DIGITAL Portfolios in PhysicalEducation Teacher Preparation

MEL L. HORTON

With digital portfolios, preservice students can directly demonstratecompetence through audio and video components.

Documenting preservice teachers' competence for graduation is one of thegreat challenges of teacher education programs. Most teacher educationprograms base admission to, and completion of, a program on set stan­dards such as a grade-point average, completion of methods courses in a

specific content area, observations, field work, internship in a school setting, andpassing scores on a teacher competency exam. Unfortunately, successful completion ofthese requirements does not necessarily guarantee that beginning teachers are fullyprepared for their first year of teaching. Although preservice teachers may demonstratetheir competency, they are not always held fully accountable for P-12 student perfor­mance. In addition to teacher competency, teacher accountability is linked with P-12student performance (Elmore, 1997). With P-12 student performance at the center ofaccountability, there is mounting pressure for performance-based assessment. Teachersare required to show a command of the knowledge of their content area, the ability toconvey this knowledge to students, and the capacity to assess their own teaching basedon student work samples and reflective practices.

Why a Portfolio?The National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has adoptednew standards, developed by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education(NASPE, 2001), for physical education teacher education programs. These new stan­dards evaluate teacher education programs based on "teacher candidate" performancesfrom the beginning stages of becoming a teacher to the continuing stages of teachingupon graduation. Because of this accountability, many universities are searching forways to provide evidence of teacher-candidate growth.

One way of displaying this growth is by using portfolios. Campbell, Cignetti,Melenyzer, Nettles, and Wyman (1997) define a portfolio as an organized, goal-drivencollection of evidence. As a form of authentic assessment, portfolios have been popularwith preservice and inservice teachers for about the last 10 years. Teachers have usedthem to demonstrate knowledge and professional development and for certificationpurposes (Adams, 1995; Tierney, 1993; Wolf, 1996). Portfolio assessment is a complexprocess when compared with traditional classroom-observation instruments, but port­folios have two advantages over observation and testing. One advantage is that portfo­lio development allows the teacher to build a professional model of assessment, asopposed to more traditional models (Bullock & Hawk, 2001). Another advantage is thatteachers who develop portfolios reportedly experience considerable professional growthfrom engaging in the process (Bullock & Hawk, 2001). To summarize, portfolio develop­ment enables prospective teachers to demonstrate that they meet a given set of standards,show that they are effective in their teaching, and take charge of their own training.

Part of proving teacher competence involves infusing technology into the art ofteaching. The National Council on Accreditation of Teacher Education now devotes an

JOPERD • Volume 75 No.9· November/December 2004 35

entire standard to technology (NASPE, 2(01). This standardstates that physical education teachers should use informa­tion technology to improve 1'-12 learning and to enhancepersonal and professional growth. Teacher education pro­grams that wish to gain NCATE accreditation must showthat their teacher candidates are competent users of tech­nology. Through development of a digital portfolio, teachercandidates can demonstrate their competence as a teacherand their ability to infuse technology into their teaching.The purpose of this article is to discuss digital portfolios asan avenue for evaluating teacher-candidate competence rela­tive to current NASPE/NCATE standards. Examples are pro­vided for professors of pedagogy and teacher candidates.

Advantages of Going DigitalDigital portfolios (also known as electronic portfolios) havemany advantages over paper portfolios. For example, tradi­tional portfolios often take the form of a large notebook orbinder that, once complete, are filed away and never viewedagain. Digital portfolios, however, are usually burned to aCD-ROM or fit onto a single diskette. These digital copiesare useful when applying for a job because the CO-ROM ordiskette is easily mailed with a formal job application.

Another advantage of digital portfolios is that they areversatile. Through captured video images of a teacher candi­date managing a classroom of SO students in a gymnasium,a principal can quickly see that the physical educationteacher can manage many students in a dynamic setting.Techniques of quality teaching, such as "back to the wall,""scanning," and implementation of smooth transitions fromone activity to another are demonstrated easily throughdigital portfolios.

