Portfolio Assessment: Overview

1 Definition of Terms

Portfolio - is a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the student’s efforts, progress and achievements in one or more areas

What does this collection include?

-Student participation in selecting contents

- the criteria for selection

- the criteria for judging merit

- evidence of student self-reflection

The portfolio contains samples of the learner's work and shows growth over time. An important keyword is REFLECTION: By reflecting on their own work, learners begin to identify the strengths and weaknesses of their own work (self-assessment). The weaknesses then become improvement goals.

Reflections

Preparations before you start with portfolio assessment

In portfolio assessment, the learners reflect on their own work. The reflections should say something about why the learners have made the choices they have made in the portfolio, and describe the method used to arrive at the final result. If two learners submit the same work for assessment, the individual reflections may make the difference. Even if a learner has failed with the content presented in the assessment portfolio to a certain degree, he or she might be rewarded for mature reflections on the work.

Portfolio assessment requires thorough preparation. Before you start with portfolio assessment in a course, you should specify the extent of the content and specify what and how much content is to be included in the portfolio. You should also specify how it should be assessed. In other words, portfolio assessment requires planning in advance.

Assessment - is a process by which information is obtained relative to some known objective or goal

Portfolio Assessment - is an assessment form that learners do together with their teachers, and is an alternative to the classic classroom test. It is an evaluation tool used to document student learning through a series of student-developed artifacts. In portfolio assessment, it is the quality that counts, not the quantity. Another keyword is learning objectives. Each portfolio entry needs to be assessed with reference to its specific learning objectives or goals.

Authentic Assessment - is a form of assessment in which students are asked to perform real-world tasks that demonstrate meaningful application of essential knowledge and skills

2 Comparative: Traditional Assessment vs. Authentic Assessment

Traditional and Authentic Assessment differs on the following:

Traditional Assessment	Authentic Assessment
Selecting a response Contrived Recall / Recognition Teacher-Structured Indirect Evidence	Performing a Task Real-Life Construction / Application Student-Structured Direct Evidence

Selecting a Response to Performing a Task: 

On traditional assessments, students are typically given several choices (e.g., a,b,c or d; true or false; which of these match with those) and asked to select the right answer. In contrast, authentic assessments ask students to demonstrate understanding by performing a more complex task usually representative of more meaningful application.

Contrived to Real-life: 

In contrived means of assessment, one is asked to select from four alternatives to indicate proficiency at something (for example: tests). Meanwhile, in authentic assessment, one is asked to demonstrate proficiency by doing something.

Recall/Recognition of Knowledge to Construction/Application of Knowledge:

Well-designed traditional assessments (i.e., tests and quizzes) can effectively determine whether or not students have acquired a body of knowledge. Thus, as mentioned above, tests can serve as a nice complement to authentic assessments in a teacher's assessment portfolio.

Furthermore, authentic assessments often ask students to analyze, synthesize, and apply what they have learned in a substantial manner, and students create new meaning in the process as well.

Teacher-structured to Student-structured: 

When completing a traditional assessment, what a student can and will demonstrate has been carefully structured by the teacher who developed the test. In contrast, authentic assessments allow more student choice and construction in determining what is presented as evidence of proficiency. Even when students cannot choose their own topics or formats, there are usually multiple acceptable routes toward constructing a product or performance.

Indirect Evidence to Direct Evidence: 

When a student selects the right answer in a multiple-choice test, the teacher doesn’t know the thinking of the student that led to picking the right answer. At best, the teacher can make some inferences about what that student might know and might be able to do with that knowledge. This evidence is very indirect. 

Authentic assessments, on the other hand, offer more direct evidence of the application and construction of knowledge. For instance, a PE student is placed on the basketball court to play provides much more direct evidence of proficiency in playing basketball than giving the student a written test.