Professions like art and architecture possess a long history of
portfolio use. Rationale for
portfolio use includes arguments that such professions are heavily based
in “an ability to perform.” More recently, generally since the
mid-1980’s, education has implemented portfolios into teacher licensing
and recertification (Bartlett,
2002). The National Council for the Accreditation
of Teacher Education (NCATE)
and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS)
emphasize the need for portfolios to document student performance
regarding the standards developed by such national accreditation and
certification agencies. In general, portfolios represent a collection of
student work samples and reflections that demonstrate competency
regarding established standards. Portfolios are used broadly for
learning, assessment, and placement.
In 2003 NBPTS announced a new national certification for school
counselors
that requires both an exam and submission of a
professional portfolio. This announcement generated a great deal of
discussion among professional school counselors and counselor educators.
On CESNET, the electronic mailing list for counselor education and
supervision, discussions regarding portfolio usage burgeoned in April
2003. Several counselor educators questioned the value of portfolios for
counseling students (K. M. Humphrey, personal communications, April 15,
2003 ; F. Okerson, personal communications, April 15, 2003 . R. O.
Choate (personal communication, April 15, 2003 ) responded that portfolios help students to
incorporate professional identity into their learning experiences and to
reflect upon their experiences in the counseling program. Furthermore,
portfolios provide a measure of student progress and serve as employment
artifacts (K.F. Iris Jr., personal communication, April 15, 2003 ). Subsequent to the general discussion on portfolio
implementation, a discussion regarding the NBPTS portfolio requirement
emerged. J. Chandler (personal communication, June 10, 2003) posted a portion of an article written by Collins in the
Oklahoma Counseling Association newsletter. In her article, Collins
reported that the NBPTS requested documentation in the form of
artifacts, verification forms, and communication logs but that these
raise concerns around ethical responsibilities regarding
confidentiality. Several other counselor educators affirmed the concern
regarding ethical practice (S. Feit, personal communication, June 10,
2003 ; L. Tyson, personal communication, July 10, 2003 ).
It is likely that counseling accreditation and certification bodies such
as the
Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational
Programs (CACREP)
and the National Board for Counselor Certification (NBCC)
will follow the lead of NCATE and the NBPTS in requiring the use of
standards-based professional portfolios for evaluating student
competence and subsequently program efficacy (Keller,
n.d. ). This is likely in that the portfolio
offers a longitudinal demonstration of performance related to program
and accrediting body standards (Baltimore,
Hickson, George, & Crutchfield, 1996 ). In
addition, portfolios provide an efficient way for counselors to preserve
professional artifacts for professional certification organizations,
licensing boards, and employers (James
& Greenwalt, 2001 ). It seems that utilization of
the portfolio process can support continuing professional licensing
requirements and authentic assessment of program accreditation reviews (Carney,
Cobia, & Shannon, 1996 ), as much as it can
provide for authentic assessment of individual student success within
training programs (Barnes,
Clark, & Thull, 2003 ). In fact, according to
Batson (2002
), e-portfolios in particular present huge
possibilities for curriculum review, faculty evaluation, student
evaluation/placement, and program evaluation/accreditation review.
The electronic portfolio system implemented in the Counseling and Career
Development
(CCD)
program at Colorado State University (CSU)
represents a hybrid of the research-based, counselor-specific format
outlined by Boes, VanZile-Tamsen, and Jackson (2001
), and the e-portfolio format developed by Yohon (2002
) for the teacher licensure program at CSU. The
purpose of this article is to outline the multifaceted benefits of using
e-portfolios in the training of school counselors and to outline the
process of development and implementation of the e-portfolio for school
counseling students at CSU.
Portfolios in Counselor Education
One literature review revealed limited, but existent, literature
regarding the use of
portfolios for counselor education (Boes,
VanZile-Tamsen, & Jackson, 2001 ). Lewis, Counsol,
and Herting-Wahl (2000
) introduce the use of portfolios in counselor
education to include a) professional development, b) demonstration of
clinical skills, c) use as a career tool, and d) performance assessment.
In addition, Batson (2002
) indicates that students can use the portfolio as a
resume, a study guide for comprehensive exams, and as a matriculation
tool if they desire to transfer to another institution.
Boes, VanZile-Tamsen, and Jackson (2001
) clearly articulate the rationale, development, and
benefits of portfolio development for professional school counselors.
