Педагогические науки/5. Современные методы преподавания

К.п.н. Швайковский А.С.,

Досимбекова Д.Б.

Южно-Казахстанский государственный университет имени М.Ауезова, Республика Казахстан

Portfolio as effective learning tool in contemporary educational process

The notion “portfolio” comes from the Western Europe in XV-XVI centuries. In the epoch of the Renaissance the architectures showed their own ready-made and sketch works in a special document case, designated as “portfolio”. That documents could compose an effect about professional qualities of a pretender.

Nowadays portfolio is applied in business so as to show major breakthrough of the company, in the realm of photographers and fashion models - as a special album with photos.

The idea of usage portfolio in the sphere of education sprang up in the USA at the middle of the eighties of the 20^th century. After the USA and Canada the idea of portfolio became rather popular in Europe and Japan, and then at the beginning of the 21^st century the notion “portfolio” gets far-famed in the Republic of Kazakhstan and Russia [1].

A portfolio is a purposeful collection of a student’s works that exhibits the student’s efforts, progress, and achievements in one or more areas of the curriculum.

It should represent a collection of student’s best works or best efforts, student-selected samples of work experiences related to outcomes being assessed, and documents according to the growth and development towards mastering the identified outcomes [2].

In the new era of performance assessment related to the monitoring of students’ mastery of a core curriculum, portfolios can really enhance the assessment process by revealing a range of skills and understandings; support instructional goals; reflect change and growth over a period of time; encourage a student, a teacher, and parent reflection; provide for continuity in education from one year to another.

Tutors can use portfolios for a variety of specific purposes, like encouraging self-directed learning, enlarging the view of what is learned, fostering learning about learning, demonstrating progress towards identified outcomes, creating an intersection for instruction and assessment, providing a way for students to value themselves as learners and offering opportunities for peer-supported growth.

It is also a rather easier way to assess students’ growth in the sphere of knowledge, because it is continuous and ongoing, providing both formative and summative opportunities for monitoring students’ progress towards achieving some essential outcomes. It provides collaborative reflection, including ways for students to reflect about their own thinking processes as they monitor their own comprehension, reflect upon their approaches to creative problem-solving and decision-making, and observe their emerging understanding of subjects and skills.

Portfolios can assist in solving significant pedagogical sums:

- provide evidence of a wider range of personal and intellectual abilities and skills than most conventional forms of assessment;

- support the integration of learning from different parts of a curriculum;

- achieve a close integration of learning and assessment, particularly if you use problem-based learning;

- prove harder to plagiarize than more conventional coursework assessments;

- provide evidence of ‘employability’ by showing employers what students can do, as well as what they know [3].

20 years ago portfolios were only paper-based, but nowadays we have many different types of portfolios, each of which can serve one or more specific purposes as part of an overall school or classroom assessment program (see Table 1).

Table 1

Types of portfolios

Documentation (working) portfolio	Process portfolio	Showcase portfolio
This approach involves a collection of work over time showing growth and improvement reflecting students’ learning of identified outcomes. The documentation portfolio can include everything from brainstorming activities to drafts to finished products. The collection becomes meaningful when specific items are selected out to focus on particular educational experiences or goals. It can include the best and weakest of a student’s work.	This approach documents all facets or phases of the learning process. They are particularly useful in documenting students’ overall learning process. It can show how students integrate specific knowledge or skills and progress towards both basic and advanced mastery. The process portfolio inevitably emphasizes students’ reflection upon their learning process, including the use of reflective journals, think logs, etc.	This type of portfolio is best used for summative evaluation of students’ mastery of key curriculum outcomes. It should include students’ best work, determined through a combination of a student and a teacher selection. Only completed work should be included. This type of portfolio is especially compatible with audio-visual artifact development, including photographs, videotapes, and electronic records of students’ completed work. The showcase portfolio should also include written analysis and reflections by student upon the decision-making process used to determine which works are included.

Below we show some strengths of portfolio assessment that could be seen in contrast to traditional forms of assessment (see Table 2).

Table 2

Contrast between traditional and portfolio assessment

Traditional	Portfolio
measures student’s ability at one time	measures student’s ability over time
done by teacher alone; student is often unaware of criteria	done by teacher and student; student is aware of criteria
conducted outside instruction	embedded in instruction
assigns student a grade	involves student in own assessment
does not capture the range of student’s language ability	captures many facets of language learning performance
does not include the teacher’s knowledge of a student as a learner	allows for expression of teacher’s knowledge of a student as learner
does not give student responsibility	student learns how to take responsibility

Portfolios have generated a good deal of interest in recent years in the Republic of Kazakhstan, with teachers taking the lead in exploring ways to use them. Teachers have integrated portfolios into instruction and assessment, gained administrative support, and answered their own as well as student, administrator, and parent questions about portfolio assessment. There are some concerns focused on reliability, validity, process, evaluation, and time. These concerns apply equally to other assessment instruments, because there is no assessment instrument that meets every teacher’s purpose perfectly, is entirely valid and reliable, takes no time to prepare, and meets each student’s learning style.

Литература:

1. Калмыкова И.Р. Портфолио как средство самоорганизации и саморазвития личности // Образование в современной школе, 2002, № 5 - С. 23-27.

2. Paul S. George. What is portfolio assessment really and how can I use it in my classroom? Gainesville, FL: Teacher Education Resources, 1995.

3. Franklin S., Peat M. Managing change: the use of mixed delivery modes to increase learning opportunities // Australian journal of education technology, 2001, V. 17, №1, P. 37-49.