Portfolio Development
What is a Professional Portfolio?
Why Keep a Professional Portfolio?
Developing a Teaching Philosophy
Guidelines for Organising Professional Portfolios
The adult education sector has undergone a remarkable transformation over the last number of years. More and more adults in Ireland are now taking part in lifelong learning, either in the workplace or on part-time courses. The range of courses on offer has increased and the delivery methods are becoming more varied.
Students can work towards a growing range of awards through home study with distance learning programmes, or by taking individual accredited modules at universities, colleges or outreach centres. A huge range of interest and lifestyle courses is also on offer for those who do not wish to attend more formal programmes. Advances in technology have created new possibilities for how and where courses can be delivered, while also ensuring that course materials can easily be kept immediate and current.
All of these advances require adult educators to display an expanding range of skills. Tutors must :
- Be subject/content experts
- Demonstrate effective facilitation skills
- Have an understanding of adult learning and group work
- Keep informed about the role of assessment and feedback as it impacts on adult learning
- Up skill in all aspects of information technology
Adult education practitioners in Ireland enter the profession through a variety of ways. There is no set career path outlining how to enter or progress in this sector. Unlike the other education sectors where career structures are rigid and defined, the adult education sector is more fluid enabling subject experts to teach even when they do not have a background or qualification in teaching. Rather than join the profession with the benefit of a pre-service training, tutors generally gain their skills through on the job training.
An advantage of this flexibility is that interested and committed individuals are drawn towards part-time teaching, sometimes in tandem with full-time work, often for the sense of fulfilment rather than for monetary gain. This flexibility also ensures that individuals, who might not wish to pursue a full time teaching career, can still share their expertise with learners. Should a defined career hierarchy be introduced, this expertise might be lost to the adult education sector.
It is largely due to the work of dedicated volunteers and committed part-timers that the adult education sector in Ireland has grown and developed. However, the lack of a career structure or obvious career path has disadvantages in that most of the work is part-time and seasonal in nature. Little or no security is offered making it difficult to anticipate and plan work schedules.
The lack of career structures also has implications for teaching standards and quality. As there is currently no requirement to have a specific teaching qualification, the onus is on tutors to direct their own professional development. Some tutors are hugely committed in this regard and undertake training on their own instigation and at their own expense. However, without more identifiable professional benchmarks there might be a tendency towards complacency with little motivation for challenging and modifying existing teaching practices.
Many professions require their members to have a 'licence to practice'. These awards not only acknowledge the achievement and abilities of an individual, but also confirm evidence of the candidate's compliance with requirements for continuing professional development. While there is no professional body overseeing such activity for adult educators, tutors can take the initiative to demonstrate their commitment to their ongoing professional development by keeping a teaching portfolio.
Such portfolios are used in teaching training colleges and are also gaining widespread acceptance as a means of demonstrating skills and current competences. They are increasingly more widely required when candidates are being considered for teaching positions, tenure or promotion.
Tutors who aspire to being a reflective practitioner can use a professional portfolio as a way of reviewing what they are doing, why they are doing it, and analysing what the benefits are for learners. A portfolio also provides a forum for self-evaluation, and for detailing how a tutor keeps current with developments in his/her area of expertise and in teaching methodologies
WHAT IS A PROFESSIONAL PORTFOLIO?
A portfolio is a representative collection of documents and materials related to your teaching career. As a tutor you may be familiar with portfolios as assessment exercises, or for the purposes of accrediting prior experiential learning. A professional teaching portfolio is an amalgam of both. Compiling the portfolio is a self-assessment exercise where you review and evaluate your teaching by selecting materials that demonstrate your experience and skill as a teacher. The aim is to assemble a collection of materials that showcase your skills, abilities and aspirations as a teacher. A portfolio details your teaching responsibilities, highlighting your successes and experiences to date. It also provides a forum to outline your views on teaching and what it means to be a teacher. A portfolio should also aim to project an image of you as a dynamic professional who takes responsibility for your own professional development.
Artists develop portfolios to showcase their work and a professional teaching portfolio is developed with this same goal as its central purpose. Rather than just recording details about a teaching career in a Curriculum Vita, a portfolio enables a practitioner to display additional dimensions of their skills and personality. A CV on its own is quite limited in terms of what it says, or doesn't say, about a teacher. Hard facts about your teaching history can be outlined in a CV, but it says little about how successful your teaching has been, or how your teaching has been perceived by others. By including samples of evaluation forms, student work, notes, class plans, etc., a portfolio can create a more rounded impression of how committed and creative you are as a teacher. As most potential employers may not get a chance to see you teaching, the portfolio provides an opportunity to project a sense of how you wish to be seen as a teacher.
