The Wales-Wide Web

Portfolios are attracting a lot of attention these days see for instance Scott Wilson's brilliant presentation. I have been in three project meetings discussing their potential. Most of my work is connected with non formal learning, work based learning and vocational education and training. Portfolios have an obvious attraction in these areas in allowing learners to record and reflect on learning from different contexts.

Extended text for this entry:

Here is a chunk of text I wrote some eight years ago:

"Piaget (1970) argued that knowledge is personally constructed from internal representations by individuals using their experiences as a foundation for their learning. Learners gain knowledge through a process of personal and co-operative experimentation, questioning and problem solving through which meaning can be constructed. Learning is the articulation of schemata which incorporate cognition, perception and action (Mjelde, 1994). Schemata are made meaningful by jointly carrying out activities with an ‘expert’ in such a way that the learner gradually masters successively more difficult parts of the task through successively more complex stages (ibid.).

The authenticity and transfer of knowledge and skills may depend on the refinement of intelligent instructional systems and on the design of learning environments in which students are helped to construct knowledge themselves (Enkenberg, 1994). Within these learning strategies there is an emphasis on the development of inferential and metacognitive skills. Nieuwenhuis (1991) proposes the development of ‘cognitive apprenticeships’, as a strategy for the development of higher order skills encompassing key skills and core competencies, where learning is situated and context dependent (Brown et al, 1989; Mulder, 1995). Teaching and learning strategies include modelling, coaching, scaffolding and fading, articulation, reflection and exploration (Enkenberg, 1994)."

I think that portfolios may be the key part of "the refinement of intelligent instructional systems and on the design of learning environments in which students are helped to construct knowledge themselves" which I talked about then.

However the pioneers in the portfolio business have not done us any great favours. Portfolios development has been dominated by assessment. Ownership has rested with the institution in one way or another. It is very difficult to persuade people that learners should be in control and should not be constrained in reporting or describing their learning. As a recent entry on the E-Portfolios for Learning blog says "Those tools that purport to be more “assessment management systems” tend to provide an institution-focused structure that makes it much easier to “score” but more difficult for the learner to tell their own story of their learning."

I see no great problem in designing a portfolio that allows learners to record what they want to in their own way. The blog standards provide most of what we want. Similarly I do not have a problem if that portfolio is assessed against external criteria - but the criteria should not drive the form and structure of the portfolio and it should be up to the learner if they want the portfolio to be assessed (and for that matter if they want anyone else to be able to access it).

However, the important bit is that the portfolio should help learners in understanding and reflecting on their learning. To my mind that means allowing them to develop personal mind maps - to understand where new learning interacts with old - and to make meanings form new knowledge and skills - to develop scaffolds for their ideas. how do we develop portfolio applications that support "modelling, coaching, scaffolding and fading, articulation, reflection and exploration"?That bit is harder - though I think some of the emergent developments around social software could provide the answers.

I'm going to work more on portfolios over the summer - anyone interested please do get in touch.