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Portfolios
A Portfolio in Plant Biology BIOL 1222
(A Portfolio for Course and Faculty Development)
Overview
Table of Contents
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1.
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Framing Statement
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2
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2.
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Reflection: The Syllabus and Course (clear tab)
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3
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Course Materials: Syllabus and Handouts (green tab)
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5
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3.
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Reflection: The FIRST Student Portfolio Assignment
(clear tab)
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15
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- Course Materials: Directions for Portfolio Assignment
#1 (green tab)
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17
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- - Student Work Samples: Responses to Portfolio
Assignment #1 (pink tab)
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19
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4.
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Reflection: Revisiting a Multiple Choice Test (A
grade boost assignment) (clear tab)
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31
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- Course Material: Grade Boost Assignment (green
tab)
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33
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- - Student Work Samples: Submitted Grade Boosts
(pink tab)
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35
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- - Student Evaluations of the Exercise (pink tab)
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47
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5.
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Reflection: The Final Student Portfolio Assignment
(clear tab)
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57
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- Course Materials: Directions for the Final Assignment
(green tab)
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59
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- - Student Work Samples: Responses to Portfolio
Assignment #2 (pink tab)
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61
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6.
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Reflection: Student Learning in Plant Biology (under
development)
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7.
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Reflection: Student Evaluations and Final Thoughts
(clear tab)
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73
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- Course Materials: Student Evaluation Forms (green
tab)
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77
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- - Evaluation Results and Student comments (pink
tab)
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79
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Portfolio Excerpt
To give you a context for the portfolio I've included most
of the text from the "framing statement" which introduces the
portfolio; this should help to set the stage for the portfolio.
Framing Statement
The portfolio that follows focuses on a freshman level plant
biology course required for most biology majors at UNC Charlotte. I have
taught plant biology laboratories for a number of years, but a recent
faculty retirement left a hole in the scheduled rotation for plant biology
lecture and I was tapped to fill that hole. Thus, the role of lecturer
in this course is a new one for me.
I've written the portfolio with development in mind; it's
not meant to be an official document circulated for evaluation and review.
So why do this? There are two reasons. First, I want to use the portfolio
to sort through some of the teaching issues that concerned me during my
first semester teaching in our plant biology course and to reflect on
some of the experiments I tried during that time. It's been a way to insure
that my good ideas about teaching aren't lost as fleeting thoughts or
as unwritten resolutions to "do better" the next time I teach
the course. The opposite is also true. I want to avoid repeating mistakes
the next time I teach the class or "making do" with old strategies
because I haven't taken the time to rethink my game plan for a lesson
or activity. My hope is that the very act of capturing those fleeting
thoughts, of formalizing the game plan, of considering the failures, and
of underlining the successes will gel my thoughts and move me towards
improvement.
The second reason is related to my own career trajectory.
I've been a faculty member since 1980 and what I find these days is that
many of the techniques I used as a junior faculty member no longer satisfy
me. My teaching heritage, however, is rooted in the cultural norms of
my discipline and the realities of institutional constraints. The Biology
Department I joined as a junior faculty member remains, as it was, a fairly
traditional one. Like faculty in many such departments we lean toward
good, hearty 'meat and potatoes" teaching in our lecture sections.
This is the type of teaching which delivers fascinating (or at least interesting),
carefully crafted (or at least well-organized) lectures to student groups
of just about any size. It's the type of teaching that's probably easiest - and
most "economical," staff-wise - to do with large (150 - 200
students) classes. And it's the type of teaching which has earned me excellent
teaching evaluations throughout the years and which put me in the position
of earning the University's highest teaching award nearly ten years ago.
It's also the type of teaching which leaves a lot of students
in the dust, particularly these days and particularly with students who
may be unprepared for academic work at the collegiate level;
these are students who may not have developed the self-discipline or self-awareness
to understand that student success is largely a measure of their own individual
effort and their ability to organize, synthesize, integrate, and apply
information. For the most part, our entry-level students are exposed to
a pretty impersonal style of teaching which is misleading in that it promotes
passive learning. And yet, how much individual attention can you give
to a class of 180? What kind of assignments and activities can be developed
to promote more individual responsibility, creativity, self-reflective
learning, and critical/analytical thinking?
The bottom line, therefore, is that this portfolio is also
about exploration - a senior faculty member's exploration of a new course
(Entry 2: reflections on a syllabus and course) and of new ways of engaging
students (Entries 3 and 5: reflections on two portfolio assignments).
In this incarnation, the portfolio is not meant to be a comprehensive
analysis of the course in its totality. Rather, it's a series of snapshots
which document some new initiatives (Entry 4: revisiting a multiple choice
test), some new ways of thinking about the course (Entry 6: reflection
on student learning), and some thoughts on what I've learned (Entry 7:
reflection on student evaluations and final thoughts)
Developmental Course Portfolios: Questions and Challenges
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1.
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Why do it?
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2.
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What types of materials are useful? And "how
much" is enough for inclusion?
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3.
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Does it need to be accessible to "outside" readers?
If so, what types of readers might be appropriate - and why? What
types of materials would help those readers?
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3.
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Are there benefits? Do they outweigh the time invested
in the short run? in the long run?
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4.
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If a developmental portfolio become
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5.
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What type of balance should exist between reflection
on content and reflection on pedagogy?
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6.
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Other issues?
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Possible Benefits
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1.
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Better teaching and learning.
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2.
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Faculty and course renewal.
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3.
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Institutional "memory bank" and resource
for accreditation.
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4.
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Departmental resource for accreditation and as reference
for other faculty teaching a course.
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5.
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Eventual Utility - post-tenure review, promotion
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For more information on course portfolios contact:
Deborah M. Langsam
Department of Biology
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Charlotte, North Carolina 28223
(e-mail: dmlangsa@email.uncc.edu)
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