Portfolio Assessment in Student Teaching: A Reliability Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability of portfolio assessment in student teaching. The specific problems were (a) to determine interjudge reliability for the music student teaching portfolio assessment and (b) to determine if music student teachers rate themselves similarly to the expert panel of judges. Participants (N = 13) were undergraduate music education majors completing their student teaching semester at a major midwestern university. The Student Teaching Portfolio (STP) was required as part of the student teaching semester. Two expert judges rated participants' STP using the Student Teaching Portfolio Assessment Rubric (STPAR). Participants self-assessed their portfolios using STPAR as well. Interjudge reliabilities and correlations between participants' self-assessments and judges' ratings were calculated. Results showed that portfolios can be a reliable and valid assessment tool for student teaching. Further research on the reliability of portfolio assessment in preservice teacher education is recommended.

Is the edTPA the Right Choice for Evaluating Teacher Readiness?

“…Again, it is concerning that only 10 percent of all edTPA submissions are randomly selected to be scored by a second independent scorer (SCALE 2013, 23). While there have been issues reported with interrater reliability in scoring regular holistic TPP portfolios (e.g., Carpenter, Marissa, and Bloom 1995;Derham and Diperna 2007;Koretz 1998;Oskay, Schallies, and Morgil 2008;Yao et al 2008), there is a strong body of research illustrating how these issues can be rectified (e.g., Baume and York 2002;Draves 2009;Johnson, McDaniel, and Willeke 2000;Meeus, Van Petegem, and Engels 2009;van der Schaaf, Stokking, and Verloop 2005). Recent research on music education TPPs illustrates that the content-specific pedagogical knowledge of the raters is critical when evaluating electronic portfolios for the connections between the artifacts within portfolio (Parkes 2013).…”

An Examination of Music Student Teaching Seminars at Midwestern Universities

“…I chose a 4-point scale to obviate a neutral response and create a forced choice between extensively addressed and not at all. Based on extant research concerning student teacher assessment (Borko & Mayfield, 1995; Tillema, 2009) and, specifically, the use of professional portfolios (Berg, 1997; Draves, 2009), I asked respondents to indicate which types of assignments and culminating projects were used in the seminar course in an attempt to determine how these activities addressed the concerns of student teachers and cooperating teachers.…”

Problems, visions and concerns of pre-service music and general education teachers in Greece resulting from their teaching practice in music

“…Programmes that require teacher candidates to submit reports or portfolios containing lesson plans, student observations, reflections on student progress, and self-evaluations can help them and their supervisors identify and better understand successful practice and problem areas. This information can and should be used as feedback, which teacher preparation programmes and their academic tutors and administrators will use to improve their initiatives (Aróstegui 2011;Draves 2009;Darling-Hammond 2006).…”

“…Agreement and shared understanding between all parties leads to a positive and reliable assessment that promotes the growth and development of preservice music teachers (Heiling 2011;Draves 2009). But the most valuable aspect of training in this framework for teaching does not consist of the acquisition of skills in assembling evidence on the different components.…”