The next section will look at why you might wish to keep a portfolio. An understanding of the rationale behind portfolios will help clarify their purpose. An internet search for professional teaching portfolios will yield many examples of online portfolios. Faculty members of some colleges, particularly in the US, maintain online portfolios, and reading some of these before you start compiling your portfolio will give an overview of the type of information that can be included. As you browse through the online portfolios you can determine what you consider to be good or bad practice and get tips for assembling your own portfolio.
WHY KEEP A PROFESSIONAL PORTFOLIO?
There are many varied and diverse reasons for maintaining a professional portfolio. Some of these reasons have been categorised here under three headings: evaluation, communication and professional development.
Evaluation
The creation, or revision, of a teaching portfolio provides an opportunity for teachers/educators to engage in self-evaluation by reflecting on:
- teaching goals
- teacher-student relationships
- the effectiveness of teaching strategies
- alternative methods for teaching and assessing teaching
- professional development, e.g., courses taken, seminars, conferences attended
The process of evaluation and reflection causes us to articulate what it is we do and why we do it. Why do we teach in particular ways? Have we just mimicked the teaching styles of our own teachers/college tutors, or have we made a concerted effort to identify good teaching practices and adopt these characteristics and skills? Colleagues, students, etc., can, and should, be involved in this evaluation process by providing feedback on teaching methodologies, assessment, class dynamics, etc.
Through a process of self-evaluation and reflection, we can begin to determine the competencies, knowledge, talents, and attributes we have that should be represented in our professional portfolios. From this self-evaluation, we can begin thinking about how to represent those competencies and characteristics. Click here for suggestions on how to organise your portfolio and what to include.
Communication
A portfolio can be used for a variety of communication purposes, e.g., a presentation portfolio can:
- demonstrate an awareness of teaching methods
- showcase a teacher's skills, growth and range
- document teaching and its effectiveness
- document excellence in teaching
- document innovation and creativity in teaching
- demonstrate examples of good practice which have been adopted
- profile a specific course or teaching methods
- record recognition of scholarship, presentations and awards on teaching
- highlight commitment to ongoing professional development
- promote professional dialogue about teaching
- provide potential employers with additional information that might set an individual apart from other candidates
Portfolios are unique and valuable means of communication between the teacher and others. For example, during professional employment interviews, portfolios can stimulate thoughtful discussion about teaching and demonstrate how you are managing your own professional development. Additionally, a portfolio has value as a source of self-satisfaction and pride, and can promote a sense of accomplishment.
Professional Development
An expectation of professionals is that they continue to grow intellectually and develop their expertise. Academic researchers are expected to stay current with theoretical developments in their field and to contribute to those developments. Committed tutors feel a responsibility to keep up to date, not only with developments in their field, but also with new ideas about teaching and learning. Teachers who are open to new ideas learn from students, particularly when working with adult students who bring such a wealth of experience to class.
Ideas and beliefs about what constitutes good teaching practice change through personal experience of both teaching and learning. Through these experiences we learn to identify the most effective and creative teaching methodologies, what works for us as teachers and what helps us as learners. As tutors gain teaching experience they acquire a range of skills and resources that can support or guide productive teaching. It is important that this professional development is documented so that the reader can see the progression that has been made, and can identify whether the tutor is committed to his/her ongoing development.
Professional development may assume many forms. It may mean reading literature on education theory, policy, or teaching methods. It might include attending workshops, seminars, or educational conferences. Working with peers in a teaching team and collaborating on course development is also a valuable professional development exercise. There is a growing demand and need for research into a wide variety of topics related to adult education. Recommendations and findings from such research can be instrumental in leading us to reconsider our teaching practices. Likewise, conducting educational research in our own classrooms can add to our understanding of learning processes or group dynamics. Sharing our expertise through publications, or mentoring other teachers, can be considered a valuable contribution to the educational environment. Endeavours in any of these directions should be documented for inclusion in a portfolio.
The value of professional portfolios lies in their potential to project an impression of an individual as a teacher. They are credible vehicles of reflection, assessment, evaluation, and a dynamic means of communication. As their development in the educational community becomes more widespread and better understood, their value is certain to escalate.
