"Critical" course synthesis

Two main categories emerge from the student-teachers' answers. First, more than 75% of students try to cover the major course dimensions: history of writing systems (phylogeny), development of written language in children (ontogeny) and difficulties in the acquisition of written language (dyslexia/dysorthography). However, among this group of students, 26% do not develop a personal point of view on the acquired notions, nor do their answers interpret the subject matter or propose a personal reaction to the contents. Second, within this first set of students, an important sub-group representing 60% of the entire group, reanalyze the subject matter as they outline the course's contents, either by referring to knowledge learned outside the course, or by personally reacting to the proposed knowledge. Only a small minority of student-teachers (about 5%) propose a genuine critical synthesis, either by portraying the difficulties of didactically transposing the taught subject matter in classroom situations, or by describing limitations on the scope of the proposed learning models, for example. At this stage, it would seem that the portfolio experience is too novel or that the development of critical analysis needs more development during the teaching process. Finally, three student-teachers were not able to reach the required criteria set for summative assessment of this part of the portfolio. Nonetheless, these students provided a satisfactory addendum to their work after a discussion with the trainer.

مواضيع ذات صلة

Discussion and questions

Expectations and suggestions

Problems encountered with portfolio assessment

Advantages of portfolio assessment

Similarities and differences between portfolio assessment and prior assessment experiences

Reflective questions with regard to the course practical relevance

Trainer comments

Discussion of a problem-solving experience

Portfolio content

Results, analysis and discussions

Context and goals

Modalities of the portfolio for the student teachers