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Portfolio
In this assignment you will need to develop and produce a Personal Development Portfolio for yourself. In the course of preparing the materials for this portfolio you will work with other members of your “learning set” but the final assignment which is submitted must be entirely your own work.
This process will require you to synthesise and build upon much of the information and many of the activities within the module. You will need to critically reflect upon the module. This assignment will require a high level of reflective and creative thinking and input
Start working on this assignment from day one of the module. One of the assessment criteria that I shall be using is based around how much you have developed during the module.
The portfolio is built up from a variety of different materials:
•Discussion and reflection of Learning Set/Seminar activities.
•Discussion and reflection of significant learning.
Apart from the above, what you put in the portfolio is up to you, but do remember that you need to demonstrate achievement of the assessment criteria.
You may choose to submit your portfolio in varying formats. Whatever format you choose to use, you must ensure that your work contains reference to appropriate theories and produces evidence of critical thinking and reflection on your own learning and development. Your work must be free standing and self-explanatory to the marking tutor.
“Experience is the child of Thought and Thought is the child of Action. We cannot learn men from books alone” Disraeli.
This activity allows individuals to take a step back from an experience and create inferences about it in order to more fully understand its significance and meaning. By “pondering” about the learning and development going on, reflection uncovers insight and learning themes, connects your learning and performance, and yields more relevant feedback.
We all indulge in this process already, but generally at an unconscious or semi-conscious level. Many organisations and businesses do it, keen to improve their products by reflecting upon the experiences of their customers…….and keen to improve their internal (production) processes by encouraging all employees to reflect upon how they do their jobs and thus how their jobs can be improved!
In the same vein, all top sports people have to indulge in some sort of reflection upon their performance….in order to learn how to improve. If they don’t do this, they will not be at the top of their chosen sport for very long!
Practice is a necessary, but not a sufficient condition for learning: there are many examples of people repeating mistakes over and over again - we never learn from our mistakes alone, we only learn from reflecting upon our mistakes….and quite often the learning gained from our “mistakes” can be far more powerful and meaningful than learning from success. #p#分页标题#e#
In order to capitalise on seminar/lecture experiences as learning/development opportunities and to maximise any possible gain, it is necessary to take some time to consider and reflect on what happened in the event and turn those seminar/lecture experiences into learning/development. Kolb (1984) suggested that people learn more effectively by reviewing each occasion in which learning may take place. Schon (1987) used the phrase “reflection-in-action”.
Reflection is a key element in the learning process. It converts informal and perhaps accidental opportunities into efficient learning.
It is a flexible method, which recognises that learning & development is a personal and individual process.
There are a variety of models and frameworks to help explain, facilitate and capture reflective learning (Kolb’s Learning Cycle, Honey & Mumford’s Learning Styles).
Below is another one, which has three stages of reflection:
Some Reflection Prompts.
•Have any intriguing ideas emerged from your ?
•What ideas (from lectures, work experience, other related modules….?) stand out in your mind as being particularly important/useful?
•How do these ideas relate to other similar ideas you have come across?
•How can you use these ideas in the future?
•Can you relate some of these ideas to the world of work?
•What made it easy or difficult for you to learn? What does that say about how you prefer to learn?
•Are any general themes emerging?
•What actions do you plan to take based on what you learned?
Review the above list of reflection questions for each seminar/lecture and choose a few to prompt your thinking rather than the entire list.
Do not be afraid to use drawings, diagrams, metaphors…..to push beyond a mere surface evaluation or chronological description of what you did. Rather than what you did, I want to read about the impact it has had on your understanding, learning and development. You are not expected to summarise and cover every lecture or seminar!
Assessment Criteria
Students will be assessed against the following criteria;
Evidence of a considered approach taken to reflect upon and review learning and development
Clear identification of personal development.
There is evidence of critical thinking and reading beyond the class sessions.
Application and integration of relevant theories.
Creative, informative, (critical) reflection on personal of activities undertaken.
Sound understanding from the theory.
