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
GeoJournal Volume 31 Issue 3 1993 (Doi 10.1007 - bf00817378) Antoine S. Bailly - Spatial Imaginary and Geography - A Plea For The Geography of Representations