Learning portfolio

1. Learning portfolio Xiangyun Du xiangyun@plan.aau.dk

2. What is a learning portfolio? • A collection of a learner’s experiences and achievements during a period of educational activity (Elango, Jutti and Lee 2005) • Written reflection – reflective essay

3. Why? • Demonstration of accomplishments • Assessment – the quality of the student’s past or ongoing performance through process • Improvement of education

4. Why? – benefit • Empower the learner - individual learning needs – self directed learning • Professional development – keeping records of learning activities • Job hunting and career pursuit

5. How to write? • Time line: Please send to me by email xiangyun@plan.aau.dk, latest Monday, Nov 17th, 2008 • Length: around 5 pages (minimum 3 – maximum 10) • Features • Spontaneous • Flexible • Changing

6. How to write? - forms • Written narratives Experiences (what are they) + Reflections (meanings of the experiences) • Appendix of materials – anything had special meanings or that can prove your learning (University of Oklahoma 2001)

7. How to write? - contents • What were my goals/expectations for the project work? • How did they change during the semester? • What did I gain from the course? • What did I learn about myself as a problem-solver? • What did I learn about project management? • What did I learn about professional communication? • What did I learn about myself as from working in a team? • What did I learn from the intercultural environment? • What was missing? • What was redundant?

8. How to write? - contents • What new interests or values have I acquired so far? • What learning activities were most/least valuable for me? • What and how can I use these for life and future work?

9. Professional communication Writing report in a team and oral presentation Xiangyun Du xiangyun@plan.aau.dk www.ucpbl.aau.dk/xiangyund

10. Agenda • Report writing • Peer review • Discussion of sample report • Learning porfolio • Presentaion – preparation for P0 status seminar

11. Report writing Before writing (the group): • Preparation: receiver, message, outline • Brainstorm: e.g.. Post-it Writing (individually): • Go for it : write without criticism – one headline at a time (in arbitrary order) • Structure – structure the writing, creating overview and consistency • Edit – make the writing easy to read After writing (the group or others) • Review

12. Report writing Two essential ingredients of academic writing • Organization • Title, abstract, introduction, materials and methods, results, discussion, acknowledgement, references, (appendix) • appropriate language within the organization

13. Report writing • Title – the fewest possible words that adequately describe the content of the paper • Abstract • state the principle objectives and scope of the investigation • describe the methodology employed • Summarize the results • State the principal conclusions

14. Report writing • Introduction • Present the nature and scope of the problem investigated • Review of the pertinent literature • Methods of investigation • Principle results of the investigation • Definition of any specialized terms or abbreviations A ‘why and what for (4)’ method Why is the topic of interest? What (1) is the background on the previous solutions, if any? What (2) is the background on potential solutions? What (3) was attempted in the present effort (research project)? What (4) will be presented in this paper?

15. Report writing • Materials and methods • Exact technical specifications and quantities, • source or methods of preparation • Details of methods • Do not put any results • Results • ‘big picture’ - describe the methodology employed • Data – representative instead of repetitive data • Meaningful statistics

16. Report writing • Discussions • Present the principles, relationships, and generalizations shown by the results • Point out any exceptions or any lack of correlation, and define unsettled points • Show how your results and interpretations agree (or contrast) with previously published work • Discuss the theoretical implications of your work as well as any possible practical applications • State your conclusions clearly • Summarize your evidence for each conclusion

17. Report writing • References and quotations http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/find/citation/ • Appendix

18. Appropriate Language • Simple • Precise • Concrete • Neutral • Sensible • Logical • Understandable

19. Peer review Why ? • To evaluate the work • To find mistakes and to identify if something is missing • To check whether it is understandable

20. Peer review How and When ? • Written or oral • At a group meeting • After everybody have read the writing and have prepared individual comments to it

21. Peer review Valuable criticism • Be kind – be motivating for the group member, avoiding offending • Be concrete – providing alternatives and suggestions • Be constructive – aiming at improvement • Be critical – professionally but not personally

22. Peer review Elements • Misspelling, misprint and other corrections in the proofs. (might be noted directly in the document) • Logical errors, misunderstandings, poor formulations, technical mistakes etc. that makes the understanding difficult or impossible for the reader. • Good points, well structured, clear overview, interesting angle, well documented, clear illustrations etc.

23. Asignment 1 from last week • Please prepare for a powerpoint presentation which cover: • A brief introduction to your P0 project • Project management (goal, time plan, resources, methods, expectation, etc) • Team management (how you work together, e.g. Code of conduct, collaboration agreement, etc) • Make a team based, max 8 minutes long presention next time (Oct 3rd)

24. Asignment 2 from last time Please look through a 7th semester project report and discuss in your group, and prepare for a short presentation: • Please list 3 good points (what you can learn from it) • Please critize constructively on 3 points (what could be done to make it better)