Research-based support for the utilization of professional portfolios in
counselor education can be found as early as 1995. According to Boes,
VanZile-Tamsen, and Jackson:
The portfolio as an employment tool is a brief but powerful visual
device to sell the applicant’s abilities. Items included should be one’s
best work and replaced as skills improve. The goal is to present a view
of personal and professional growth for the purpose of self-presentation
in a job interview and for reflective self-evaluation throughout its
development (p.230) .
School administrators struggle not only with assessment of position
candidates, but with annual and ongoing review of school counselor
performance. Schmidt (1990
) calls for continuous appraisal of school counselor
performance by principals to include observation, review of video and
audio tapes, interviews, simulated activities, work products, schedule
audits, record review, and consumer feedback. The professional portfolio
provides the means for school counselor candidates and experienced
school counselors alike to organize and clearly demonstrate their
knowledge, skills, and effectiveness. As candidates and consumers accept
and subsequently demand professional portfolios, more and more colleges
and universities will be pushed to implementation (Young,
2002 ).
Electronic Format
So why electronic versus paper portfolios? The answer is multifaceted
and grounded in the needs of students, training programs, and the
profession as a whole. Barnes, Clark and Thull (2003
) present a nice graphic outlining the primary
benefits of digital (electronic) portfolios over the use of paper
portfolios. The topic of electronic portfolios has generated so much
interest in the field of education that Cal State at Monterey Bay,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwest University, Stanford
University, University of Washington, and the Carnegie Foundation for
the Advancement of Teaching have teamed up to form the Electronic
Portfolio Action Committee (Young
).
One key to an effective portfolio is the ease with which content can be
added to, change, or minimized for the purpose of presentation (James
& Greenwalt, 2001 ). This is a characteristic and
advantage of the electronic portfolio as it allows a student to
creatively reorganize, adapt, and update material as needed to meet
their individual needs (Keller,
n. d. ;
Young ). According to
Young , students have indicated that the
electronic format in particular has proven to be most helpful as an
employment tool.
Keller (n.d.) recognizes the ease of
distribution to prospective employers as a result of the multi-media
capabilities, but cautions that the reviewer must possess the technology
and skills to navigate through the e-portfolio most efficiently.
The media-rich context of an electronic portfolio can clearly
demonstrate the student’s knowledge and skills regarding technology
competencies and can provide a more vivid picture of a counseling
student’s professional development (Keller;
Lewis, Counsol, & Herting-Wahl, 2000 ). At Butler
University, students who completed an electronic portfolio as a
requirement of their training program, report that both the process and
product provided meaningful professional growth opportunity (Keller
). In a study by Bartlett (2002
), the most frequent advantage of the electronic
portfolio as reported by undergraduate teaching majors was the learning
of technology and, conversely, the greatest reported disadvantage was
problems with the equipment. For more detail about the comparisons
between electronic and traditional portfolios, see Kovalchick, Milman,
and Elizabeth (1998
).
The School Counselor Portfolio at Colorado State University
The benefits of the e-portfolio are only as great at the degree to which
the portfolio itself is carefully constructed and evaluated. It is
critical to invest time during portfolio development not only towards
clearly determining the purpose and audience, but further towards
organization and content based upon specific professional competencies
and standards (Barnes,
Clark, & Thull, 2003;
Carney, Cobia, & Shannon, 1996 ;
Lewis, Counsol, Herting-Wahl ;
Moersch & Fisher, 1995 ). Set components add to
portfolio reliability while flexibility for student selection of
artifacts adds to validity (Carney,
Cobia, & Shannon ). In the author’s review of
existent electronic portfolios for counselors, all that were identified
served as repository portfolios (ie. a framework for housing a
collection of student work/assignments). The format adopted for
implementation at CSU represents a fixed component structure based upon
specific standards and competencies, with flexibility regarding student
selection of specific artifacts.
The 23 components of the CSU e-portfolio were created to specifically
demonstrate knowledge and competence for each of the 36 school
counseling CACREP standards and are integrated into the two required
school counseling courses at CSU Standards Grid.doc]. The specific
components are organized into eight categories within three broad
domains that are representative of the CACREP standards. These
categories include 1) Foundations: history, policies, laws, ethics,
theories; 2) Contextual Dimensions: understanding the counseling
program; 3) Contextual Dimensions: advocacy; 4) Contextual Dimensions:
coordination, collaboration, referral; 5) Contextual Dimensions:
enhancing school climate; 6) Knowledge/Skill Requirements: program
development and evaluation; 7) Knowledge/Skill Requirements: appraisal,
counseling, guidance; and 8) Knowledge/Skill Requirements: consultation.