Evidence of wide and appropriate reading
Evidence of development during the module.
Evidence of full coverage of all elements in the module.
Portfolios
What is a portfolio?
A portfolio is essentially a collection of different types of work which demonstrates your ‘growth and development’ (Rieman 2000:3) as practitioners in a variety of fields. This idea of growth is very important to portfolio usage. Cameron (1999:170) sees porfolios as telling a ‘story’ explaining an individual’s situation and showing how she/he develops and uses competencies or skills. Therefore, a good portfolio will clearly show goal-oriented development and improvements over time, demonstrating learning actually taking place.#p#分页标题#e#
In the past portfolios have been commonly associated with certain types of activity – for example, artists and models often refer to portfolios of their work. However, portfolios are becoming increasingly popular both in education and the wider world of work Portfolios can include a huge variety of ‘exhibits’ (Cameron 1999:169) ranging from reflective diary entries to formal reports/essays; from recordings of presentations to testimonials or appraisal reports. The only ‘must-have’ exhibit in all good portfolios would be evidence of working towards pre-planned goals or objectives,
Why do we use portfolios?
Portfolios have a number of advantages for tutor and student
•Students can take a more personal approach to their work, following topics, issues and questions that are particularly relevant to the individual.
•Students have more control over their assessment.
•As a means of assessment portfolios can cover a variety of learning experiences beyond the usual Higher Education setting.
•Portfolios are particularly useful when assessing ‘practical’ aspects of learning (such as work-based learning).
•Portfolios are developed over time, and so track students’ progress rather than focusing on an end product. This can help in assessing the learning environment and process as well as the student’s performance.
•All of these strengths make portfolios ideal for assessing progress in general ‘development’ type modules. Such modules often include a large number of learning outcomes that would be difficult to assess with more formal and prescriptive methods such as essays, reports or presentations.
In a paper that considered the value of portfolios for teachers (although equally relevant to other professions) Rieman (2000:6) adds to the list:
•Portfolios facilitate the development of reflective thinking.
•Portfolios present a holistic view of your achievements.
•Portfolios provide an ongoing record of your accomplishments.
•Portfolios place the responsibility on you to develop and plan for your goals.
•Portfolios correlate with national and state initiatives toward performance based assessment.
•Portfolios may be used to document and validate teacher [or other professional/ student] accomplishments.
•Portfolios may be used to assess preservice and inservice teacher [or other profession] performances.
•Portfolios enhance job searches and interview processes.’
References
Cameron S. (1999) Business Student’s Handbook – developing transferable skills. London: Financial Times, Pitman Publishing.
Rieman, P.L. (2000) Teaching Portfolios: Presenting Your Professional Best. London: McGraw Hill.#p#分页标题#e#
utting together a Personal Development & Career Planning Portfolio/Journal/Log
A learning file – spontaneous thoughts, feelings, reflections, ideas, evidence (anything that might be useful)
Keep a notebook, or folder.
Start it now, and continue to gather information, thoughts, reflections, ideas…..don’t try to retrospectively gather all of this in the last weeks before it’s due in.
clude things from college (all your subjects), outside of college, future life, aspirations, past work and life experiences.
From this wide array of material, you can select items for your portfolio.
Your Portfolio is likely to contain both narrative and explanation, evidence and examples, reflection and actions, development – past, present, future (objectives).
Structure.
This is really up to you. It could be:
•In some sort of chronological order
•Organised around development and career objectives
•Organised around different themes – short, medium & long term.
Key Elements
•Exploring/taking stock
•Planning for Development/Career
•Implementing/Taking action – current or future planned.
•Reviewing
Exploring/Taking Stock
Aptitudes
Other preferences/measures…..learning styles, Belbin Team Roles, “personality tests”….
Previous learning/work incidents
Models of personal competence
Aspirations, values, beliefs, attitudes…
Strengths, weaknesses, development….
Planning for Development/Career
Different methods/approaches
Need to establish SMART objectives
Establish timescales, review/evaluation methods
Think short, medium & long-term
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