Discussion of a problem-solving experience

Few students experienced difficulties completing this section of the portfolio. Again, answers may be subdivided into two main groups: those who delve deeper into a topic touched on during the course, and those who more or less link the discussion to their professional practice (about 50% of answers in each category). This section of the portfolio provides space to share thoughts about a given approach, which has been tried out in class, and/or about initial problem solving for cases of students presenting specific language acquisition difficulties. The benefit of this portfolio section for the teacher trainer is that he or she has an opportunity to see whether the models proposed during the course are experimented with or not in class. Some student-teachers demonstrate a very high level of professional competencies in terms of specific interventions in cases of language learning problems. Others encounter difficulty in transposing taught theoretical elements into classroom practice, since they do not see the relevance of the subject matter for certain kinds of pupils. It is naturally very difficult to assess the pertinence of such statements in a portfolio. It is with regard to such issues that the interactivity of the portfolio tool may be most interesting, in terms of the limits encountered by student-teachers and trainers. Thus, a student-teacher's competencies may in fact lie outside key knowledge areas dealt with in the course (for example: disorders such as autism cannot be solely reduced to language issues, require specialized knowledge and are thus missing from our essentially psycholinguistic approach).

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

"Critical" course synthesis

Portfolio content

Results, analysis and discussions

Context and goals

Modalities of the portfolio for the student teachers