Syllabus for EDL-710

PROFESSIONAL PORTFOLIO DEVELOPMENT


COURSE DESCRIPTION

As the capstone experience in the Master of Arts in Educational Leadership (MAEdL) program, Professional Portfolio Development requires students to prepare an electronic portfolio that demonstrates their achievement of program and ISLLC standards. This portfolio will show how the student has developed and how he or she has applied learning. The process of portfolio development involves: goal setting; decision making, and analysis in the selection of artifacts that document and recognize propositional and procedural knowledge and personal and professional attributes of leadership; and self-evaluation and reflection. Students will learn how professional electronic portfolios are defined, organized, and evaluated. A second goal of this course is to prepare students to retool their portfolio for continued professional and academic advancement beyond the degree program. Students will be expected to substantiate standards-based competencies and the required internship hours addressing each of the ISLLC standards through all of, but not limited to, the following: documentary evidence of site-based participation in educational leadership roles and responsibilities, letters of endorsement or support from qualified site administrators, class assignments and research papers, reflective journal entries, contact logs with mentors, and self-assessment narratives (ISLLC 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6; NJPSTSL 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Professional portfolios have been part of the educational scene for several years. Pre-service teachers develop portfolios as evidence that they have met professional standards and as a requirement for graduation. Professional portfolios can serve the same purpose for school and district administrators. This course will focus on the use of portfolios as documentation of the wide range of knowledge and abilities contemporary leaders concerned with teaching, learning, and school improvement must possess to promote excellence in instruction and the creation of a culture that promotes improved student achievement. The course will also focus on the use of portfolios as vehicles for professional growth and for building job placement credentials. Upon successful completion of the course, the student should be able to:

  1. Describe the current trends and uses of professional portfolios to authentically assess learning outcomes for aspiring and practicing educational leaders. [ISLLC Standard 6C; NJPSTSL Standards 2.6 and 6.15]
  2. Discuss the benefits and challenges of portfolio development. [ISLLC standard 1B; NJPSTSL standard 1.4]
  3. Identify formative and summative evaluation elements of the portfolio development process as formative and summative evaluations. [NJPSTSL standard 2.38]
  4. Analyze the role of reflective inquiry: describe the various types of reflective inquiry, discuss the outcomes and benefits of reflective inquiry in portfolio development, explain the use of guiding questions for reflective inquiry; discuss how the different types of reflective inquiry can become evidence or artifacts appropriate for a professional portfolio. [ISLLC standard 5B; NJPSTSL standard 2.8]
  5. Explain the cycle of portfolio development and use the cycle to demonstrate the student's knowledge, skills, dispositions, and functions of an educational leader. [ ISLLC standards 1—6C; NJPSTSL standards 1—6]
  6. Demonstrate facility with electronic portfolio software in the design of a professional electronic portfolio in which the organization, content, and presentation style are congruent with the purpose of showcasing standards-based competencies and personal and professional attributes of educational leadership. [ISLLC standards 1—6C; NJPSTSL standards 1—6]
  7. Perform a self-analysis of his or her professional portfolio using standards-based rubrics. [ISLLC standard 5B; NJPSTSL standards 1.4 and 2.6]
  8. Demonstrate facility with proven procedures for retooling the portfolio for continued professional and academic advancement beyond the degree program. [ISLLC standard 2F; NJPSTSL standard 2.8]

Essential Questions

The key issues and essential questions in this course focus on development of a professional portfolio as a tool for summative evaluation of the knowledge, skills, and dispositions gained by MAEdL students through program courses and experiences and as a stimulus for reflection on their own professional growth.

COURSE MATERIALS

You will need the following materials to complete your coursework. Some course materials may be free, open source, or available from other providers. You can access free or open-source materials by clicking the links provided below or in the module details documents. To purchase course materials, please visit the University's textbook supplier.

Required Texts

ISBN-13: 0-978-1412972369

Supplemental Resources

Council of Chief State School Officers. (2008). Interstate school leaders licensure consortium standards for school leaders. Washington, DC: Author.

State of New Jersey Department of Education site. Professional development  for teachers:

http://www.state.nj.us/education/profdev/.

Supplemental Texts (Not Required)

Hartnell-Young, Elizabeth, and Morriss, Maureen (2007). Digital portfolios: Powerful tools for promoting professional growth and reflection. (2d ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Heath, Marilyn S. (2004) Electronic portfolios: A guide to professional development and assessment. Worthington, OH: Linworth Publishing, Inc.

