Informing Science Challenges to Informing Clients: A Transdisciplinary Approach June 2001 Evaluating Higher Education Learners through Portfolio Assessment

This paper presents a part of a larger needs assessment study that aimed at designing a course called Instructional Planning and Evaluation (IPE), which is offered at Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Education, Turkey. The purpose of this study was to understand how undergraduate students perceived portfolio assessment (PA) with respect to IPE courses, and how students wanted to work during PA implementation. Data was obtained through a five-point Likert-type scale, interviews, field notes, and unobtrusive measures. Results reveal that students were frustrated in the initial stages of the implementation, and frequently demanded guidance by their lecturer. Although individual work was preferred, collaborative work facilitated preparing the content of portfolios. In course of time, data obtained through participant observations or unobtrusive measures re-veal that PA led learners to become self-regulated learners