Portfolio Assessment in Student Teaching: A Reliability Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability of portfolio assessment in student teaching. The specific problems were (a) to determine interjudge reliability for the music student teaching portfolio assessment and (b) to determine if music student teachers rate themselves similarly to the expert panel of judges. Participants (N = 13) were undergraduate music education majors completing their student teaching semester at a major midwestern university. The Student Teaching Portfolio (STP) was required as part of the student teaching semester.Two expert judges rated participants’ STP using the Student Teaching Portfolio Assessment Rubric (STPAR). Participants self-assessed their portfolios using STPAR as well. Interjudge reliabilities and correlations between participants’ self-assessments and judges’ ratings were calculated. Results showed that portfolios can be a reliable and valid assessment tool for student teaching. Further research on the reliability of portfolio assessment in preservice teacher education is recommended.

Keywords

portfolios student teaching assessment

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