Electronic Portfolio Registration

As a capstone experience in the Educational Leadership program, you will prepare an electronic portfolio that demonstrates your incremental achievement of the program standards. Each course in the program helps you to identify artifacts to place in your portfolio on completion of the course. To this end, you are required to purchase an electronic portfolio registration code upon your entry into the Master of Arts in Educational Leadership program. Basic directions for purchasing access to and using your electronic portfolio are posted within the Educational Leadership Students Organization (online community).

COURSE STRUCTURE

Professional Portfolio Development is a three-credit, graduate course, consisting of six instructional modules:

Each module, in turn, comprises topics,  learning objectives; a "read and reflect" assignment (with reflection questions to get you started, a reading assignment, and questions to consider); and, usually, one or more assignments as well as an online discussion.

As part of the course you will maintain an ungraded learning journal for posting reflections. The journal (see the My Journal area of the course Web site) serves as a central location for posting reflections and recording thoughts, notes, responses, questions, observations, etc.—in short, anything associated with the learning experiences of the class. Items submitted to the learning journal may serve as artifacts for your e-folio, and reflections recorded in the learning journal for later synthesis may become part of your e-folio's reflective narrative.

For the course content, go to the appropriate Module on the course Web site. (See also the Course Calendar.)

ASSESSMENT METHODS

For your formal work in the course, you are required to participate in five online discussion forums, complete ten portfolio assignments (two drafts and eight others), complete your portfolio, and do a presentation/paper. See below for more details.

Consult the Course Calendar for assignment due dates.

Promoting Originality

One or more of your course activities may utilize a tool designed to promote original work and evaluate your submissions for plagiarism. More information about this tool is available in this document.

Discussion Forums

Each module in the course (except Module 4) has an online class discussion forum (Module 6 also has an optional discussion). All discussion forums take place asynchronously on the class Discussion Board.

Online discussions provide an opportunity for you to interact with your classmates. During this aspect of the course, you respond to prompts that assist you in developing your ideas, you share those ideas with your classmates, and you comment on their posts. Discussion Board interactions promote development of a community of learners, critical thinking, and exploratory learning.

Please participate in online discussions as you would in constructive face-to-face discussions. You are expected to post well-reasoned and thoughtful reflections for each item, making reference, as appropriate, to your readings. You are also expected to reply to your classmates' posts in a respectful, professional, and courteous manner. You may, of course, post questions asking for clarification or further elucidation on a topic.

Portfolio Assignments

You will complete two draft portfolio assignments and then eight more assignments connected with your portfolio. Each of these assignments will allow you to incorporate feedback from your mentor before submitting items to your portfolio.

Portfolio Presentation and Paper

You will plan and perform a presentation of your professional portfolio to your present supervisor, presenting selected standards and accompanying artifacts and preparing responses to possible questions. You are required to present a paper describing your presentation, detailing your supervisor’s assessment of the presentation, and telling why you think your presentation meets appropriate criteria.  

You will submit the portfolio itself electronically on the eFolio site.

Portfolio Work

The course also directs you to perform certain organizational tasks in your portfolio and to submit particular items.You will send your mentor a message letting her or him know that the items have been uploaded so that your mentor can provide feedback.

Portfolio Artifacts and Reflective Narrative

Continue to place your artifacts in your electronic portfolio, and be certain to indicate their alignment to the applicable ISLLC standards.

GRADING AND EVALUATION

Your grade in the course will be determined as follows:  

All activities will receive a numerical grade of 0–100. You will receive a score of 0 for any work not submitted. Your final grade in the course will be a letter grade. Letter grade equivalents for numerical grades are as follows:

A

=

93–100

B

=

83–87

A–

=

90–92

C

=

73–82

B+

=

88–89

F

=

Below 73

To receive credit for the course, you must earn a letter grade of C or higher on the weighted average of all assigned course work (e.g., assignments, discussion postings, projects, etc.). Graduate students must maintain a B average overall to remain in good academic standing.

ACADEMIC POLICIES

To ensure success in all your academic endeavors and coursework at Thomas Edison State University, familiarize yourself with all administrative and academic policies including those related to academic integrity, course late submissions, course extensions, and grading policies.

For more, see:

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