With Portfolio in Hand

Portfolios can easily become elaborate paper collections, glitzy scrapbooks that teachers keep. With Portfolio in Hand presents instead the evolution of a different concept of the teaching portfolio, as the warrant of a new kind of professional teacher. Not simply the result of efforts to reform teacher testing, the teaching portfolio attempts to capture and document the complex mindfulness of competent and effective teachers. In this book, the tensions of portfolios are explored-whether portfolios serve personal or public needs, whether they are used for teacher evaluation or professional development-using current portfolio practices at teacher education institutions from Maine to California. Challenging questions emerge: How are portfolios constructed? What role do mentors play? What kind of evidence should a portfolio contain? Who judges them? By what criteria? With what reliability? Chapters of the book address these questions, drawing on actual portfolio practices. With Portfolio in Hand also includes hands-on guidance to help teachers prepare useful portfolios.