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Running head: PORTFOLIO LITERATURE 1

Portfolios are used in many different fields of work. In teaching, a portfolio is


considered a method for professional development. It contains a teachers experience as a
teacher and as a learner. Portfolios are not limited to specific standards, but unlimited to
the amount of resources, lesson plans, student work, reflections, etc. that can be included.
It is a collection of a teachers journey in becoming a teacher. Therefore, portfolios serve as
a reflective resource for teachers to manage and organize their beliefs, skills, and
experiences in the classroom.
Edgerton, Hutchings, and Quinlan (1991) state that, portfolios should provide
documented evidence of teaching that is connected to the specifics and contexts of what is
being taught. Documenting evidence of teaching is resourceful to professional
development in many ways. When teachers document lessons in their portfolio, they are
able to refer back to it when teaching the same lesson years later. It can serve as a basis for
improving the lesson by documenting what worked and what did not. Moreover it can
serve as a source for peer reviewing with colleagues. When teachers share their lessons
with colleagues, they are able to feed off each others ideas and collaborate in their
struggles to develop competence in the area of instruction (Riggs, et al., 1997). Using
portfolios to collaborate with colleagues helps teachers grow interpersonally because they
will have the capacity to understand and work with other people (Tilman, 1994). Part of
documenting teaching is also having a collection of student work that supplements the
lesson. Student work can help teachers provide different levels of modeling for students.
Teachers can collect student work that varies from a high level work to low level. This will
allow future students to understand what a high level work looks like. Documenting
Running head: PORTFOLIO LITERATURE 2
evidence of teaching leads to professional development because it allows the teacher to
reflect upon the lesson, to see the outcome/product of the lesson, and to assess it.
Riggs, et al. (1997) write that the purpose of the portfolio is formative rather than
summative. When portfolios are formative, the collection of teacher resources never ends,
instead it continuously documents growth and progress. It is important to continuously
add on to the portfolio because as the new school year comes, methods change, standards
change, and old practices may not be effective. Moreover, a formative portfolio shows
growth over the years. When a teacher looks back at his or her portfolio started years ago,
he or she will be able to reflect on how much he or she grew as a teacher throughout the
years with practice. Teachers will also be able to pinpoint their strengths and weaknesses,
and work towards strengthening their weaknesses. By having a formative portfolio,
teachers are able to document new practices and methods for future reference. Technology
is a current supplement in the classrooms and will only keep advancing. It is the
responsibility of teachers to keep up to date to learn methods and skills, which they can
record in their journals and refer to in the portfolio. Teachers have to keep in mind that in
order to develop professionally, they have to continuously add on to their portfolio with
current practices. If teachers think of portfolios as summative, they are stating that their
learning stopped.
For professional development, Hughes and Moore (2007) write that reflective
portfolio can follow three models, a critical incident, a continuous professional
development framework, or Boyers scholarship. By including reflective critical incidents in
portfolios, teachers are able to reflect and improve their own practice by focusing on
events that occurred throughout the day. This is especially useful when managing the
Running head: PORTFOLIO LITERATURE 3
classroom. When events occur in the classroom, the teacher can reflect upon it by filling out
a cellular approach chart, which includes: what was happening, how did you feel, what did
you do, and what was your result/your learning? By recording the days events, the teacher
will know how to approach a similar problem later on in the future. It will allow the teacher
to act proactive rather than reactive. Furthermore, the teacher has the opportunity to
reflect on the choices that he or she made. The way the teacher approaches situations
affects the classroom environment because students observe the situations as well and
learn from it. Therefore, by including reflections in portfolios, teachers are growing and
developing skills for future reference.
According to Lasley and Tilman (1994), portfolios help enhance the interpersonal
and intrapersonal intelligence of pre-service teachers. A teacher will get a better
understanding of his or her intrapersonal intelligence because he/she will be selecting
meaningful experiences to include in the portfolio. After selecting meaningful experiences,
teachers are able to reflect upon those teaching experiences and improve their ability to
understand their inner self.
As all the literature on portfolios seems to encompass, portfolios are a crucial
component in teachers developing professionally. Portfolios give teachers the opportunity
to reflect on their teaching and allow room for growth. Without portfolios, teachers will not
be able to observe their growth as a teacher. Teachers are not only teaching, but also
learning, and portfolios document their continuous learning. It is crucial for teachers to
know what has been working, and what needs to be more developed.


Running head: PORTFOLIO LITERATURE 4
References
Edgerton, R., Hutchings, P. and Quinlan, K. (1991). The Teaching Portfolio: Capturing the
Scholarship in Teaching. Washington, DC: The American Association for Higher
Education.
Hughes, J., Moore, I. (2007). Reflective Portfolios for Professional Development. Retrieved
from http://www.aishe.org/readings/2007-2/chap-02.pdf
Lasley, T., & Tillman, B. (1994, February). Portfolio development: Enhancing professional
intelligence. University of Dayton Ohio Annual meeting of the American association
of colleges for teacher education, Dayton, Ohio.
Riggs, I. M., Sandlin, R. A., Scott, L., Childress, L., & Mitchell, D. (1997). The new teacher
portfolio: A bridge to professional development. Retrieved from http://eduproxy.tc-
library.org/?url=/docview/62509192?accountid=14258

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