NSW HSC Online Professional Development Node
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What are the purposes and benefits of a professional portfolio for a NSW HSC teacher?
You may have already been sold on the idea that you should develop your own portfolio and you may even be thinking that you can do something different and innovative in the development and presentation of that portfolio – this is great and I hope that this is the case. If you have decided that you will develop a portfolio this section will help you clarify why you are developing the portfolio as the purpose and the potential audience for the portfolio will shape how the portfolio is put together. However if you’re still not quite sure about the purpose or the need for a portfolio then this section will assist you in making up your mind about the development of a portfolio.
The benefits of a portfolio
Dietz 1995, presents a list of benefits associated with the development of a professional portfolio:
- focusing learning;
- building a growth plan;
- collecting artifacts and evidence;
- facilitating collegial relationships;
- sharpening skills and abilities;
- reflecting on learning;
- drawing on past experience and knowledge; and
- observing students’ learning.
Dietz 1995, goes on to say that the collaboration that has resulted from the collaboration process in portfolio development has resulted in new teaching teams, innovations, alternative assessment techniques and the teachers are more aware of the learning process for themselves and their students. The teachers were informed about and prepared to inform others about their growth and attainments and they made more informed decisions about their own development needs.
I think you will have to agree that this is an impressive number of benefits to be obtained from undertaking the development of a professional portfolio.
The purposes of portfolios
There are three main uses and therefore reasons for developing a portfolio:
- to reflect on and improve teaching;
- career development through promotion or employment; and
- combining learning and improved teaching and career development.
The purpose behind your portfolio development will determine how you develop your portfolio, its structure and content. For example, if you choose a portfolio for learning purposes then examples that didn’t work all that well, but were valuable learning experiences, may be included but you might not want to include ‘mistakes’ in a portfolio for promotion purposes. If you want to have a portfolio for all occasions you might want to develop an archive of collected examples from which you are able to draw examples. The archive will be a collection of many examples and the reflections upon these examples. The materials are then available for developing a portfolio with a particular focus. This process is like developing a regular resume in that during a career in teaching you will have many opportunities to undertake activities. At some point you develop a list of these activities but you don’t necessarily present all of these when developing the resume for employment or promotion purposes. What you present are the activities that best reflect what is required in the new position - so it is with a portfolio. Developing a portfolio for purely learning purposes will have a different emphasis as the reason for the portfolio is learning. Your personal and teaching philosophy and your learning goals guide the portfolio development. These then become the focus of what is contained in the portfolio. The process becomes a learning cycle where the teaching practices are reflected upon and goals and plans for practice developed. The plans are put into practice, materials from practice collected and reflected upon for the portfolio. The process stimulates further thinking and questioning and more gaols are established and there is a shift in the portfolio focus.
Activity
- What is your purpose in developing a portfolio? Is the portfolio:
- primarily for learning and therefore a framework for self assessment and evaluation; or
- primarily for career development and therefore a framework for the record and display of professional goals, growth and achievement; or
- for both learning and career development.
- Decide if you are going to develop a chronological archive of material or if you are going to develop materials with a tighter focus and goal. What you decide to do here will be guided by the purpose both now and in the future as you develop your portfolio. You may not want to finalise the approach at this point as you might want to experiment a little to determine what works best for you.
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