Excellent teachers learn from every experience and every person they meet. Throughout the Graduate Teacher Licensure program candidates will be exposed to a variety of learning experiences and asked to document these experiences. The portfolio will provide an opportunity for candidates to document and demonstrate their learning experience, thereby their understanding and mastery of the Minnesota Standards of Effective Practice (SEP). Secondly, as the portfolio develops, candidates begin to make connections between the components of the program, thus allowing reflection and refinement of their work.
Throughout the program candidates will be required to document, reflect and provide evidence of mastery within their portfolio. Candidates will be required to present their portfolio for peer and faculty review at various transition points. The culminating activity of the program will be a presentation of their portfolio to peers and faculty. The goal is to develop an on-going portfolio that begins with the candidate entering professional education, expands as the candidate progresses through their program, and ends with the completion of student teaching.
Some common concerns surrounding portfolio assessment are: how is it defined, and the time commitment involved? Developing, implementing, and assessing individual portfolios can be time consuming, not to mention assessing entire programs with portfolios. The goal of this teacher licensure program is to develop an on-going portfolio that begins with the candidate entering professional education, expands as the candidate progress through their coursework and transitions points, and ends with the completion of student teaching.
