Ferdinand | EducationGhana |December 14 | 2023 CPD Points: How to develop a Quality Portfolio as a Teacher
Portfolio Building as Part of CPD Points Acquisition
Assessing teachers’ portfolios and providing feedback in the spirit of support is the best means to help teachers improve their professional practice.
Assessment of teachers’ portfolios in general is used to determine the professional growth and progression of the teacher.
Portfolio assessment has, therefore, become an important component of assessment in teacher education programmes. As part of licensing requirements, teachers in Ghana are expected to build a teaching portfolio over the period of their teaching.
Rationale Portfolio Building
The rationale for this is to have a meaningful and purposeful collection of the works or artefacts of teachers to demonstrate their knowledge, competencies and skills in teaching over time.
It is also to be used for decision making which may include requirements for promotion,
licensing and assessing, and professional growth and development of teachers.
What is a teaching portfolio?
A teaching portfolio is a meaningful and purposeful collection of work (artefacts) done by a teacher to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in teaching over time.
A teaching portfolio, then, is a collection of carefully selected work produced by the teacher as evidence of professional progress and accomplishments in learning to teach.
It is a professional learning tool that teachers can use to reflect on their
progress and professional growth over time.
Types of portfolios
There are different types of portfolios depending on the purpose. There
are, for example:
Professional portfolio: It documents academic achievements across teaching, research, and community service.
Teaching portfolio: This portfolio is specific to teaching.
Course portfolio: This type of portfolio focuses on developing and teaching a specific course(s).
Student learning portfolios: These document students’ learning achievements.
Some Uses of a Teaching Portfolio
The teaching portfolio and the process of building one can be useful professional tools for teachers in practice and teacher educators.
Teaching portfolio :
● tells the story of the development of teachers;
● allows others to reflect upon and assess the teacher’s progress
and professional growth;
● allows others to assess the teacher’s teaching skills and knowledge;
● helps teachers to get visual evidence of their approach to instruction, their best
practices and to show others the progress of their teaching during interviews.
Characteristics of Effective Portfolios
A teaching portfolio should be structured, representative and selective.
a. Structured
A structured portfolio should be organized, complete, and creative in presentation.
b. Representative
A portfolio should be comprehensive. The documentation should represent the scope of one’s work and it should be represented across time.
c. Selective
Only artefacts that demonstrate professional growth, strengths/accomplishments should be included. The quality of the materials included is much more important than the quantity.
Portfolio Content
There is a formula for preparing a portfolio. Since a portfolio is an individual product, no
two portfolios will look alike. Each item in a portfolio should be accompanied by a brief written reflection indicating;
1. what the artefact is;
2. the rationale for its inclusion in the portfolio;
3. how it fits into your view of teaching and learning; and
4. how each artefact demonstrates teaching competency.
Simply placing an artefact in a portfolio by itself may not communicate to the assessor why it is some significant professional achievement.
Also, each item should be dated to facilitate the evaluation of progress throughout the year. The artefacts in a teaching portfolio should include those listed below;
1. Teaching Philosophy
NOTE: The teacher’s own statement of teaching philosophy should be the central standard and starting point for any evaluation.
There should be consistency. In other words, teaching practice must reflect teaching philosophy. In your statement of teaching philosophy, you have to describe what you believe about teaching and learning, why you hold those beliefs and how they have shaped your teaching style.
This does not have to be long; a page or two is sufficient.
2. A video/audio tape of your best lesson/still photographs of your
teaching
3. Scheme of work/action plan for teachers in the administration
4. Lesson plans (learning plan)/implementation plan for teachers in
the administration
5. Samples of student work you have graded, showing your comments etc. or samples of activities you have evaluated showing your comments.
