Electronic Portfolios

The Florida State University Department of Physical Education requires preservice teachers to document their competency with respect to Florida's Twelve Pre-professional Accomplished Practices: Assessment, Communication, Continuous Improvement, Critical Thinking, Diversity, Ethics, Human Development, Knowledge of Subject Matter, Learning Environments, Planning, Role of the Teacher, and Technology. Currently, faculty are re-working all syllabi to key course objectives and assignments to the Twelve Pre-Professional Accomplished Practices.

Currently the preservice teachers develop three types of teaching portfolios:

Working portfolio: This ongoing, systematic collection of selected work samples is compiled from courses and evidence (exhibits of school/community activities). The working portfolio is the framework for self-assessment and goal setting. It provides a basis for formative evaluation throughout the teacher education program at planned intervals.

Presentation portfolio: Samples of work are included that best reflect one's achieved competence, individuality, and creativity as a professional physical educator.

Employment portfolio: This portfolio provides a rich overview of the personality and abilities of the preservice physical education teacher. It focuses on selected artifacts to enhance job placement, and it may be customized to a particular school. The employment portfolio offers a basis for summative evaluation.

Each artifact the preservice teacher develops is accompanied by a brief explanation that identifies why they chose to include that particular artifact in their teaching portfolio. The artifacts include a variety of information such as lesson plans, anecdotal records, sample assessments, self-reflections, evaluations done by others, personal teaching philosophies, videoclips of sample vignettes of their teaching and a myriad of others which demonstrates their competency in the twelve pre-professional practices. The artifacts serve as evidence of what the preservice teacher knows, how the knowledge has increased over time, how they have grown both in their personal and professional lives and what their overall accomplishments are and how they have applied the skills they've acquired (Wiedmer, 1998).

Checkpoints and feedback procedures that will provide a formative review of the preservice teaching portfolio have been developed. The working and presentation portfolios are used to help preservice teachers decide how to adjust or improve their performance. Various feedback and evaluation constructs are used, including peer reflection, instructor conferences, and grading by the instructor as part of course requirements.

The rating forms used to assess the working and presentation preservice portfolio include three items:

Organization assesses the portfolio on whether the preservice teacher follows directions, the completeness of each of the items, are the artifacts clearly layed out and the overall creativity of the portfolio.
Form and Quality assess the portfolio on writing mechanics, expressiveness, visual appeal, spelling punctuation and grammar.
Evidence of Understanding is assessed by how well the preservice teacher has demonstrated their knowledge of each of the practices and how they have applied each item back to the Pre-professional Accomplished Teaching Practices.

A few examples of students who have developed a working portfolio are listed below:

Meredith Kramer	Wes Apakaian

Jhon Smith	Jami Nartker

Johnny Bryant	Chad Gall

For questions or comments regarding this page contact Shannon L. Wood