Beyond Assessment: University/School Collaboration in Portfolio Review and the Challenge to Program Improvement

Promoting preservice teachers' professional growth through developmental portfolios

“…In line with giving the student ownership of the process, Stroble (1992) had students work in small groups to define criteria and specifications for assessing the portfolio. Students also reported concerns with understanding the expectations of constructing portfolios (Snyder et al, 1993;Urquhart and Danielson, 1993). Glasser (1992) contends that one of the things required to attain quality schoolwork is to teach students to evaluate their own progress.…”

“…First, it is very time consuming, both for students as they are constructing the portfolio and teachers as they are assessing the work. Snyder et al (1993) and Dutt and Kayler (1993) reported that most student teachers believe that they do not have enough time to adequately prepare portfolios while they are student teaching. Second, there are issues of reliability and validity of portfolio assessment that must be addressed if the portfolio is to be used as part of the criteria for determining successful admission to and completion of student teaching.…”

“…The process helps achieve the important goal of shifting ownership of learning to die students (Barton and Collins, 1993;Ford and Ohlhausen, 1991;Stroble, 1992). Snyder, Elliot, Bhavnagri, and Boyer (1993) stated that the portfolio not only provides feedback to the prospective teacher, but also serves as a systematic process for program improvement. When the development of the portfolio is a collaborative venture among students, teachers, and peers, there is a built-in opportunity for collégial sharing that helps students become more articulate and encourages future teachers to view their work away from the traditional isolated classroom (Barton and Collins, 1993).…”

Using Portfolios in Undergraduate Special Education Teacher Education Programs

“…Each piece is evaluated by the course instructor with P = portfolio ready, E = emerging, and R = revision needed before being placed into the portfolio. Snyder, Elliott, Bhavnagri, and Boyer (1993) also describe the use of student portfolios primarily for self-assessment. In their model, preservice teachers provide concrete evidence of the following:…”