Professional Portfolio for Career Development

Tatyana Zayseva JFDP Fellow/Azerbaijan

The University of Iowa, Iowa CityApril 20, 2007

The Menu for Today

• What are portfolios and their uses?

• What do portfolios mean?

• How can I benefit from a Professional Portfolio?

• How does a Professional Portfolio looks like?

What is a portfolio? compilation of evidence which demonstrates the acquisition,

development and exercise of knowledge and skills …(from Retallick & Groundwater-Smith, 1996)

structured collection of teacher and student work created across diverse contexts of time, framed by reflection and enriched through collaboration …

(from Wolf, 2000)

a portfolio is a systemic and organized collection of work and assessments that documents a person’s efforts, progress and achievements.

(from Paul Wasko & Brenda Lyseng, 2003)

Portfolios…• The goals of portfolios can vary greatly

• A diverse range of tools can be used to

create a portfolio

• They are used for education, career, and personal goals

• They can be both formative or developmental and summative in nature

Why use a portfolio?

To provide a richer picture than more conventional forms of assessment

Campbell, Cignetti, Melenyzer, Nettles and Wyman (2001) How to develop a professional portfolio - A Manual for Teachers

A portfolio can help a job seeker or career changer present his or her talents in a convincing and fresh manner.

Martin Kimeldorf, Portfolio Power: The New Way to

Showcase All Your Job Skills and Experiences

Types of portfolios

• process portfolio - to improve rather than prove - an ongoing formative process that focuses on the learning process

• product portfolio - to meet desired outcome(s) - demonstrates that pre-determined standards have been met

• showcase portfolio - to celebrate achievement - a collection of best work

Step 1: Find out what a portfolio is and how you can use it

Key feature of a portfolio is an opportunity to reflect on the entire experience of an academic journey…

Uses

for faculty:

Step 1: Find out what a portfolio is and how you can use it

●Job hunting● Faculty evaluation ● Research● For student use ● Instructional● Professional development

Step 1: Find out what a portfolio is and how you can use it

● Program progress

Uses for students:

● Job hunting

● Course capstone–assessment of skills

Step 2: Try some Samples!

Sample Portfolios

• Stephen J. Coker Portfolio http://homepage.mac.com/coke.s/Portfolio

• Larie Smoyer Portfolio http://www.franksdaughte.com/portfoli.php

• John Brooks Erdmann Portfoliohttp://staff.washington.edu/gradalis/finalproject/index.html

• Linda Baer's E-Foliohttp://lindabaer.etoliomn2.com

• Alverno College's Digital Diagnostic Portfoliohttp://www.alverno.edu/acade.edu/academics/ddp.htmll

• Kalamazoo College Outstanding Portfolioshttp://www.kzoo.edu/pfolio/outstangind.html

Step 3: Make a professional portfolio for yourself• Professional portfolio is a comprehensive

description of your personal traits, experience, accomplishments, knowledge, skills, training, goals, and philosophy

• Reflective, purposeful, analytic, and developmental

• More than a resume – includes narrative

• Use your narrative to summarize and state your claims. These should be supported by evidence

Step 4: Professional Portfolio Implementation Process: Learning by Doing

Planning

Working

ReflectiveConnected

Presentation

Step 5: Make a professional portfolio for yourselfItems to include

in my professional

portfolio:

● Professional goals and interests● Expertise, knowledge, scholarship ● Professional competence●Leadership●Selective personal data

What this Professional Portfolio is about: Khazar University Library and Information Center development

requires that director of this structure has been demonstrating a level of skills in the following major areas including:

• A significant Education and Training Experience

• A significant Leadership experience

• A significant Practical or Service Experience

• A sustained intellectual argument or experience through the creation of a professional-level document or presentation

• Participation in the design and development of a significant project or product involving information technologies

Professional Portfolio: Practical Experience and Services

My practical experience as the Library and Information Center’s director is embodied in these three words:

● Work

● Enjoy

● Learn

Professional Portfolio: Three Important Experiences in Library During my time at the Khazar University Library I

was able to work in three different capacities.

