Browsing by Subject "Portfolios"
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Item Building reflective learners: Using portfolios with elementary school students(2013-05) Lewis, Karla; Janisch, Carole; Akrofi, Amma; Johnson, PeggyThis alternative dissertation presents two qualitative studies. These studies, conducted in the teacher/researcher’s classroom, focused on the use of portfolios with elementary school students. In the first study, the researcher examined the written reflections of the portfolio participants. Data collection included students’ written reflections generated in response to their selections of work to be included in the portfolio. In the second study, the research focused on the purpose of a portfolio as perceived by the participants. Data collection included interviews and artifacts of the portfolio. In both studies, the researcher kept a reflective journal to document the process of creating portfolios and students’ responses to their use. Results of the first study showed the written reflective language used by students did change over the course of the school year. This change was from more academic awareness to a more personal awareness of what they had accomplished and achieved, including a move from a short terse account to a longer more authentic description of the selected work. Results of the second study showed participants’ understood portfolios as a measure of their achievements. Positive feelings led to self-efficacy with portfolios. These outcomes suggest that elementary school students can grow in self-awareness and self-evaluation through a portfolio experience. Through explicit instruction in written reflection, even a young student's thinking can change and evolve and portfolios can serve as a form of alternative assessment.Item Guiding engineering design experiences through use of portfolios and rubrics(2012-08) Krebsbach, Michael John; Allen, David T.; High, Karen A.The engineering mathematics course described in this report is designed to employ project based learning (PBL), using projects to teach and reinforce both mathematics and engineering concepts and applications in a hands-on format. One project involves building a bridge and allows students to conduct testing using standard procedures and to manufacture components with set cross-sectional areas and lengths in an assembly-like manner using a low cost material such as file folders. The students can use a free computer-aided design (CAD) program to facilitate the design as well as conduct virtual testing with no additional cost. The mathematics concepts covered by this project include: graphing, tables and trend analysis, determining the forces acting on individual joints as well as the overall structure, study of cross-sectional area versus length in determining the best support structure, evaluation of various materials for construction, and using measurement tools and technology to determine the amount of stresses and strains and the amount of deflection. All of these studies should enable the student to produce a scale diagram for the final bridge design and to conduct tests on the bridge structure in order to determine the factor of strength (weight held versus the weight of the bridge). The project addresses the use of portfolios as a means for documenting work and changes that have been undertaken during the design process. The use of a portfolio-based project enables the student to document with artifacts and written composition, how the design was determined, how testing was done, and overall lessons learned during the project. The portfolio then could be evaluated using a Design Process Rubric as a means for transferability of credit.