Making use of portfolios to enhance learning

Abstract

Portfolios have been used in learning for a while. The value of the use of portfolios for learning has been well documented. For example, portfolios encourage students to reflect on their strengths, needs, errors, interests, challenges, and objectives, as well as, encourage interactive processes among students, teachers, and parents. Thus, it is value to strengthen the use of portfolio, for instance, by making use of appropriate pedagogical approaches and technological adoption. This research seeks to highlight the evolvement of use of portfolios from paper based to an electronic portfolio in the form of a word-processed document to students creating e-portfolios. To capture this process prior to the use of e-portfolios, students had been required to keep portfolios in the form of a word-processed document or paper based. The results show that the adoption of technology and improved pedagogical techniques enhanced students’ educational performance and satisfaction. Therefore, this research advocates for the adoption of technologically-driven pedagogical philosophy to enhance the use of portfolios in learning and teaching.