Our aim was to highlight the issues of the reflections of pre-service mathematics teachers in their learning portfolio about the teaching-learning process taking place in a university teacher-training classroom. Category systems were designed which, together with the analysis system used, could provide a method helpful to teacher educators,…

The richness and complexity of video portfolios endanger both the reliability and validity of the assessment of teacher competencies. In a post-graduate teacher education program, the assessment of video portfolios was evaluated for its reliability, construct validity, and consequential validity. Although video portfolio facilitated a reliable and…

Teaching portfolios have been widely used in pre-service teacher education programs for approximately two decades and often constitute exit requirements and/or function as a requirement for entry to the teaching profession. Yet much has been written about teacher candidate confusion as to whether the portfolio's purpose is to document their…

Drawing on the work of one teacher candidate, I demonstrate what can be learnt about the process of discursively constructing a teacher identity through the close study of written plans and portfolios. This teacher candidate positioned herself differently over time in relation to discourses from her teacher education programme about the importance…

Research in teacher-training counsels that reflection should be fostered in order to prepare capable professionals for educational practice. For this reason, a teaching-learning process for training mathematics student-teachers in Spanish university classrooms incorporating an assessment system that included keeping a learning portfolio was…

The usage of portfolio methods to document professional development in teaching is increasing in Germany, but despite its proliferation, the issue of how the effects of portfolio methods can be determined has received little attention. This paper investigates the acceptance of portfolio by the pre-service teachers (N = 144, 112 female) and the…

Students in many teacher education programmes experience confusion about portfolios. This study investigated whether using an analogy in the introduction of a portfolio helps teacher education students understand both the purpose of a portfolio and how to compile it. It was also investigated whether these students' understanding correlates with…

This study integrated collaborative problem-based learning (collaborative PBL) with blended learning to explore the emerging process and function of online learning communities among preservice teachers. Thirty-two preservice teachers participated in a 16-week instruction program. Analyses of online group discussions and portfolios found that (a)…

Portfolios are widely used as instruments for assessment in initial teacher education courses. They are claimed to present a comprehensive picture of student teachers' knowledge and performance. But what type of evidence is needed to safely say that an aspiring teacher has not only grasped essential notions and concepts from the teacher education…

Learning portfolios are increasingly being used in university teacher-education programs as assessment instrument. With formative assessment in mind, this study provides a method to assess the modifications made by each pre-service teacher in his/her project included in his/her learning portfolio. The project consisted of designing a lesson plan…

This study concerns the relation between teachers' beliefs towards teaching behaviour and their actual teaching behaviour in teacher portfolio assessment. We analysed the beliefs and behaviour of 18 teachers as described in their portfolios. In addition, each portfolio was independently assessed by two trained raters on eight content standards and…

This article describes the findings of a qualitative study examining the extent to which participation in a portfolio-focused teacher learning community impacts pre-service teachers' understanding and development of a teaching portfolio. Additionally, the author was interested in understanding how, whether, and in what ways the group's…

Two inherently contradictory forces are pushing for reform in portfolio assessment. On the one hand there is a felt need for creating more rigid standards that operate to promote uniformity of ratings in appraisal practice to certify achievement. However, on the other hand, critical questions are being raised about separating acclaimed portfolio…

This study examined the use of portfolio assessment to determine the extent to which student teachers are able to demonstrate INTASC principles in their teaching. More specifically, it looked at the role of perception and assumption by identifying inconsistency between university faculty and student teacher expectations and use of the portfolio.…

This study chronicles a 2-year school wide portfolio initiative in a British elementary school, teacher resistance to the initiative, and factors that contributed to acceptance of the portfolio initiative. Critical components to teacher engagement in this context included teacher ownership of the process and product, a child-centred focus to the…