Basics of Educational Assessment

Diagnostic Methods: Analysis of student products and working with student portfolios


Analysis of Student Activity Results

Analysis of student activity results is among standard and frequently utilized diagnostic procedures. Teachers have access to a plethora of student artifacts that can be the subject of analysis.

Checking notebook entries (their correctness, functionality, processing method; use of colors, drawings, highlighting), analysis of written assignments, workbooks, records from laboratory work, and other graphic, artistic products and products of work activities, including results from extracurricular activities, are a rich source of understanding the student. See attachment number 6, Tree of Spirits. Their use does not serve the teacher to determine personality characteristics, track the development of the student's personality (psychodiagnostics), but they help the teacher understand more about how the student learns, what progress they make, how they approach set goals, how they structure the curriculum, what support they need, how they perceive themselves, etc., how they prepare for teaching, etc. We should be interested not only in artifacts processed at school but also in the home environment. Comparing them can lead us to interesting questions and finding answers to what role various factors may play in their processing.

During the analysis, we observe not only the form but especially the understanding of the curriculum. We deal with the regularity, repeatability of certain phenomena, results in contexts. We notice under what conditions student products were created, in what environment, with what support, with what result... In the case of a joint product, we should then have the opportunity to find out how the members contributed to the final product and with what result.

Each student's activity result carries diagnostic information about the learning process, which needs to be complemented by the results of other diagnostic methods, especially observation or interview, and viewed comprehensively.

Student artifacts are often collected in portfolios of various types and purposes, which generally influences their use by both students and teachers. Portfolio belongs today in schools, especially abroad but already in the Czech environment, to significant diagnostic tools. Through it, teachers can monitor both the content and procedural aspects of student learning.

In the following text, we will define the types and functions of portfolios.


Definition of a Portfolio

When we look around, we can find the term "portfolio" in almost every field. The same is true in pedagogy. There are countless concepts or definitions of student portfolios. Different authors define this term more or less precisely, and their approaches to this diagnostic method, their division, etc., also differ.

Sharp (1997) states that the term "portfolio" comes from the Latin "portare" (to carry) and "foglio" (sheets of paper). In English-language literature, the term is mainly associated with terms such as "collection," "folder," or "learning diary." In the practice of schools in the Czech environment, a portfolio is often associated more with content, with stored artifacts that form the basis for assessment and diagnostic activities.

For illustrative purposes, we present several Czech and foreign definitions:

- The authors of the Quality I project defined a portfolio as "a tool for long-term collection of information about the results, progress of learning, and other characteristics related to the education of a specific student." (CERMAT, 2008).

- Tomková (2007) states that "portfolio is not the goal of students' learning but a means to it. Therefore, the activities that students engage in during work with the portfolio are important, namely collecting, sorting, ongoing reflection and self-assessment, sharing, presenting, and defending."

- Syslová, Kratochvílová, Fikarová (2018) perceive a portfolio as "an organized collection of a child's works gathered over a certain period, with which all participants in the educational process actively work continuously. It serves diagnostic-formative as well as summative purposes. It provides the most comprehensive information about the child's results (with regard to all areas of the child's personality), progress, and development. The information serves the child, parents, and teachers, or other experts for communication to further develop the child and adjust educational and educational strategies in the kindergarten class."

- Lustig (1996, p. 14) writes about the portfolio as "a collection of student works that reflect individual growth and progress of the child over a certain period of time."

- Sweet (1993) and Arter (1995) see the portfolio not only as a collection of student works but consider the way it is used important. "All portfolios have in common that students must collect, select, and reflect on their tasks."

Regardless of which definition we identify with, a portfolio does not necessarily have to have a unified content and form, but it is important that it brings overall benefits and provides a sense of satisfaction for both the student and the teacher (Hanušová & Havlíčková, 2007).


Types of Portfolio

The two most frequent concepts of a portfolio, which can complement and intertwine in practice, can be described as a process and a goal. Professionally, we would define these two concepts as a constructivist and a positivist paradigm.

- Constructivist View

Emphasis is placed more on the process than on the final product. Evaluation has a formative character, and the student structures and retells the content themselves. The meanings of individual materials vary over time (Barrnett & Carney, 2005). Both the teacher and the student monitor the development and progress of the student. This approach supports formative diagnostics and assessment.

- Positivist View

Here, the portfolio is seen as a tool or goal. It serves as a place for examples of student works used to derive the outcome of the learning process. Monitoring over time is not essential here (Barrnett & Carney, 2005; Paulson & Paulson, 1994). The student's products then serve for summative assessment and diagnostics.

As outlined at the beginning, there are many types of portfolios that lean towards their goals, activities, final form, etc. "Whether the portfolio will contain representative products, the best student works, or indicators of progress depends on the specific purpose of the portfolio." (Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, 2001, p. 140). For our purposes, the following typology of portfolios according to Horká and Kratochvílová (2014) will be sufficient:

- Collection Portfolio

Also called a working or documentation portfolio. It contains all the student's works created during the teaching process. It is more about "just gathering" than a method with an educational aim.

- Selection Portfolio

Also called selective, sample, or representative. It serves to present the best results of the student. It is sometimes used as self-presentation in entrance exams and similar situations. However, it lacks the ability to record change, progress, and improvement. It can be used for final summative assessment and diagnostics.

- Diagnostic Portfolio

Also known as an evaluative portfolio, as a tool of pedagogical diagnostics. This type differs by extending the collection of data, which is further processed continuously (self-assessment of the student, teacher assessment, comments on products, progress together with the teacher, possibly also with parents during joint consultations, see examples of portfolios in attachments 6 and 7). It is about monitoring the comprehensive development of a child or student. When working with a portfolio, teachers (in formal and informal diagnostic activities) can use additional methods, especially observation - what artifacts the student returns to, what value they see.


Function of Diagnostic Portfolio

Within our diagnostic profiling, we focus particularly on the function of the diagnostic portfolio. The diagnostic portfolio serves significant functions that it is important to always remember. These functions include: informational, motivational, communicative, self-regulatory, and diagnostic (Syslová, Z., Kratochvílová, J., & Fikarová, T. (2018)):

- Informational: Provides information about the child's development to parents, teachers, and the children themselves.

- Motivational: Motivates children to achieve better results, to complete a series of activities, and to create their own works that they want to present in the portfolio.

- Communicative: Serves as a means of communication development - for individual interviews, consultations with parents, counseling professionals. It also serves as support in developing the child's individual educational plan.

- Self-regulatory or developmental: The child, in collaboration with the teacher and classmates, interprets their work results, evaluates them (explicitly and implicitly), experiences their successes and failures, and decides on further activities that influence their personal development.

- Diagnostic: Information obtained about the child's development serves educators as a basis for setting appropriate goals to support the child's development and choosing suitable methods and forms of work.


Working with a portfolio is undoubtedly a very significant activity, but it also has its drawbacks.

Positives:

- Allows for comprehensive, long-term assessment of students' results and tracking their progress.

- Establishes the foundation for self-assessment and self-reflection.

- Supports students' involvement in planning further activities.

- Combines formative and summative aspects of assessment.

- Helps teachers, students, and parents "piece together" a picture of the student and their results.

- Increases the involvement of all participants in the educational process - it can be effectively used in consultations with parents about students' results and in implementing measures to support learning.

Negatives:

- Time-consuming - in creating the intended content, selecting works, ongoing and summary reflection carried out by the student and the teacher.

- Excessive scope or insufficiently represented material - failure to cover key competencies, goals, and outputs.