The document discusses portfolio assessment models used in teacher education programs in Norway. It presents a three-phase model of portfolio processes: collection, reflection, and selection. The model is used to analyze portfolio implementation at two Norwegian institutions. Both sites emphasize social learning but individual work dominates. Developing criteria and student self-assessment could improve learning potential. While portfolios enhance formative assessment, summative assessment relies more on traditional exams. Greater emphasis on student participation and negotiation in assessment is recommended to better utilize portfolios' learning benefits.

1. Alternative assessment in
teacher education
Dysthe, O. and K. S. Engelsen (2004) Portfolios and
assessment in teacher education in Norway: a theory-
based discussion of different models in two sites. I
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, Apr
2004, Vol. 29 Issue 2, p239,
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2. Introduction
• “The Quality Reform of Higher Education” 2001
• Portfolios were specifically mentioned
• The project: “Alternative assessment in teacher education”
• Involves three Norwegian teacher institutions:
– The Department of Teacher Education at the University of Oslo
– Departments of Teacher Education at the University Colleges of Vestfold
– Departments of Teacher Education at the University Colleges of
Stord/Haugesund
• The project is based on social constructivist and sociocultural
perspectives
• The focus in this article is on describing and discussing the portfolio
models and typical learning and assessment processes in the two
sites, with a particular emphasis on the learning potential and areas
of improvement.
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3. Main questions
• What are similarities and differences in the
portfolio models that are implemented by our
two sites?
• What are particular areas for further
improvement?
• What are critical factors in portfolio work as
regards students' learning processes?
• How is the digital aspect of portfolios
utilized and what are unused potentials?
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4. Definition of portfolio
“A portfolio is a purposeful collection of
student work that exhibits the student'
efforts, progress, or achievements in one
or more areas. The collection must include
student participation in selecting contents,
the criteria for judging merit, and evidence
of the student`s self-reflection.” (p. 60)
(Paulson, F. L., Paulson, P. R. & .“Meyer, C. ( 1991) What makes a port folio a portfolio?
Educational Leadership. 48(5), 6O - 63.)
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5. A model of analysis for portfolio
processes
• The model presented in Figure 1 is based on a collection-reflection-
selection framework
• Want to raise awareness of advantages and disadvantages of
different ways of practicing portfolios
• Primarily a descriptive and analytic tool
• Purpose is to illustrate how the learning potential at different
stages in the portfolio processes depends on what choices are
made regarding some key factors in each of the 'learning phases‘
• Particularly interested in how the portfolio can support student
learning.
• Meant to help identify critical factors for improvement, especially in
institutions where they have just started using portfolios
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6. Figure 1. A model of analysis for portfolio processes in the project
«Alternative assessment in teachers education in Norway»
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7. Learning phase 1
Questions:
• Organization
– How are learning processes organized?
– What combinations?
• Individual-collective
– How is the relationship between individual and collective/collaborative work?
– What kinds of work dominate?
• ICT
– Is ICT used primarily for individual writing and for organization of portfolio processes, or also
for feedback, discussion and collaboration?
• Writing and feedback practices
– How are the recommended writing strategies?
– Who gives feedback and how is it organized?
• Meta-processes
– To what extent are reflection as well as discussion and negotiation of criteria integrated in the
work with theoretical and practical aspects of the subject area?
Teacher and peer feedback are widely recognized as crucial aspects of formative assessment.
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8. Learning phase 2
Questions:
• Self-assessment
– Are students involved in self-assessment as part of selecting what goes
into the PP, and do they use criteria and reflection in doing so?
• Criteria
– Have students been given explicit criteria for what counts as good
quality work?
– Have these been developed in cooperation with the students or
negotiated with them?
• Reflection
– Are students asked to write reflective text s for their PP?
Several studies have documented that self-assessment of portfolio work
is an important aspect of formative assessment as well as students' need
for criteria
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9. Learning phase 3
Some critical factors:
• Object and format of assessment
– What is being assessed?
– The portfolio itself?
– Portfolio-based oral performance or written essays?
– Combination of portfolio and traditional exam?
• Student involvement
– Is the student directly involved?
– What degree of control does the student have over the object of assessment?
• Criteria
– Are the criteria implicit or explicit?
– Do the criteria include process or just product?
• Assessor
– Is the traditional Norwegian pattern of external assessors + teacher still dominant?
– Are peer and self-assessment used for summative purpose?
• Reflection
– Is there any space for setting new learning goals on the basis of assessment results?
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10. Portfolios in the light of sociocultural
theories of knowledge and learning
From sociocultural perspectives knowledge and learning are viewed as situated, social, distributed and
mediated, dependent on language and dependent on participation in communities of practice.
• Portfolios as mediating artefacts
– Portfolios are mediating cultural tools, and the physical and cultural aspects of them are important, as well
as the rules and routines and processes the portfolios are surrounded by and embedded in.
– Digitalization of portfolios provides an interesting example of how learning processes change when the
mediating tool changes.
• Learning as situated, social and distributed
– When knowledge development and knowledge production is in focus instead of knowledge reproduction,
the notion that knowledge is distributed becomes of practical importance in the learning activities
– From a sociocultural perspective language is not just a mediating tool for learning, but closely bound up with
thinking itself
– Collaborative learning processes are dependent on shared oral and written information and on dialogic
interactions at all stages of knowledge production.