GETTING STARTED
Developing a professional portfolio is a complex, thought-provoking process of self evaluation--reflection, decision-making, and goal setting--that takes place over time and in collaboration with colleagues in educational settings.
Your portfolio should be flexible so that you can adapt the contents to suit different situations. However, to ensure you have the most suitable and representative documentation for your portfolio, it is important to get into the habit of keeping and filing teaching related materials.
There are four key steps in developing your portfolio:
1. Project: What do you want your portfolio to show about you, your teaching career and your vision of teaching? Then you plan the content to convey that message.
2. Collect: Begin to identify a wide range of materials from across the span of your teaching career that will illustrate those qualities you wish to project.
3. Select: Select carefully those items that will be most effective in presenting your strengths. Develop materials to project your qualities and skills rather than allowing the materials you already have to dictate the attributes you portray.
4. Reflect: Why have you selected each document that you intend to include? What does each entry demonstrate about you and your teaching? What does it show about your professional growth? How does it illustrate the effect of your teaching on your students? You will need to write a statement outlining the rationale for why you have included each entry and what it says about you as a teaching professional.
Adapted from:
www.usask.ca/education/csbe/portfolio.htm
The initial filing and compilation of materials can be held in a working portfolio until you need to produce a more select sample in a professional portfolio.
Working Portfolio
A working portfolio is a comprehensive collection of teaching materials, evaluation forms, student work and results, feedback forms, peer reviews, etc. From this comprehensive collection, samples can then be taken to produce a showcase/presentation portfolio.
A working portfolio can be kept in a variety of ways, however it is most convenient for you to organise your information. As this working portfolio is for your own use rather than for public display, you do not need to have an elaborate, or expensive, filing system. It is important to keep your portfolio current while also maintaining documentation from early in your career. This enables you to chart progression and development in your teaching practices and career goals.
Before you begin gathering materials and documentation, you may want to detail your current and most recent teaching responsibilities, update your CV and list what courses/training you have taken. This will give you a framework for organising your materials for your presentation portfolio. You might also wish to discuss your portfolio with colleagues as they might have valuable suggestions about what to include. Information about your teaching abilities, taken from sources other than your students, is useful in highlighting your willingness to work as part of a team, or in collaboration with others.
Questions to ask yourself when collecting and selecting information
- What do I want my portfolio to show about me as a teacher?
- What are my attributes as a teacher?
- What do I want my portfolio to demonstrate about me as a learner? How and what have I learned?
- What directions for my future growth and development does my self-evaluation suggest? How can I show them in my portfolio?
- What points have others made about me as a teacher and learner? How can I show them in my portfolio?
- What effect does my teaching have upon my students? How can I show this in my portfolio?
- What overall impression do I want my portfolio to give a reviewer about me as a learner and as a teacher?
Showcase/Presentation Portfolio
A showcase or presentation portfolio is compiled from the working portfolio for the purpose of giving others an effective, concise portrait of your professional growth and competence. It is only necessary to select a representative sample of materials, as otherwise your presentation portfolio could become too unwieldy.
Before assembling your presentation portfolio, begin planning by thinking about purpose and audience. Teachers develop portfolios for a range of purposes, e.g., job searches, promotional interviews, award nominations, and other situations, and each brings an audience with a unique set of expectations and needs. Reflecting on purpose and audience can help give shape to your portfolio.
What is your main purpose in creating this portfolio? Again, concentrate on the principles of project, collect, select and reflect. What basic argument about your teaching will you make, and why? Who will be reading and reviewing the portfolio? What do you know about their beliefs about good teaching? Are their beliefs consistent with your own? What is the ethos of the organisation and how does this impact on their choice of teachers? What types of evidence of teaching effectiveness will be most convincing to the readers? What evidence will they expect to find?
Once you have selected the materials that you feel give the most concise image of you as a teacher, the next step is to write a statement outlining why you have chosen each particular item and describe how it is representative of you as a professional.
The primary consideration for presenting your portfolio is that the materials should be conveniently arranged for review by others. The section on structuring your portfolio will suggest ways to organise your information. Whatever file or folder you chose to use should allow you the flexibility to remove and add materials easily. Hardback ring binder folders might be used, or leather/plastic professional portfolio wallets/cases. Some material which you might wish to protect, e.g., original certificates, can then be inserted in presentation pockets.
