Discusses the problems and benefits of implementing portfolio evaluation in a preservice teacher social studies methods course. Maintains that adopting portfolio assessment opens the way for students to construct alternative conceptions of teaching. Includes criteria for the development and evaluation of students' portfolios. (MJP)

This article presents the career/vocational assessment process as a critical component of transition planning for students with disabilities. It provides an overview of career/vocational assessment, methods of gathering assessment information, issues to consider, people involved in the assessment process, and recommendations for career/vocational…

Teacher preparation programs are continually seeking ways to document teacher candidate performance. With the inception of the new physical education NCATE standards, documenting P-12 student performance is of utmost importance. The purpose of this article is to identify one way of achieving both of these goals--digital portfolios. With digital…

This article presents the results of an action research study that sought to determine the most effective e-portfolio system for our teacher education programs. Three e-portfolio systems (LiveText, TaskStream, and a university-developed system called Epsilen) were implemented throughout a semester course in which students and faculty evaluated…

This qualitative study investigated the writing processes of eight emergent bilingual children as they composed stories in two languages in a Writing Workshop (WW) context. The research was situated in two grade 1 classrooms in a Spanish/English Two-Way Bilingual Education program in the north-eastern USA. For six months, researchers observed…

Over a period of 10 years, we have developed a sustainable process of online portfolio assessment that demonstrates both reliability and validity, using both qualitative and quantitative measures. The sustainable cycle is that, each semester, we assess a random sampling of the students' work that they have posted, as per our instructions, in an…

In this chapter, the author attempts to help the reader see beyond the current state of affairs in terms of the relationship between classroom assessment and accountability and to consider some wider perspectives and possibilities. Hopefully, this will also help the reader step into the spirit of the discussion that is inherent in the chapters…

This report focuses on the processes of change in beliefs and practices experienced by practicing elementary school teachers during a sixteen-session course using two of the modules from the "Developing Mathematical Ideas" (DMI) materials. We identify a collection of six metaphors for knowing, learning, and teaching mathematics to succinctly…

Accreditation, budget, and accountability pressures at the institution and program levels lead to the involvement of faculty in assessment-based activities. Increasingly, programs are being expected to document student learning beyond traditional course grades. The use of outcomes as a tool to improve learning relies heavily on the active…

This article describes an approach and an innovative technology used at California Lutheran University that responds to the problematic relationship between preservice teacher service-learning projects and assessment, evaluation, and reporting. This innovative technology, The ProfPort Webfolio System, enables teacher educators to positively…

This paper outlines the main findings of research about online portfolio information systems. This research focused on the educational integrity of these educational systems and the maximisation of value across all stakeholders, in particular the value gained from the automation and interaction potential of the online environment. The findings and…

A central dilemma of portfolio assessment is that as the richness of the data available to readers increases, so do the challenges involved in ensuring acceptable reliability among readers. Drawing on empirical and theoretical work in discourse analysis, ethnomethodology, and other fields, we argue that this dilemma results, in part, from the fact…

This paper describes a teaching experiment investigating the impact of using multiple teaching strategies and innovating while teaching collaboratively. The objective of this study was to examine the use of collaboration in trying a combination of face-to-face meetings, web courseware, and interactive two-way video in a graduate course. The major…

The necessity of faculty members to hold specific skills and abilities with regard to technology has reached our institutions of higher education. Locally, a digital portfolio initiative recently implemented by our institution in teacher education has produced an unprecedented expectation for faculty technology skill, as well as conceptual…

Most developing countries have embarked upon the implementation of new models in the teaching and learning arenas, and South Africa is no exception. Because the economic empowerment of a nation depends on the success of its educational strategies, the introduction and development of outcomes-based education (OBE) at all levels of education in…