Documenting Learning in Portfolios

1. Documenting Learning in Portfolios Eileen M. Herteis Purdy Crawford Teaching Centre Mount Allison University

2. Assessment of Student Learning

3. Some will drink deeply Some will take a few swallows Some will just sip We lead students to the fountain of knowledge . . .

4. An increasing number will, as at the dentist, merely rinse before spitting. Anonymous

5. A pedagogically competent teacher “communicates the objectives of the course to students, is aware of alternative instructional methods or strategies, and selects methods of instruction that, according to research evidence (including personal or self-reflective research), are effective in helping students to achieve the course objectives.” Ethical Principles in University Teaching: STLHE (1996) www.stlhe.ca

6. Assessment “A single, episodic test of anything is an incomplete assessment. . . . A solitary test, with no interaction between the test taker and the assessor, will turn out to be as foolish, dimwitted and pre-modern as some of the practices involving rods and canes a hundred years ago.”(Wiggins, 1997)

7. Given the importance of assessment . . . “. . . of student performance in university teaching and in students' lives and careers, instructors are responsible for taking adequate steps to ensure that assessment of students is valid, open, fair, and congruent with course objectives.” Ethical Principles in University Teaching: STLHE (1996) www.stlhe.ca

8. Ideally, assessment is designed to • Reveal to students their areas of strength • Reveal to the instructor the students' progress • Provide motivation for students • Help instructors evaluate their teaching • Provide a basis upon which grades are determined • Evaluate students in terms of their professional and career goals

9. Ethically questionable assessment practices • Testing skills that were not part of the announced objectives • Testing things not given adequate time or practice during the course • Not testing according to how you taught • Not allowing all students equal opportunity to demonstrate mastery

10. Why have you set the time limit? What’s the connection between speed and accuracy speed and learning Time and assessment Proficient students are not necessarily fast test-takers or ‘finishers’ in general.

11. In my class, is assessment part of learning? Parsing the question: Are students learning what I think I’m teaching? Do students think they’re learning what I think I’m teaching? What do students think they’re learning? What do students think I’m teaching? Are students learning what they thinkwill be on the test?

12. We can’t learn without feedback “Writing, thinking, reading, investigating and oral communication cannot be separated. People do not think then write; rather, they often discover their thoughts through writing. Verbalization, both oral and written, is one of the best ways to think, discover, and learn. The ability to write well develops slowly, over years; students need constant, frequent practice and feedback.” Barbara Walvoord, Notre Dame University

13. Learning PortfolioEssentials Paper or Web

14. What is a Portfolio? • A strategic collection of student work, representing an array of performance over time • A complementary balance of narrative sections and evidence • An authentic approach to assessment that encourages students to reflect in and on learning • A process and a product

15. Steps to creating a Portfolio Creating a portfolio involves • Reflection • Collection • Selection • Connection

16. Portfolios and reflection Students inquire into what they’ve learned • go beyond mere acquisition of knowledge to analyze their learning • reflect on their work and others’ feedback • find patterns and meaning in their learning • look forward to future goals Reflection transforms knowledge or experience into learning. (Hutchings & Wutzdorff, 1988)

17. What have I learned? How? Why? Is it valuable? When have I learned? Do I know what kind of learner I am? Questions to encourage reflectionadapted from Zubizarreta

18. How does this (course, programme, experience) fit into the larger framework? What else would I like to learn? How will I go about learning it? More reflectionadapted from Zubizarreta

19. Sample table of contents Learning Objectives Why I took this class, what I hoped to learn, what I hoped to contribute Learning Achievements What I learned, how and where, and the difference it has made Evidence of Learning Sample work with explanations for its inclusion Next Steps What I plan to learn next and why

20. Possible contents Samples of student work over time: • (graded) assignments, essays, tests, etc. • revisions of these assignments, or responses to teacher’s comments Reflective writing: • learning objectives • learning journals • students’ explanation of chosen samples • “What I still want to learn”

21. Possible contents for a Business Writing class • Reflective piece on the role of writing in business; how my view of business communication changed during the course • My original objectives in taking this class; how they were met • How I have developed as a writer; annotated samples (re-writes) of work I’ve done and what I learned from doing it • How I will use this learning in the future

22. Portfolio assessment • Counteracts “bulimic learning” (Nelson) • Encourages evidence of learning rather than memorization • Involves students in a continuum of self-directed learning • Emphasizes metacognition: reflection on learning process

23. Benefits of the Portfolio Portfolios • emphasize process, helping to embed knowledge and put it into context • move us from single-occasion testing • help eliminate the “write, submit, and forget” mentality Therefore . . .