Digital portfolios are also versatile because a teachercandidate can include digital pictures of students perform­ing a skill, with the components of the skill listed above orbelow the picture. This authentic assessment is harder todisplay through a notebook. In addition, digital portfoliosare connective. Lesson plans can be displayed with links toassessment, drills for practice, and game play.

Another advantage of digital portfolios is that they canbe kept "alive" through modification and improvement. Ifteacher candidates begin constructing their portfolio at thebeginning of their teacher training, they can reflect, modify,and update the portfolio throughout their career, not just asa part of the teacher-training experience. For example, ateacher candidate's portfolio may include a link to an assess­ment rubric for tennis. Three years later, the teacher canrecall this rubric when teaching a unit on tennis. The rubricwill be easily accessible through the digital portfolio andcan be modified as needed for this new teaching situation.

A final advantage of digital portfolios is that they allowthe teacher candidate to develop and demonstrate techno­logical competence. Many of the skills used in developing adigital portfolio can be used when infusing technology intoeveryday teaching in the gymnasium. For example, famil­iarity with digital video allows the teacher candidate to use

36

this in class for assessment purposes. Not only can theteacher candidate record self-teaching, 1'-12 students canvideo themselves performing various skills. The teachercandidate can use the video clips to assess teaching perfor­mance, while the 1'-12 students can practice detecting errorsin skills and making corrections based on viewing theirown performance. Recently, the Education Testing Service(2003) added a movement analysis using video clips to theProfessional Assessments for Beginning Teachers. Duringthe test, teacher candidates view clips of 1'-12 studentsperforming certain skills. The teacher candidate then docu­ments performance errors, developmental stages, and in­structional cues based on the clips viewed. This type oftesting is unique to physical education and is an importantskill for teacher candidates to develop because much ofauthentic assessment occurs while 1'-12 students are beingactive. If a digital video is not available, the same goal of1'-12 student assessment can be achieved with a digitalcamera (e.g., Ryan, Marzilli, &. Martindale, 2001). Manyschools already have digital cameras for teachers and stu­dents to use. Students can take pictures and then organizethem into a slide show using software such as PowerPoint(e.g.. Sinclair, 2002). Teacher candidates can also use digitalcameras to record certain events that showcase the physicaleducation program. These pictures can be included inthe teacher candidate's portfolio to demonstrate the manydifferent ways physical education can have an impact onthe community.

Hardware and Software IssuesAt first glimpse, hardware and software issues might seemoverwhelming to a professor who is a novice technologyuser. However, as time goes on, the technology will becomeeasier to use and more affordable. In developing a digitalportfolio, the basic equipment requirements include a com­puter, a CD burner, a video camera, a scanner, and a digitalcamera. The computer only needs to be powerful enough torun the various applications that are used, such as Word,FrontPage, and PowerPoint. So one can get by with a 64MBcomputer with a Pentium II 266GHz processor. Any digitalcamera over 1.5 megapixels can produce true color imagesat reasonable resolution. A scanner should have a scanningresolution of at least be 600 dots per inch. Hard-drive capac­ity is hard to determine since the media files are such avariable (movie files take up a large amount of space) andbecause PowerPoint files can be wasteful as well. So, two tothree gigabytes of free disk space should be the minimum.The preferred specifications are 256MB+ RAM on a 2GHz+Pentium IV with a HO+ gigabyte hard drive using a 2400 dpiscanner and 4+ megapixel camera.

As mentioned previously, software can be as simple asMicrosoft Word or Microsoft Office 2000 (which often in­cludes PowerPoint). This alone is sufficient for developing adigital portfolio. Some prefer to use a web-designing soft­ware such as Frontl'age, Dreamweaver, Netscape composer,or Corel. Most teacher education programs have technology

JOPERD • Volume 75 No 9 • November/December 2004

Figure 2. Unit Plan

Figure 3. Digital Photos

cognitive, social, andemotional developmentof P-12 students. An- ="".=",-------------.,""other example to in­clude here is lesson plan­ning. Proper sequencingwith skill cues and prac­ticecan show knowledgeof growth and develop-ment concepts.