• Learning as participation in communities of practice
– In order to define a teacher education class or a peer group as 'a community of practice', the students must
share a mutual engagement in learning, be willing to define the particular learning task as a joint enterprise
and share 'repertoires', for instance strategies for group work, for how to give response or for how to create
hypertextual links.
– An important question to ask is therefore whether portfolio assignments pre-supposes students'
participation in and across different communities of practice or only individual engagement with the tasks.
– One implication is the close connection between process and product.
– In portfolio artefacts the process is implicit in the product.
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11. Some general findings
• Portfolios influence the pedagogical processes in both sites and have improved formative
assessment.
• There is considerable emphasis on social learning processes in both sites.
• Unless cooperation and collaboration are built into the portfolio assignments, individual work
continues to be dominant. Assignments are therefore crucial.
• Developing an integrated portfolio and ICT pedagogy is a major change and takes tune.
• Written Net-based dialogues complement oral dialogues both among students and between
students and teachers.
• Increased workload is a problem both for teacher and students, especially the first semester
due to the demand of developing the specific competencies in using the mediating tools
• None of the sires utilize fully the learning potential in all the three phases of the model of
analysis. Some improvement areas are:
– (a) criteria work in phase l and 2;
– (b) student written reflective texts; and
– (c) self-assessment and selection.
• The summative forms of assessment can be characterized as hybrid in the sense that
traditional exams are mixed with portfolios in various ways. The most successful
innovation in summative assessment is a portfolio-based oral exam.
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12. How do the sites utilize the learning
potential in each of the phases 1?
• Learning phase 1: Formative assessment
– The use of portfolios and ICT has resulted in changes in the way
student learning is organized.
– Efforts to change from lecture-based teaching to project- and
problem-based learning.
– Portfolios afford more systematic use of peer feedback, mainly
individual, but also in the form of response groups.
– Developing and negotiating quality criteria for student work
may be a necessary next step.
– There is a need for developing expertise on collective portfolios.
– All sites are still mainly teacher and curriculum controlled and
that moving the locus of control to students is a hard and
difficult process.
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13. How do the sites utilize the learning
potential in each of the phases 2?
• Learning phase 2: Formative assessment.
– Phase 2 is weakly represented in the project.
– Neither of the sites have a strong focus on selection,
criteria work and self-assessment.
– There is much evidence in the international portfolio
literature that the selection process promotes self-
assessment and focuses students' attention on quality
criteria.
– There is a considerable improvement potential in our two
sites in the area of self-assessment.
– The portfolios are not assessed directly but indirectly in a
portfolio-based oral or written exam.
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14. How do the sites utilize the learning
potential in each of the phases 3?
• Learning phase 3: Summative assessment
– There are three main models of assessment where portfolios are involved:
• the portfolio itself is being graded
• the portfolio is the source from which students extract material to present digitally at an oral
exam
• written exams, where students more or less directly develop some aspects of portfolio contents
– None of the disciplines in the study base students' grades solely on the
portfolio.
– Neither is self- or peer assessment involved in the summative assessment
process.
– The assessment commission, consisting of external assessor and the teacher,
determines the final grade.
– Seems to be a discrepancy between the importance of the portfolio in
learning phase l and the lack of importance given to it in the summative
assessment.
– A positive aspect according to the students is the new oral, portfolio-based
exam, where students are given 10 -15 minutes for a digital presentation of
selected portfolio work, followed by questions and discussion.
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15. Discussion of three critical aspects of
portfolio work 1
• Negotiated portfolio assignments
– Portfolio assignments must provide opportunities
for rich and complex learning situations
– Assignments should signal the need for collaboration
– What kind of practice do we want students to
document in the portfolio?
– Problems need to be complex even if reification of
individual cognitive activity is the goal
– Assignments need to be carefully designed
– Such assignments need to be discussed and
negotiated with students
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16. Discussion of three critical aspects of
portfolio work 2
• Reflection/self-assessment
– It is important to build reflection and self-assessment into the
portfolio assignment itself
– These features of portfolio work are elements of students' identity
building
– Reflection and self-assessment strengthen these identity-forming
processes
– It is vital that they are part of the portfolio work and also documented
in the form of text
– Quality criteria are important for students in order to self-assess
– These criteria need to be negotiated in order for students to make
them their own
– The learning potential in reification and self-assessment for lie in
sharing them with trusted peers and teachers instead of in grading
such texts
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17. Discussion of three critical aspects of
portfolio work 3
• The format of summative assessment
– They argue for the students' participation in the
summative assessment process
– There is no reification without participation
– Assessment formats, which allow students'
participation and open up for negotiation of
meaning, can bring out more of the 'iceberg' of
the process
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18. Concluding remarks
• The core issue in the assessment discussion seems to be the
relation between formative and summative assessment.
• The model of analysis emphasizes collaborative and meta-reflective
aspects, criteria development and self- and peer assessment
• A stronger focus on these aspects involves a shift of focus from
summative to formative assessment which seems fundamental for
increasing the learning potential of portfolios
• Changing the assessment system has more to do with learning in
general than with assessment as an isolated phenomenon
• lf portfolio assessment is introduced into a culture dominated by a
traditional view of knowledge and learning, the outcome may
either be an instrumentalization of portfolios or a change in the
culture itself.
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19. The paper's contribution to the field
of e-assessment
You can read my text here
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20. Reflections on how to apply the idea
of this paper in a relevant educational
context
You can see my reflection on this Evernoteside
Flesberg 19.03.13
Jan-Arve Overland
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