STRUCTURING YOUR PORTFOLIO
Assembling a portfolio is a creative act and expresses the author's abilities and style. A portfolio can communicate important traits through its organisation, creativity, thoroughness and neatness. A portfolio should aim to portray the teacher as a dynamic professional, both a skilled and knowledgeable tutor, who works in collaboration with others. A portfolio might be organised in any number of ways. Personal creativity and categorisation choices can determine how you wish to arrange your materials. One possible way of organising your portfolio is suggested here in order to give an idea for a basic structure or framework to get you started. Here, a portfolio is organised under three categories (this is adapted from a system recommended by the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, Faculty of Education):
I Professional Reflection & Responsibilities
II Professional Evidence
III Professional Development
I Professional Reflection & Responsibilities
This introductory section usually includes your teaching philosophy, and outlines the scope of teaching responsibilities you have had over your career. This section should provide evidence that you hold a personal vision of teaching and learning and are committed to high quality education. You might wish to outline your career record to date to establish the educational environment in which you have been working. This highlights that you are bringing past learning and skills to your teaching.
Examples of materials you might wish to include:
- Statement of Teaching Beliefs - personal teaching philosophy (the next section provides guidelines for generating this statement)
- Curriculum Vita
- Details of teaching responsibilities to date - courses taught, numbers attending, course format, etc./li>
- Description of the profile(s) of students you have taught, e.g., mature learners, students returning to education after long absence, women's groups, prisoners, etc.,
- Evidence of professional goals and attainments
- Evidence of personal and professional attributes and experiences that contribute to teaching
- Self-evaluation documentation that highlights your thoughts on teaching, how these have developed and how you have changed or modified your teaching practices over the course of your career.
II Professional Evidence
In this section you might wish to demonstrate how effective your teaching has been and provide evidence of excellence and leadership in education. You should demonstrate your understanding of the learning process and how you accommodate different learning styles when you prepare and deliver your materials. How do you involve students and encourage participation? Likewise, you might like to highlight how you create an " adult friendly" learning environment so that all students are treated equally and feel included in the learning process.
You will need to show that you have a thorough knowledge of your teaching area and that you have kept current with developments in the field. How do you assess your courses and why? Have you given consideration to other assessment strategies that might be more relevant or appropriate to the setting in which you operate? Additionally, what teaching resources do you use and why? Have you adopted new information technology, or visual aids, to help with delivering course content? Why, or why not? Equally, have you encouraged your students to explore new technologies to help their own learning, or to assist with recording or presenting information? Any innovative or creative teaching practices that you have developed, or set up, should be highlighted.
Co-operation with colleagues or others in the community should be highlighted. Are you part of a teaching team? What input have you had at course design stage? Did this involve working with colleagues, college/school staff, and what role did you have?
Examples of materials you might wish to include:
- Statement of rationale outlining why you are including the selected items.
- Planning and preparation guidelines
- Programme outline/course design
- Lesson plans - unit outline of specific curriculum area
- Course outcomes & assessment strategies
- Short, medium and long term goals for particular courses
- Lecture notes for particular topic
- Notes/handouts that you have developed
- Questionnaires/surveys used to determine learning styles
- Questionnaires, etc., used to encourage students to determine and guide course content
- Instruction methodologies/strategies/teaching competencies - e.g. classroom management practices
- Description of course improvement strategies
- Evidence of knowledge of adult development and learning processes
- Demonstration of content knowledge - subject expertise
- Current and contemporary reading lists
- Student and programme evaluation - representative sample to show how student suggestions have been adopted
- Self-evaluation e.g. reflective journal entries
- Student work that clearly illustrates the relationship between planning, learning activities and results
- Descriptions of non-traditional teaching settings
- Evidence of student support structures incorporated into your courses
- Letters/cards received from students
- Supervisor comments/Peer evaluation
- Records of committee work/teaching team reports
- Evidence of mentoring other tutors
- Evidence of seeking educational funding for your organisation or students
III Professional Development
The final section will include evidence of professional growth, i.e., what actions you have taken to enhance your teaching skills and knowledge about learning processes. Also, what plans do you have for your future career development? Have you identified areas that warrant further training? This section should aim to demonstrate if, and how, you critically reflect on your teaching practices with a view to improving or modifying practices.
Examples of materials you might wish to include:
- Statement of rationale outlining why you are including the selected items.
- Certificates, diplomas
- Records of conferences, workshops, seminars attended
- Details of professional development courses attended
- Teaching Awards
- Comments/feedback from others acknowledging your contribution and commitment to teaching
- Membership of professional societies relevant to teaching or to your subject area
- Papers/articles published
- Invitations to present at conferences, workshops, etc.
