Control the Purpose, Not the Contents: Coaching the Creation of Teaching Portfolios

Abstract

Portfolio systems are proliferating to evaluate preservice teachers, but they increasingly include lengthy lists of required elements, forms of reflection, and methods of display. Meanwhile, portfolio systems for university faculty allow considerable freedom of expression. Portfolio programs not only can, but must, allow students both freedom and responsibility in portfolio construction if portfolios are to become valid and reliable alternatives to exit exams. In this article, I demonstrate how to guide responsible construction of individually surprising student teacher portfolios. The article includes examples of portfolios created by graduate and undergraduate teaching students.