All components are performance-based and students are required to
complete tasks specific to the successful completion of the portfolio
component.
Carney, Cobia, and Shannon (1996
) report that counselor educators have expressed
satisfaction in the fact that portfolio implementation includes the
student in the evaluative process. The evaluative strength of portfolio
assessment is an important consideration for portfolio utility. Just as
the student should see value in the process and product of portfolio
development, it is essential that the evaluation of completed portfolios
be consistent and clearly articulated to the students through both
holistic expectations and specific component rubrics (Carney,
Cobia, & Shannon, 1996). As introduced later in this article,
grading rubrics have been developed and integrated into the portfolio
experience at CSU. Furthermore, continual monitoring of student progress
in portfolio development and systematic gathering of data concerning
student satisfaction with both the process and product is critical to
successful utilization (Baltimore, Hickson, George, & Crutchfield,
1996). This continual monitoring does raise concerns about the
feasibility in light of faculty time, and one way to handle this
continuous evaluation is to integrate that evaluation into existing
course work (Carney, Cobia, Shannon, 1996). That is the strategy
employed by the faculty at CSU.
Each of the portfolio components is associated to a specific lesson plan
and is accompanied by a scoring rubric. A table of sample lesson plans
and rubrics is presented below:
Specific technical requirements impact the feasibility of electronic
portfolio adoption. Although many technical advances have occurred since
1995, Moersch and Fisher (1995
), offer a comprehensive review of technical concerns
including software and electronic storage requirements. Essentially,
there are two alternatives to portfolio storage, removable memory
devices, and the web. Removable memory devices that allow for continuous
updating and have adequate storage for e-portfolio documents include
portable flash drives, ZIP® disks and other Universal Serial Bus (USB)
plug-and-play devices. Recordable CD-ROMs and DVDs are appropriate for
archival storage and offer the additional benefits of inexpensive
distribution and increased content confidentiality. Web version
advantages include cross-platform capabilities, immediate access for
reviewers, ease of updating (Keller,
n.d. ), and greater capacity. School counseling
students at CSU have the luxury of unlimited disk space on the
university server that is accessible to them from remote locations. The
instructor also has access to all the student files in the share drive
so assessment and feedback is continuous and immediate. Students are
encouraged to back up and create distribution copies of their
professional portfolios in any manner they see fit.
The electronic school counseling portfolio at CSU has been developed
using Microsoft PowerPoint®. This
software program, chosen because of
its familiarity to students, affordability, cross-platform capabilities,
and ease of media and hyperlink
integration, also affords the ability to
be saved in multiple formats including presentation, editable file, and
web version.
The electronic portfolio at Colorado State University has received
recognition by university administrators, accolades by the CACREP site
visit team, and compliments from counselor educators as a result of
professional presentations. 47 graduate students in the school counselor
training program have completed the electronic portfolio and some of
their anonymous comments include:
“It was challenging. The portfolio has enhanced my counseling
philosophy/perspective.”
“I loved the opportunity to do the portfolio and I really learned a lot
through that experience.”
“The portfolio is a great way to prepare for future job challenges.”
The next task before the counseling faculty at CSU is to carry out a
research study examining student and administrator attitudes and
utilization of the electronic portfolio as it is being implemented in
the training program. Revision of portfolio components based upon a
crosswalk of the ASCA National Model (American
School Counseling Association, 2003 ) standards
with the CACREP standards is also planned.
Summary
Electronic portfolios provide growth opportunities for counseling
students. Generally since the mid – 1980’s to early 1990’s, counselor
educators have been introducing the idea of using portfolios to document
counselor achievement and competency. Recent changes in state licensure
and national certification of school counselors has rekindled
commitments to portfolio utilization. In addition, new advances in
technology have brought the possibility of large, flexible, and
media-rich portfolios ever closer. The Career and Counseling faculty at
CSU have made a commitment to respond through implementation of a
comprehensive portfolio in the school counselor training program.
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Author's Biography