- A plan of action which highlights your understanding of the importance of professional development and the need for lifelong learning to enhance your role as a teacher
- Revised ideas on teaching beliefs/goals
DEVELOPING A TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
A teaching portfolio should contain a statement of your teaching philosophy. While you may have a utopian vision of how the education system might be, and what it might achieve, it is important that your own philosophy is realistic and your goals achievable. Course/institutional demands may influence what and how you teach and it is necessary that such constraints be identified.
Education and teaching is a subject that generates heated debated. Ideals and goals will vary hugely from one professional to another, as will the aspirations and agendas of students vary greatly from one to another. The act of articulating a vision of teaching in a written statement causes a tutor to reflect on the purpose and nature of their work. Consulting with colleagues, or talking through your ideas with others, will help generate and refine guiding principles for your statement. A teaching philosophy is a work in progress as it is a statement you are likely to want to revise as you build on experience and acquire new skills. The statement should not get too preoccupied with an analysis of how you teach, but should focus on your values and goals as a teacher.
Your teaching philosophy, or teaching statement, might address some of the following questions:
- What are your goals and objectives as a teacher?
- Why do you teach? What motivates you?
- What makes you feel good/bad about teaching?
- Why is teaching important?
- What do you consider to be the rewards of the teaching profession?
- How do you teach? How do others perceive you as a teacher?
- Why do you teach the way you do?
- Have you considered alternative teaching strategies?
- How did you arrive at the strategy you rely on most frequently?
- Have you introduced any creative/innovative teaching initiatives that have been successful/unsuccessful? Were you able to identify why?
- Who are your students? Are they unique in any way? How?
- Where do you teach? Does this have an impact on how your courses are delivered?
- How do you see the teacher-student relationship?
- How do you build rapport with students?
- How has your own experience as a learner influenced your work as a teacher?
- Do you have a role in developing independent learners and creating a culture of lifelong learning? If so, how?
- Is there something about your teaching style that is distinctive? In what way and how do students benefit?
- What impact do you wish your teaching to have on a student?
- Does your teaching influence student behaviour in any way?
- What results do you wish to see?
- How do you measure your effectiveness?
- What consideration do you give to the learning environment?
- Do your short-term teaching goals differ from your long-term goals? If so, how?
- Having considered the above questions, would you like to change your practices in any way?
- Is there a clear relation between your stated goals and vision, and what you can actually achieve on a daily basis?
A synopsis of your answers to a number of the above questions will lead you to the basis of a statement on your teaching philosophy. Additionally, many of these questions will help formulate your statements of rationale (outlining why you are including the selected items) which should be included at the start of each section of your portfolio.
GUIDELINES FOR ORGANISING PROFESSIONAL PORTFOLIOS
The following guidelines are intended as tips for ease of assembly and effective organisation.
- Use a good quality folder/portfolio case.
- Ensure that it is easy to add or extract information as necessary.
- Begin with an identification page that includes name, address, and telephone number. You might wish to include a photograph but this is entirely optional.
- Include a Table of Contents that identifies the overall organisation of the portfolio. Indicate and label the sections clearly. Colour coding and/or dividers may be helpful.
- Likewise, within each section, include a Table of Contents to direct the reader about the organisation of the section.
- Include a statement with each entry, or a composite statement at the start of each section, giving your rationale for why you have selected the documents that are included.
- Place multiple-page or otherwise irregularly shaped entries in plastic sleeves or pockets. Rather than hole-punching original documents, such as certificates, etc., you might prefer to put the document in a pocket. Likewise, if you are including articles, or lecture notes, you could include the full document in a sleeve, and introduce it with a summary/abstract.
- Remember that portfolios are representative, not comprehensive. Choose one or two representative documents, e.g., student evaluation forms, rather than including all the documentation from a given course.
- You might wish to highlight comments, or sentences, from documents that you think are particularly relevant, or which link directly with the ideas proposed in your teaching philosophy.
- Avoid platitudes or generalities, particularly when devising your Teaching Philosophy. Be realistic and identify achievable goals and aims rather than propose a utopian vision.
- In order to show a different dimension to your teaching, it is possible to include video tapes or audio tapes with samples of classes in progress.
- A lot of information can be contained in tables or grids thereby making your data immediately accessible to the reader. Lists of courses given, workshops/conferences attended, etc., lend themselves to this type of presentation.
- Arrange your portfolio in a way that makes it easy for you and reviewers to identify the goals you set and your subsequent progress or achievement.
