General overview of how to implement it

The class organization of the portfolio assessment can be virtual or on paper. More than one teacher can be involved in the assessment as well as different stakeholders. 

The portfolio gives proof that the learning of the teacher takes place:

• by experimenting;
• from and with others;
• from different sources of information and by creatively combining experiences from (working) life;
• in the context of working life, by applying knowledge, by doing;
• in a multidisciplinary manner, by combining different competences;
• in a problem-based manner;
• in a goal-oriented manner.

The portfolio contains samples of the teacher’s or student’s work and shows growth over time. An important keyword is reflection: by reflection on his own work, the teacher starts to identify the strengths and weaknesses of his/her own work (self-assessment). The weaknesses become improvement goals. The reflections should say something about why the teacher has made the choices in the portfolio, and describe the method used to arrive at the final result.

Portfolio;

• is the student’s collection which reflects student’s individual studies, effort, process
• is the student’s collection which reflects student’s studies in one or a few fields, effort, stages that passed through and success. In defining the content of this collection, the student should also be active
• Kemp and Toperoff (1998) define the portfolio as “purposively collection of the student’s effort, progress and success in one or more fields”

The common point in the definitions above is the purposive collection of students’ studies. It shows that students’ studies should be collected in a systematic and organized way rather than randomly. It is understood that every product cannot be placed in the portfolio. The studies that will be placed in the portfolio should represent, within the objectives stated in the curriculum, the prominent studies that reflect student’s performance best and the documents that prove the student’s progress and development towards these objectives.

The positive aspects of portfolio application;

• It provides students to see their strengths and weaknesses
• It provides the students to evaluate their learning in more unique way
• Portfolio not only shows the student’s finished studies but also shows his/her learning process. Student’s studies collected in various periods constitute the student’s learning process and a document of the progresses in this process. It shows the time spent within the learning process, student’s studies, performance, deficiencies and corrections in a detailed way
• It provides flexibility in measuring the students’ success about the attainment of objectives
• It gives opportunity to the students and teachers in defining the objectives together and evaluation
• It helps the development of lifelong learning skills
• It provides the continuous observation of student’s progress needed for determining teaching strategies
• It helps the students to find which language learning contents are best for them,
• It defines the objectives for the students’ future learning,
• It gives opportunity to the students for taking responsibility of their own learning and provides evidence about whether learners have reached their aims or not,
• It helps the teacher to determine effective language learning strategies or make reflections about current curriculum,
• It provides information to the students’ language learning processes and enables teachers to impersonate the teaching,
• It gives opportunity to the students for showing their good studies,
• It serves as a means for critical self-analysis,
• It shows foreign language proficiency.

A portfolio is mostly digital and it contains:

• a title page, a table of contents, a literature list;
• a description of the work done;
• a description of the evolution of the work;
• the necessary evidence (a selection of documents, papers, reports, etc.)
• a reflection with a SWOT-analysis;
• a self-evaluation.

When the action in class is completed, the teacher as well as the students will have to run evaluation. For the self- and peer-assessment the student and the teacher have to use a checklist to evaluate themselves and each other.

The following standard criteria FOR SELF AND PEER-ASSESSMENT are being used in UCLL Teacher Training:

• Be committed (be alert, think together, be focused on the task).
• Take initiative (readiness to do different tasks).
• Be prepared (have targets and goals, do research and provide good and useful information).
• Bring structure in the results of the work (of what you have done) and present it in a clear way in the group. 
• Give new ideas in a discussion.
• Be critical but in a positive way.
• Look for useful solutions, think positive and constructive, seek compromises.
• Give your own opinion in a clear but respectful way.
• Listen to what other students say and make a real effort to understand opinions.
• Have a positive attitude and bring atmosphere in the group: offer help and understanding, support and encouragement.

Every teacher trainer can select the items that are important for the group of students and the given task. He or she can also add criteria that are important for the subject.

To conclude and make SWOT analysis, the following self-reflection questions can be used:

• What are my strengths?
• What are my weaknesses?
• What am I going to do to become better? 
• What am I going to do more?
• What am I going to do less?
• What am I keeping for the future?
• How am I going to make changes?

For the self-evaluation the teacher can use “The Evaluation Grid” (below) to evaluate the competence proficiency the students showed by using the creativity technique. This evaluation can also be carried out by other teachers that have been observing. 

In teacher training the students often work in groups in interactive way. As a Self-Assessment the students have to fill in their level of proficiency and afterwards the group of students will discuss the results. 

At the end the teacher trainer, who has been present during the discussion, will evaluate the students for each topic and will give a summative digit. 

Table 6 Level of proficiency for the 5 C’s. Author: Guido Cajot, UCLL, Talentis-project: “Entrepreneurship in Primary Education”

Level	4	3	2	1
Collaboration	Cooperation	Discussion	Side by side (in duo)	On their own
Communication	Stories Discussion	Dialogue	Presentation	Individually
Critical thinking	Evidence-based	Opinions	Uncertain belief	Seeing is believing
Content	Expertise	Making connections	Superficial understanding	Situation specific
Creativity & Innovation	Vision	In progress	Limited	Experimentation
Confidence	Dare to fail	Calculated risk	Uncertain	Ignorant