Voices for the record : three teachers' experiences of compiling and using individual child portfolios

Abstract

This research paper describes the experiences of three early childhood teachers in compiling and using portfolios as an alternative assessment tool. The research assumed an ethnographic approach and investigated in a descriptive way, the narrative views of the teachers. The findings of the study indicate that the process of compiling portfolios involves several key decision phases, or times, when critical decisions about portfolios need to be taken. The first phase involves the teachers' deciding on the purpose, or the purposes of the portfolio. The second decision phase concerns the more practical aspects of the process, such as what style the portfolio will take, and how data will be collected, selected, collated and displayed. The final decision phase concerns the role the teachers have in reflecting on what they have learnt from their observations and interactions with the child, what they have learnt about the process of compiling a portfolio and what they have learnt themselves as reflective practitioners. As a consequence of this set of decisions, the curriculum, or programme offered to the children, may be negotiated and re-negotiated.