Objectifying teachers-and-learners\u27-portfolios as a part of professional development: An action research

Keeping teacher as well as learner’s portfolio has proved to be an effective way for developing subject-based knowledge, technical and professional skills. 21st century skills dictates multiple role from a teacher, keeping a professional portfolio is thus a unique example for the same. The current paper is a part of action-research carried-out in the classroom, Sem-I, on 35 students, of Inter-mediate level, at one of the leading universities of Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The findings presented a gradual development in proficiency of learners learning English as a Second Language(ESL). It also showed teacher’s effectiveness in using or assessing the pre-defined objectives, course plan, along with activities and rubrics. In the process, emphasise has been given on formative assessment and students’ responses were recorded, at the end, on the basis of rubrics and checklists. Teacher’s portfolio reflected some facts about the availability of resources, effectiveness in tackling sessions, students’ involvement and learning process. The tenure of keeping a portfolio was recorded for three-to-four months. It was then presented to the management to give feedback about the classroom planning, methodology, giving an overview about the outcome for keeping portfolio and making it an integral part of course curriculum. Learners’ portfolio too was encouraged where there was a provision of individual feedback given to all. Overall, keeping portfolios showed an effective method of assessing teachers’ performance, professional development and learners’, ESL, development for language proficiency