6. Reflective practice
7. Reflective logs
8. Your curriculum vitae
9. Hand-outs you have designed or materials you have published in line with your work
10. Assessment instruments (test items/quizzes) created by you, with their marking schemes, and an explanation of how effective (or ineffective) the assessment was used, or data collection instruments developed by you with sample data collected and analysed, and reports generated from the analysis
11. Work/task sheets drawn for students/clients
12. Circuit Supervisor’s or immediate supervisor’s assessment comments
13. Headteacher’s/ supervisor’s assessment comments
14. Peer assessment
15. List and description of learning/teaching aids (resources) that cannot be put into the portfolio
16. Reflections on your practice.
17. Number of In-Service Training attended
18. Types of in-service training attended (SBI, CBI, DBI CoP, etc.)
19. Training Logbook
20. Certificates awarded
21. School-wide information/particulars
22. Action Research conducted as part of the reflective practice
How to Achieve and Practicalize the Requirements for Portfolio Building
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1. TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
Your teaching philosophy is a self-reflective statement of your beliefs about teaching and learning. It’s a one to two-page narrative that conveys your core ideas about being an effective teacher in the context of your discipline. It develops these ideas with specific, concrete examples of what the teacher and learners will do to achieve those goals. Importantly, your teaching philosophy statement also explains why you choose these options.
Guidelines for writing Statements of Teaching Philosophy
Learning Goals
• What got you interested in your discipline?
• What does your discipline mean to you?
• What do you most hope students will appreciate about your discipline?
• What knowledge, skills, and attitudes are important for student success in your discipline?
• How are these disciplinary knowledge, skills, and attitudes related to student’s academic, personal, and professional success?
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Methods
• What do you see as the relationship between the student and the teacher?
• What do you see are the respective responsibilities of the student and the teacher?
• How are these relationships and responsibilities reflected in your teaching methods?
• How do these methods contribute to your learning goals for students?
• Why are these teaching methods appropriate for use in your discipline?
• How are your teaching methods attentive to student expectations and needs?
• How do your personal characteristics and values impact your choice and implementation of your teaching methods?
Assessment of student learning
• How do you know your learning goals are being achieved using your teaching methods?
• What sorts of learning assessment tools do you use (e.g. tests, papers, portfolios, journals) and why?
• What do the learning assessments say about your teaching?
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2. SCHEME OF LEARNING
The scheme of learning/work is usually an interpretation of a specification or syllabus and can be used as a guide throughout the course to monitor progress against the original plan.
A. Alignment of indicators to the curricular indicators.
All stated indicators are aligned with the curricular indicators for the grade level
B. Alignment of Core Competences to curricular content.
Though the scheme targets all core competencies in the curriculum it highlights both resources and strategies to develop and enhance their use.
WHAT TO DO: YOU ARE TO PRESENT COPIES OF THE SCHEME OF LEARNING
A scanned document.
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3. EVIDENCE OF TEACHING
A. Sample Learner’s Exercises You Have Marked and Graded.
Examples of learners’ work:
Exercise, Assignments, Examinations, Quizzes
WHAT TO DO
Forty-five(45) samples of learners’ work you have marked and graded, showing your comments. They must be scanned.
B. Summarized Weekly Monitoring Tool For 3 Years.
WHAT TO DO
You are to summarize your attendance for the 3 years. You can write and also it must be stamped by your head teacher for evidence’s sake.
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4. LEARNING PLANS
A learning plan is a description of how you intend to achieve your desired outcomes in learning. A learning/lesson plan is a teacher’s detailed description of the course of instruction. A daily learning/lesson plan is developed by a teacher to guide class learning.
WHAT TO DO
You are to attach Fifteen (15) Learning plans of lessons you have taught for each term so making Forty-five (45) for the year. You should scan and upload them.
5. PARTICIPATING IN CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
Co-curricular activities are activities that take place outside of the classroom but are still tied to the classroom curriculum in some way. Examples of Co-curricular Activities are Sports, Music and Dance, Drama, Debate and discussion, Story writing competitions, Essay writing competitions, Organization exhibitions, Celebration of festivals, and Spelling Bees.
WHAT TO DO
You are to write a brief report covering at least 2 co-curricular activities you have taken part in within the term. You can attach pictures to it if any.
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6. EVIDENCE OF PARTICIPATION IN SCHOOL-BASED ACTIVITIES
1. Evidence of In-service Training workshop/CPD.
WHAT TO DO
You are to provide evidence on at least five In service training workshop/CPD participated (Certificates/ photographs). In-service training/CPD must be recorded in the teacher training logbook.
