All certification candidates in the School of Education undergraduate or M.Ed. program are required to construct a developmental portfolio during their course of study here at Aquinas College. The purpose of this portfolio is to collect, organize, and reflect upon evidence of your competence as an educator. This evidence or documentation will be presented in an electronic portfolio for final review before you are recommended for certification.
All portfolios have two dimensions. One dimension is that a portfolio is a product you create and utilize to document your knowledge, skills, and attitudes to present to another person. This portfolio product is often used in a job interview or admission application into an academic program. In this context, your portfolio needs to efficiently and convincingly document your strengths in the most concise way possible. No one has the time to review a long, rambling, “scrapbook”, type of portfolio. The second dimension of a portfolio is that it is a process. The act of creating a portfolio, deciding what to include, and producing reflective summaries for the non self-explanatory exhibits, demonstrates and promotes self-assessment and self-reflection. Good teachers are reflective people who are adept at self-assessment.
Your education portfolio is a unique and dynamic reflection of you as you prepare for your teaching career. Thus, over the next few years, your portfolio serves two basic functions. First, it can help you understand the skills, dispositions, and interests you have acquired in the course of your studies, reflect on your own learning to identify your personal strengths and areas of growth, and update documentation of your skill development as you complete courses and participate in additional activities beyond your course work. Secondly, the portfolio should be used for documenting and demonstrating your abilities as an intending teacher. This will be important as you prepare to student teach and begin to interview for a teaching position. |
