ABSTRACT
The use of portfolios for assessing student learning in higher education is an increasingly talked-about practice. This chapter illustrates the usefulness of portfolios in higher education, specifically for teacher training programs, by drawing on personal experiences with portfolios in a variety of courses. The students’ opinions about the use of portfolios in their courses are used to illustrate the learning process they went through when compiling the portfolios. The portfolio is one of a variety of instruments suggested for alternative assessment purposes, alongside exhibitions, individual and group projects, learner diaries, self-assessment, and others. The portfolio contains the biographies of the entries—that is, the progressive drafts and revisions of each assignment—which is crucial when discussing educational assessment. Each entry in the portfolio is given a specific weight in terms of numbers, as the trainees must be given a number (percentage out of a hundred) as their final course grade.
