REFLECTION ePor%olios encourage student ownership and direc4on of learning as they select and reflect on their evidence for presenta4on. As Housego & Parker (2009) tell us, an epor%olio can contain a ‘range of materials from a variety of sources’, including those produced for course based assessment to support reflec4ve prac4ce. RE-THINKING PEDAGOGY Teaching and learning beyond the walls of our ins4tu4on should encompass new thinking about pedagogies and new ways of developing courses for students beyond gradua4on. Integra4ng por%olios at a course and (par4cularly) program level can enhance the life-‐long learning need for alignment of learning goals and prac4ce with evalua4on. ePor%olio prac4ce supports BarneL's “epistemology for uncertainty” which proposes that students “develop powers of cri4cal ac4on.” (Barne', 2000, p240). MAKING A DIFFERENCE epor%olios have the poten4al to provide the core principles for effec4ve assessment. 1. Assessment that guides and encourages effec4ve
approaches to learning, 2. Assessment that validly and reliably measures expected
learning outcomes, in par4cular the higher-‐order learning that characterises higher educa4on; and
3. Assessment and grading that defines and protects academic standards.
(Assessing Learning in Australian Universi:es, Three objec:ves of Higher Educa:on Assessment. James, McInnis & Devlin, 2002)
Making a Difference – Innovation in Assessment Belinda Allen, Kate Coleman & Adele Flood, Learning and Teaching Unit (LTU)
Epor%olio assessment acts as sustainable assessment (Boud, 2000) that enables students to: • iden4fy their learning • make judgements about their learning • prepare them for future learning. As Boud & Falchikov (2006) suggest, assessment should ‘not only address the immediate needs of cer4fica4on or feedback to students on their current learning, but also contribute in some way to their prospec4ve learning’.
Becoming an self and peer ASSESSOR can assist in a students prepara4on for life long learning. Epor%olios have the ability to involve students in ‘preparing them for the tasks of making complex judgements about their work and that of others and for making decisions in the uncertain and unpredictable circumstances in which they will find themselves in the future’ (Boud & Falchikov, 2006)
As Royce Sadler (2011) tells us; there are 3 basic requirements for learners to become proficient in some domain: 1. Students need to know what high quality work is
and be able to recognise it when they see it;
2. Students need to know how to iden4fy quality and to be able to locate par4cular weakness’ and strengths that account for quality in work; and
3. Students need to know how to iden4fy the
necessary changes and adapta4ons that could convert a par4cular work – whether their own or that of another producer – into one of a higher quality’ with the necessary. supports.
Unless the students can ‘appraise the quality of a work they are in the process of construc4ng, they have no framework for improving it’ (Sadler, 2011). Epor%olios can encourage the ability to NOTICE QUALITY in a student’s own work and that of their peers as they become more familiar with the ‘standard’ required. Teaching students to NOTICE high quality work can be achieved in an epor%olio as students become ‘recep4ve to the processes’.
Contact: Kate Coleman, e. [email protected]; Belinda Allen, e. [email protected], Learning and Teaching Unit (LTU) UNSW.
Benefits of eportfolio assessment
Model for eporIolio pracJce An epor%olio is able to draw together the user’s personal, professional and academic prac4ces, requires them to develop, evaluate and select representa4ve artefacts, and present them in formats to suit different audiences and purposes.
INNOVATION Any change in assessment prac4ce requires course and program revision. Lefng students become inspired by high quality work is an aspira4onal goal of an epor%olio in higher educa4on. As an innova4ve and transforma4ve pedagogy, epor%olio assessment can lead to more frequent and reflec4ve feedback through more forma4ve assessment.