Portfolio
- ur ett nyzeeländskt perspektiv
The purpose of this essay is to illustrate how and why teachers in New Zealand use portfoliosas a part of their teaching. The purpose is also to investigate if, and in that case how, a sociocultural perspective on learning can be shown through the work with portfolios. Toinvestigate this we have made a case study in New Zealand where we interviewed sixteachers. The result of the investigation shows that our teachers use portfolios in both asummative and a formative way. In a summative way to gather what the children have done inschool, and in a formative way to help the students to assess what they have done, how theyhave done it and what they are going to do next. The formative part of the portfolio is alsoused to help the students with their metacognition or to think about their thinking. Theportfolio is also used as a tool for a better communication between the school and thestudents? parents. The investigation also shows that the principals on these schools play a bigpart in the development of the work with portfolios. For us, this investigation has resulted in agood understanding in how and why New Zealand teachers can work with portfolios.