The Impact of Implementing a Portfolio Assessment System on Pre-Service Teachers’ Daily Teaching Reflections on Improvement, Performance and Professionalism

Two groups of pre-service teachers (portfolio and non-portfolio) were compared on three factors, Improvement, Performance, and Professionalism. The Student Teaching Reflection Survey (STRS) (Robichaux, 2001) was developed to assess these traits. It was hypothesized that the portfolio group would reflect more on their teaching skills resulting in greater scores on the STRS. Results indicated that the portfolio group scored statistically significantly greater on Professionalism than the non-portfolio group. However, the two groups scored equivalently on both Improvement and Performance. Thus, it appears that requiring pre-service teachers to develop a portfolio leads to reflecting more on their professionalism. This professionalism leads to the development of a more effective educator who can handle the complexities of teaching.