Using Portfolios for Guidance and Assessment purposes

Abstract

Portfolio assessment is the systematic, longitudinal collection of student work created in response to specific, known instructional objectives and evaluated in relation to the same criteria. In many educational programmes, portfolio is used for evaluating student performance. Even in primary classrooms and in university degree courses it is effectively used for many purposes. Especially it can be used for instructional purposes, assessment purposes, administrative purposes and certification purposes. It can also be used for tracking growth of student achievement overtime. // Portfolios are very useful but they’re not quick and easy to evaluate, plus they’re hard to rank using a grade or score. Because portfolios are qualitative, many employers find them difficult to use as a determinant of candidates’ abilities. Employers would rather see a quantitative demonstration of a student’s best skills and work. There is no single way of preparing portfolios. Some create portfolios that serve as a representative sample of a student’s work, showing the range of performance and experience. // The Department of Early Childhood development and Primary Education of the National Institute of Education is conducting an Early Childhood Development Diploma course on an experiment level. It is expected to introduce new innovations to the field of teacher education in ECCD through this course. Therefore, it was decided to examine the effective ways of using portfolios for evaluating student performance and providing necessary guidance and advice continuously for them in the ECCD course.