundation of a progress file that takes them across the bridge from full time schooling to elective learning and successful employment.
Bibliography.
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/
General introduction to driving up standards and the cultural, leadership, management and teaching and learning issues related to school improvement.
http://www.lifelonglearning.dfes.gov.uk/
Electronic portfolios placed in a broader learning context.
http://safety.ngfl.gov.uk/
Issues related to the safety of the web as a learning medium.
www.ofsted.gov.uk
Office for Standards in Education - includes reports and surveys of the use of ICT in schools in England.
Research Based work on School Evaluation and Teaching and Learning Development from the National School Improvement Network of the London Institute of Education (Research Matters Magazine- School Based Research )
Autumn 2002 Issue No 18 - School Self Evaluation: A process to support pupil and teacher learning.
Jane Reed and Hilary Street
Summer 2002 Issue No 17 - Effective Learning (new edition)
C.Watkins, E.Carnell, C.Lodge, P.Wagner & C.Whalley
Spring 2002 Issue No 16 - Ability grouping: Practices and Consequences
Dr Sue Hallam - Reader in Education with Lifelong Education & International Development
Autumn 2001 Issue No 15 - Leadership for organisational learning and improved student outcomes - what do we know?
Bill Mulford, Professor& Director, Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania
Summer 2001 Issue No 14 - Inclusive Schooling
Dr Carol Campbell co-authors: Prof David Gillborn, Prof Ingrid Lunt, Prof Pam Sammons, Dr Carol Vincent, Dr Simon Warren and Prof Geoff Whitty
Spring 2001 Issue No 13 - Learning about Learning enhances performance
C Watkins
Autumn 2000 Issue No 12 - Assessment Use in Learning and Teaching
Jannette Elwood and Val Klenowski
United States Perspectives on Portfolio Building
Adams, & Hamm M. (1992). Portfolio assessment and social studies: Collecting, selecting, and reflecting on what is significant. Social Education, 56, pp. 103-105.
Barrett, H. C. Technology-supported assessment portfolios. The Computing Teacher 21, March 1994, pp. 9-12.
Calfee, R. C., and Perfumo, P. (1993). Student Portfolios: Opportunities for a revolution in assessment. Journal of Reading 36, pp. 532-537.
Glazer, M. S. and Brown, C. S. (1993). Portfolios and beyond: Collaborative assessment in reading and writing. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon Publishers.
LeMahieu, P. G., Eresh, J. T. & Wallace, R. C. (1992). Using student portfolios for a public accounting. The School Administrator, 49, pp. 8-15.
Meisels, S. J. (1994). Performance in context: Assessing children's achievement at the outset of school. In A. Sameroff & M. Haith (Eds.), Reason and responsibility: The passage through childhood. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Paris, S. G. Portfolio Assessment. (1992). Reflections on learning.In R. Smith and D. Birdyshaw(Eds.), Perspectives on Assessment, Volume 1, pp. 209-219.
Paulson, L., Paulson, P. & Meyer, C. What makes a portfolio a portfolio? (1991). Educational Leadership, pp. 60-63.
Salinger, T. Classroom-based portfolio assessment for elementary grades. (1992). In C. Hedley, D. Feldman, & P. Antonacci (Eds.), Literacy across the curriculum, pp. 133-155. Norwood, NJ.: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
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