Learning portfolios and proactive learning in higher education pedagogy

Abstract

The study presents the results of an experiment in methodological development in vocational teacher training. The author describes his own professional experience based on a four-year higher education pedagogical experiment. The experiment was carried out within the framework of a four-semester specialist teacher training program that leads to a pedagogical qualification. Students on the course have usually undertaken several years of internship, and several of them are instructors in vocational training, adult education, or higher education. From a pedagogical point of view, the experiment presented in the article is also special because it presents the in-service training of teachers who teach in secondary education within a university framework. Based on feedback from previous years, students considered the obligation to prepare diploma dissertations to be either a formal obligation only, or a "necessary evil." The diploma dissertation that concludes the course takes the form of a professional dissertation, the topic of which is defined by the department and selected by the student, and represents the mandatory and almost exclusive form of individual assessment related to the student's final exam. The four-year higher-education pedagogical experiment described in the article presents the first results of a method for replacing the diploma thesis with the preparation of a portfolio. The article shows what kind of pedagogical change in methods a portfolio-Type diploma thesis requires, and what the important elements of this are. It shows the effectiveness of assessment based on a portfolio-based dissertation using feedback from students from the last four years of the course, the former which was integrated into a proactive pedagogical framework in a comprehensive way during the experiment. The article also sets out the general conditions for doing this that may be relevant for other training courses, in particular in engineering and the social sciences. The topicality of the article is also strengthened by social and professional expectations surrounding higher education. Consequently, the author of the article presents this experiment in higher education pedagogical design not as an opportunity, but as an essential innovation. © 2020 Kassel University Press GmbH. All rights reserved.

Keywords

Author Keywords

collaborative learning Active learning blended learning Evaluation Flipped Classroom Reflection self-assessment assessment of learning educational development learning styles Conceptions of teaching Teaching portfolio.

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations

Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem, Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

Funding & Acknowledgements

No funding information

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Learning portfolios and proactive learning in higher education pedagogy

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