Standard 3: DiverseStudents. Instructional modifications within the unit plancan be made based on individual P-12 students' needs. If astudent uses a wheelchair, the lesson plan can containvariations for this student such as, "The student who uses awheelchair will strike the ball using his or her hand insteadof kicking the ball." The unit plan can also include genericadjustments for all students such as "use a smaller bat," "usea larger ball," and so on. Digital pictures or video clips thatdemonstrate such concepts can also be included.

Standard 4: Management and Motivation. Teacher candi­dates can use digital video to demonstrate managementtechniques during a lesson, such as equipment transitions,formations for practice, and use of specific feedback. Theycan also include links to their management plans or todigital pictures of a bulletin board that displays class rules or"top stars of the week."

Standard 5: Communication. Many teacher candidatesuse physical education newsletters to communicate withparents or to showcase the program. Another aspect ofcommunication involves students. Candidates can displayskill themes and assessment items such as task cards orpeer-tutoring sheets on bulletin boards. Such items can becreated using software such as Microsoft Publisher andcan be linked within the digital portfolio. In addition, thefinal portfolio can be posted on a web site that will thenfoster communication with many people.

Standard 6: Planning andInstruction. This standard is easilydemonstrated within the digital portfolio through the in­clusion of lesson plans and video clips of actual teachingperformance. Objectives should specifically relate to theskill development contained within the lesson plan. Inaddition, lesson plans should include assessment, transi­tions, refinements, and extensions. Within the portfolio,these lesson plans are in the unit plan.

Standard 7: StudentAssessment. Teachercandidate assessment ofP-12 student learningshould also be evidentin the portfolio. By us­ing a digital portfolio,teacher candidates caninclude digital picturesor digital video of skilldevelopment (figure 3),

DigitalPortfolio Contentsfor Physical EducationThe content of a digital portfolio for physical educationdirectly relates to NASPE/NCATE standards (NASPE, 2001).In demonstrating growth, teacher candidates can includeartifacts from the beginning stages of their program to theirfinal internship. Artifacts are collected samples of teachercandidate work that demonstrate growth and development(Bullock & Hawk, 2001; NASPE, 2001). Examples include,but are not limited to, philosophy papers, discipline plans,lesson plans, digital pictures, digital video showing creativeteaching strategies, and evidence of participation in state ornational physical education conferences. Each artifact usedis described, analyzed, and reflected on, relative to theinstitution's conceptual framework. The following examplesshow how the content of a digital portfolio could relate toeach standard.

Standard 1: ContentKnowledge. Teacher candidates can berequired to include a unit plan taught during their intern­ship (figure 2). This unit plan will contain evidence ofcontent knowledge, such as teaching a basketball unit tohigh school students or striking to first graders.

Standard 2: Growth/Development. Including a long rangeplan (LRP) in their portfolio can demonstrate the teachercandidates' knowledge of growth and development. The LRPdisplays teacher candidates' understanding of the physical,

support centers on campus and courses for teacher candi­dates about integrating technology into teaching.

Despite this kind of help, students and faculty membersstill may experience problems with technology. For ex­ample, they will probably experience times when the uni­versity server is down or computers crash. During suchevents, patience is necessary to solve the problem and reas­sure frustrated teacher candidates. Usually when the prob­lems involve hardware, help from the instructional technol­ogy group on campus is necessary.

One common problem concerning software use occurswhen documents and pictures are scanned too large to beeasily stored and accessible. Another common problem in­volves the teacher candidate's understanding of hyperlinkingfiles within the portfolio. For instance, many teacher candi­dates forget that documents involving links need to besaved into the same folder as the final product. All links____________~ must go to the folder

Figure 1. Cover Page Iwhere all documents arestored. Again, this is aminor issue that can beovercome with patienceand instruction. Finally,it is helpful to providea template for thoseteacher candidates whoneed this kind of guid­ance (figure 1).

jOPERD • Volume 75 No.9· November/December 2004 37

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ReferencesAdams, T. L. (1995). A paradigm for portfolio assessment in teacher

education. Education, 115, 558-570, 528.

Barrett, H. (1999, March). Electronic teaching portfolios. Paper presented

at the meeting of the Society for Technology and Teacher Education

(SITE), San Antonio, Texas.