2. Report on Core Competencies from the Mentors.
WHAT TO DO
Your mentor is to write a brief report indicating at least five (5) core competencies used in your lessons and those that needed support to be used in subsequent lessons.
3. Minutes of Formal Meetings attended.
WHAT TO DO
You are to upload minutes of at least 5 formal meetings (e.g. meetings with mentor or lead mentor or any other education officer, Head of schools, SISO etc) You can contact the school’s secretary for the minutes.
4. Head Teachers’ Recommendation.
WHAT TO DO
You are to upload your head teacher’s recommendation letter (it must be stamped and signed) indicating at least 4 co-curricular activities supported by the teacher in addition to 4 general functions consistently performed in the learning environment.
5. Mentor’s Comment.
WHAT TO DO
You are to upload your Mentor’s comments showing satisfactory conduct, performance and willingness of the teacher to learn and lend support to peers and learners. Your mentor must sign and stamp.
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7. EVIDENCE OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT.
Professional development is learning to earn or maintain professional credentials such as academic degrees to formal coursework attending lifelong learning, conferences, CPD and informal learning opportunities situated in practice.
AREAS OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
i. WRITE UP ON COLLABORATION
WHAT TO DO
A write-up in 400 words indicating evidence of willingness to collaborate with colleagues demonstrated with more than two (2) pieces of evidence of participation.
ii. RECORDS OF training ATTENDED.
WHAT TO DO
You are to upload documents on 6 or more varied training attended (i.e your recordings in the teacher logbook on 6 varied pieces of training attended)
iii. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR TRAINING.
WHAT TO DO
You are to make recommendations for the sustenance and enhancement of competencies already acquired.
iv. USE OF TECHNOLOGY.
WHAT TO DO
You are to upload evidence in the form of videos with dates on the regular use of appropriate technology within the learning environment to support learning.
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v. A REPORT ON CORE COMPETENCIES.
WHAT TO DO
You are to write a brief report on any of the core competencies you can use/have used in your lessons and those that you need support to help you use in subsequent lessons.
The report should adequately describe the various methods used to support learners to develop their core competencies and dates quoted in the report on the use of the identified core competencies reflect dates in the learning plan when they were used.
The Curriculum Framework identifies six core competencies and these have been used to guide the development of the Assessment Framework.
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The six competencies are:
● Critical thinking and problem solving
● Creativity and innovation
● Communication and collaboration
● Cultural identity and global citizenship
● Personal development and citizen leadership
● Digital literacy
8. REFLECTIVE PRACTICE
Reflective practice is the ability to reflect on one’s actions so as to take a critical stance or attitude towards one’s own practice and that of one’s peers, engaging in a process of continuous adaptation and learning.
Teachers in a school come together and;
a. Think about how they work.
b. Acknowledge their strengths, but also recognise their weaknesses.
c. Consider the impact their actions have on children and their families.
d. Review their methods to improve the quality of their practice.
e. Identify and resolve problems.
f. Be open to listening and trying out new ideas.
WHAT TO DO
A brief summary of what was discussed in the teachers’ reflective practice meeting.
9. IDENTIFICATION STRATEGIES AND INTERVENTION PROCESS (ACTION RESEARCH)
Action research refers to a wide variety of evaluative, investigative, and analytical research methods designed to diagnose problems or weaknesses of a learner and help develop practical solutions to address them quickly and efficiently.
The general goal is to create a simple, practical, repeatable process of iterative learning, evaluation, and improvement that leads to increasingly better results for the learner. A simple illustrative example:
▪️Identify a problem to be studied
▪️Collect data on the problem
▪️Organize, analyse, and interpret the data
▪️Develop a plan to address the problem
▪️Implement the plan
▪️Evaluate the results of the actions taken
▪️Identify a new problem
▪️Repeat the process
WHAT TO DO
You are to describe how you identified the learning needs of a learner in your class and explain how you addressed the learning needs (Action Research) 600 words
Rubrics or Guidelines for the Assessment of Teachers’ Portfolios
Rubrics or Guidelines for the Assessment of Newly Qualified Teachers’ Portfolios
NB Teachers can use the rubrics for in-service teachers or that of Newly Qualified Teachers to prepare their portfolios
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