- Remember that portfolios are dynamic. The portfolio should be set up in a way that enables you introduce new materials, and remove older materials, as your career and ideas progress or change. Some material that might be relevant for one audience may not have any value to another reviewer.
CONCLUSION
We have considered some of the potential reasons for maintaining a professional portfolio and outlined how you might go about commencing your own portfolio. While the prospect of compiling your own portfolio might seem daunting, the guidelines included here should help make the task seem more manageable.
Professional portfolios are now part of international practice and are gaining increased acceptance in Ireland. Students on the Higher Diploma in Education (HdipEd) in UCD are required to compile a portfolio of teaching practice as part of their assessment. Also, within UCD, new full-time teaching staff take part on an induction programme where they are advised to maintain a portfolio. Promotion to the rank of Senior Lecturer within the university is now assessed by way of a teaching portfolio. Information about the Senior Lecturer benchmarks can be seen on the UCD Centre for Teaching and Learning website at:
www.ucd.ie/teaching/index.html
These benchmarks might provide you with additional suggestions for how to arrange and organise your portfolio.
The UCD Adult Education Centre would like to wish you continued success with your teaching career, and good luck with your portfolio development.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adult Learning Styles
Brookfield, S.D. (1986) Understanding and Facilitating Adult Learning. San Francisco: Jossey Bass
Adams Bullock, A., & Hawk, P., Developing a Teaching Portfolio: A Guide for Preservice and Practicing Teachers, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2001.
Daines, C. & J., Graham, B. (1993) Adult Learning Adult Teaching. University of Nottingham, Department of Adult Education.
Pont, T. (1996) Developing Effective Training Skills. 2nd ed. Berkshire: McGraw Hill
Notes taken from workshop on Adult Learning Styles presented to UCD Adult Education Centre tutors by Professor Brenda Smith, Head, Generic Centre, Learning Teaching Support Network, UK
Assessing Adult Learners
Daines, C. & J., Graham, B. (1993) Adult Learning Adult Teaching. University of Nottingham, Department of Adult Education.
Notes taken from workshops given by Professor Brenda Smith, Learning Teaching Support Network, UK, and Dr. Maggie Coates, Open University.
Course Design and Planning
Bloom, B.S. (Ed.) (1956) Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals: Handbook I, cognitive domain. New York ; Toronto: Longmans, Green
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Covey, Steven as quoted in Inquiry in Curriculum Design, BANDL Curriculum Design Tools. San Francisco, 1999.
Daines, C. & J., Graham, B. (1993) Adult Learning Adult Teaching. University of Nottingham, Department of Adult Education.
Knowles, M.S. (1980) The Modern Practice of Adult Education: From Pedagogy to Andragogy. 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge Books.
McNair, Stephen Learner Autonomy in a Changing World in Boundaries in Adult Education. Editors, Edwards, Hanson & Raggett. Routledge/OU Press: London 2000
Pont, T. (1996) Developing Effective Training Skills. 2nd ed. Berkshire: McGraw Hill
Reay, David G. (1994) Understanding how People Learn. London: Kogan Page.
Reay, David G. (1994) Understanding the Training Function. London: Kogan Page.
Tyler, R, W. (1971)Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction. London: University of Chicago Press
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J., (1998) Understanding by Design. Alexandria, VA: ASCD,
Facilitation Skills: Working with Adult Learners
Brookfield, S.D. (1986) Understanding and Facilitating Adult Learning. San Francisco: Jossey Bass
Daines, C. & J., Graham, B. (1993) Adult Learning Adult Teaching. University of Nottingham, Department of Adult Education.
Heron, J. (1999) The Complete Facilitators Handbook. London: Kogan Page
Lawler, P. A. (1991). The challenges of the future: Ethical issues in a changing student population. Philadelphia, PA: Research for Better Schools. (ED 340 305)
Lawlor, M. and Handley, P. (1996) The Creative Trainer: Holistic Facilitation Skills for Accelerated Learning. Berkshire: McGraw Hill.
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Professional Portfolio Development
Adams Bullock, A., & Hawk, P., Developing a Teaching Portfolio: A Guide for Preservice and Practicing Teachers, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2001
Campell, D., Cignetti, P., Melenyzer, B., Nettles, D., & Wyman, R., How do Develop a Professional Portfolio: A Manual for Teachers, 2nd ed., Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2001.
Costantino, P., & De Lorenzo, M., Developing a Professional Teaching Portfolio – A Guide for Success, Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2001.