24. Portfolio benefits (contd) Students • think about their learning (metacognition) • no longer consider first attempts as final products • have more control over the process and products of learning

25. “You fill the portfolio; then the portfolio fills you.” Martin Kimeldorfhttp://www.amby.com/kimeldorf/portfolio/

26. Portfolio Applications

27. Significant learning can and does take place outside the classroom See Herteis in Zubizarreta (2004)

28. Experiential Learning PortfoliosSee Herteis in Zubizarreta (2004) • Portfolios are a way to document the experiential learning from internships or work placements • Portfolios help students to translate experience into learning through • Reflection • Analysis • Documentation

29. #1: College of Agriculture (U of S)

30. Agriculture’s Co-op Programme • Up to 60 students a year participate in agriculture’s experiential education programme (a four-month work term placement or internship). • At the end of each placement, students submit a work term report that closely approximates the experiential learning portfolio.

31. In 1998, the college realized that • There seemed to be no way of assessing the (academic) success of the work term. • Students focused on what they had done rather than what they had learned. • Students often failed to see that they could learn even from a negative experience. • The work term seemed to be isolated from the rest of the learning experience. • There was little chance for interaction between the university and the workplace.

32. There have been two important changes: 1. Learning objectives Students think consciously about their goals for the learning experience, setting objectives (both in the cognitive and affective domain) that help them both establish desired outcomes and identify unplanned results of the experience. 2. Report guidelines Emphasize reflection and help students to derive the maximum potential benefit from the experiential learning opportunity.

33. Objectives (4-7) I have met with my supervisor. We have set the following objectives for my work term and discussed How to assess if I am meeting my objectives.

34. Report guidelines • What did you learn about the employer? • How did the environment affect your learning? • Everyone learns from mistakes, trial and error, or practice--Did you? • Describe how your work experience and your classroom learning complemented one another • Describe what you learned about work • Compare two days or weeks: one from the beginning of your job and one from the end; how did you progress both in terms of the quality and quantity of the work you did?

35. Benefits • Build student morale • Demonstrate how to turn perceived gaps into learning opportunities • Increased student efforts to get the most out of their experiential learning opportunities to fulfill their objectives • Reports are more than a leisurely ramble through “What I did on my work term.”

36. UTIP: Undergraduate Teaching Internship Programme Portfolio Application #2Mount Allison University

37. UTIP Goals To foster an atmosphere of experiential learning and one-on-one mentorship between the student and the professor • $100,000 over 2.5 years from General Electric • Pairs: faculty mentor and student intern • Pilot programme began in Fall, 2005 (25); second cohort Winter, 2006 (33).

38. UTIP Essentials • The Internship is not just about what the student does, but about what she learns from what she does. • The intern and the faculty mentor create a learning contract that • outlines what each hopes the student will learn from the Internship • underscores that the student should be involved in meaningful learning, not menial tasks

39. Establishing A Partnership Mentors and interns establish guidelines for their partnership, sharing individual and joint expectations. Once settled, this statement of shared expectations can be incorporated into - the learning contract - the student’s learning portfolio

40. Sample questions for interns and mentors • What goals do you each have for the internship? • What duties and responsibilities will the intern have in terms of teaching, grading, leading tutorials, finding materials, etc. • Duties aside, what goals do you have for acquiring knowledge, skills (or values)? • How will you know when you’ve metthese goals? • What can you do to help each other achieve these goals? • How often will you meet?

41. Value of the Portfolio The portfolio allows the intern to document and reflect upon individual success. It contains materials she has created for the course, lesson plans, assignments, feedback from the teaching mentor, and feedback from the students in the class, self reflection about how well she has fulfilled the learning objectives of the Internship. The university will also create a programme portfolio, culled from the individual students’ portfolios, that allows us to document the programme’s outcomes.

42. Sample Table of Contents Learning Objectives Why I took this internship, what I hoped to learn, what I hoped to contribute Learning Achievements What I learned, how and where, and the difference it has made. Is it valuable? Evidence of Learning Sample work with explanations for its inclusion Next Steps What I plan to do/learn next and why

43. Assessing Portfolios How would you assess a learning portfolio? Grade? Pass/fail? Would you create a rubric? What would portfolios add to your assessment “toolkit”?

44. E-Portfolios: A Web Tour • Alverno College • Johns Hopkins • Kalamazoo College • Carnegie Foundation Knowledge Media Lab • Open Source Portfolio Initiative