Bullock, A. A., &: Hawk, P. P. (2001). Developing a teaching portfolio: A

guide for preservice and practicing teachers. Upper Saddle River, NI:

Prentice-Hall.

Campbell, D. M., Cignetti, P. B., Melenyzer, B. I., Nettles, D. H., &:

Wyman, R. M. Jr. (1997). How to develop a professional portfolio.

Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Educational Testing Service. (2003). PRAXIS series: Physical education and

health studyguide-Practice and review. Princeton, NI: Author.

Elmore, R. F. (1997). Accountability in local school districts: Learning to

do the right things. Advances in Educational Administration, 5, 59-82.

National Association for Sport and Physical Education. (2001). NASPE/

NCATE initial physical education program report manual (5th ed.).

Reston, VA: Author.

Ryan, S., Marzilli, S., Martindale, T. (2001). Using digital cameras to

assess motor learning. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation &

Dance, 72(8), 13-16, 18.

Sinclair,C. (2002). A technology project in physical education. Journal of

Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 73(6),23-27.

Tierney, D. S. (1993). Teaching portfolios: 1992 update on research and

practice. Berkeley, CA: Far West Laboratory for Education Research

and Development.

Wolf, K. (1996). Developing an effective teaching portfolio. Educational

Leadership, 53(6), 34-37.

Mel L. Horton (hortonm@winthrop.edu) is an assistant professorat Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC 29733.

SummaryAs the paradigm con­tinues to shift to per­formance-based assess-ment of teacher education programs, it is becoming increas­ingly important to demonstrate evidence that teacher can­didates can perform at an acceptable level based on theNASPE/NCATE standards, as well as to show their impact onP-12 student learning. While digital portfolios provide thisopportunity through various formats (audio, video, graph­ics, text), it is paramount that teacher candidates demon­strate that they are meeting content preparation standards,such as those of NASPE/NCATE (Barrett, 1999). Withoutthis, the final product will lack meaning, whether in adigital or paper format.

The foregoing ex- Iamples represent onlya few of the manypossibilities of whatcan be done with digi­tal portfolios.

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Figure 4. Scanned Papers Iscanned assessment-----..... ....... check sheets showing

student progress, scan-ned student journals,and scanned peer­assessment sheets (fig­ure 4). Teacher candi­dates can also createtheir own assessmentsand use these to ana-lyze P-12 student data

through Excel or similar software.Standard 8: Reflection. Because the portfolio is a showcase

of growth, teacher candidates should include evidence ofreflection on their teaching. One way to accomplish this isfor teacher candidates to write reflections as part of thelesson plan at the end of each teaching episode. Anotherway is to keep a reflective journal through email shared withthe mentor teacher and/or university supervisor. Also, mostprograms require a capstone course that teacher candidatestake during their internship. Asa part of the course require­ment, reflective essays in which teacher candidates provideevidence of meeting state and national standards throughthe use of artifacts can be required. All of these items arelinked within the digital portfolio.

Standard 9: Technology. Within a digital portfolio, thereare numerous opportunities to demonstrate how the use oftechnology can enhance learning and productivity. To illus­trate, teacher candidates can enter student assessment datainto Excel and analyze this data using a variety of methods.Using the same type of software, one can then illustratestudent progress through the use of a chart showing skillprogression. Another inexpensive example of using tech­nology to enhance learning is by having students accesswww.Fitday.com and enter their food intake and daily exer­cise. This allows the students to conduct an analysis of their

I Idiet in relation to theirFigure 5. Data caloric expenditure. Yet

another example is theuse of heart rate moni­tors to collect meaning­ful data that assists inassessing and docu­menting students' fit­ness levels (figure 5).Such examples of stu-dent assessment data

can be scanned or linked into the teacher candidate's digitalportfolio as an artifact for evidence of student learningthrough the use of technology.

Standard 10:Collaboration. To demonstrate collaboration,the teacher candidate can include an email correspondencewith the university supervisor on a particular aspect ofteaching. He or she could also link to a flyer that advertisesa "Physical Education Open House" night that the teachercandidate organized for students and their families (figure 6).

38 10PERD • Volume 75 No 9 • November/December 2004