To explore more research guides, visit www.theeducationhub.org.nz © The Education Hub7
ASSESSMENT AND FEEDBACK / OVERVIEW
4. Portfolios
A portfolio is a student-managed collection of work which demonstrates the student’s learning and developing competence.
Portfolios help students in self-assessment skills such as understanding progress through record keeping, documenting interests
and strengths, and identifying choices and preferences. Portfolios can form a shared focus to assessment discussions and goal
setting with teachers.
Some ways you could support students to build up their portfolios include:
• Reminding students, every lesson, that they can decide whether to include their work from this lesson in their portfolio.
• Sharing with students the outcomes and success criteria they are expected to achieve and then give them the responsibility to
determine their own evidence.
• Providing a list of what students need to add to their portfolio each term: one piece of writing, one mathematics test or activity,
one project, one artwork, and so on.
• Asking students to consider what others (such as parents, employers and other educational institutions) would need for proof
of meeting learning goals.
• Providing a range of examples – such as taking photos, videoing themselves undertaking tasks, screenshots of internet search
histories, a progression of drafts and peer feedback reports. You can ask students “Which work will you choose to show what
you know?” or you can ask them to collect a
set of work that shows dierent stages in development.
Portfolios can be digital, rather than paper-based, which solves issues of storage and
the risk of loss or damage. Students should
engage in summarising and reflecting upon their evidence; for example, identifying areas of strength or of growth, what they
enjoyed or were most proud of, where they have made progress and why, and what else they could do to improve.
You can provide prompts for self-evaluation and goal setting, in the form of an evaluation sheet. For example:
• Did I ensure that each paragraph had a topic sentence?
• Did I include an introduction, main body and conclusion in my story/report?
• Did I proofread my story/report carefully, e.g. by checking the spelling of dicult words and making sure I used the correct
punctuation?
• Did I avoid repeating the same words?
• What did I like best about my story/report? Why?
• What would I do next time to improve my writing?
Students are likely to enjoy amassing a collection of their work, and will begin to assume increasing responsibility for collecting,
reflecting, and organising the work.