• Head of Electronic Information Services Department 

• Director

• Trainer

Professional Portfolio: Leadership Turning Vision Into Action

• My role as a leader is to provide the University with a vision of what the future of the Library Information Center (LIC) will be in years to come. The challenge comes in directing the actions that lead LIC toward that vision.

• My strong opinion is that to be the best library leader you should love your job and people too. 

Professional Portfolio: Experience as a Library Leader In the field of an electronic resources and services

• An implementation of the library automation system (pioneer project in Azerbaijan)

• An electronic catalog, offering access to full-text materials through links to electronic resources like Cambridge Journals Online, Oxford Journals Online and so on provide researchers with powerful means of locating sources in any format

• Web based resources of all kinds, available free or by

institutional license

• Scope and type of student access to computer facilities, including Wi-Fi .

Professional Portfolio: Experience as a Library Leader In the field of library collection

development

● Designing Asian Development Bank Depository Library at the Khazar University

● International exchange programs with the Library of Congress and UCLA

● Various projects related to the library collection

development, including a hard long-term work with international library foundations and programs

Professional Portfolio: Experience as a Library Leader In the field of library research

● Guttenberg-Azerbaijan

● CALIMERA (Culture Applications Local Institution Mediating Electronic Resources Access)

● Azerbaijan Institutional Repositories coordinator under the auspices of SURF Foundation (Netherlands)

Professional Portfolio: Experience as a Library Leader In the field of Human Resources

Management

● Special programs for new library employees and volunteers opportunities

Khazar University library provides orientation for new library employees. Evaluation of employee's achievement of the goals and objectives of the Orientation is the supervisor's responsibility.

What I've Learned About Leadership

• Having the vision is not enough. Even if you've got the best idea in the world, you've got to be able to get people to work toward turning that vision into a reality.

● One of the greatest strengths would be that people should be organized. 

● There will probably be someone who has a dissenting opinion. These concerns should be heard, and thoroughly debated, but there should be some way of resolving the dispute.

Professional Portfolio: Educational and Practical Experience while the JFDP

My short-term professional goals:

• Receive knowledge for my growth professionally;• explore teaching skills and techniques,

educational methods at the University of Iowa;• expand the information base in the fields of

Librarianship;• develop on-going contact and exchange between

home and host institutions

Courses:● Reference and Information Service● Seminar in Library & Information Science● Library Research in Context● Capstone

Professional Portfolio: Educational and Practical Experience while the JFDP Participation in WiderNet project

• To promote the eGranary within Khazar University and

• Use the content of the eGranary to develop course curriculum at home institution in the field of Information Competency.

Professional Portfolio: Educational and Practical Experience while the JFDP

How will EGranary help host institution?

• Khazar University is striving to respond more effectively to the educational and development problems facing his community

• Development the communication and information technology that can enhance students' more understanding of course content

• Increasing home university’s capacity for understanding, teaching and training on eGranary Digital Library in education

• implementation Intranet between main home university library & affiliated library branches

Professional Portfolio: Educational and Practical Experience while the JFDP

Syllabus: Library and Information Research Skills

• Purpose

• Performance-based course that introduces students to a variety of electronic information resources, using content of eGranary Digital Library

• How will the students benefit?

Step 6: For Dessert – Future Electronic PortfolioElectronic portfolio is a work in progress which, in

time, can be used as a guide for others as they create their own electronic or print portfolios.

Purpose:● (1)To help you clarify your personality.

• (2) To help you see ongoing professional development from an organized viewpoint.

• (3) To help you showcase and present (1) and (2).

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

Tatyana ZaytsevaJFDP Fellow/Azerbaijan1111 UCC International Programs University of Iowa, Iowa City, IAOffice phone: (319) 384 - 2216 zaytceva@hotmail.com