I have been making more of an effort to get involved on the social media side of things in regards to my own professional development. As a result of this, I came across a discussion regarding how portfolios were used in the PYP across different schools. It was great to see the collaboration between professionals from different parts of the world bringing up some really good points. Everyone had their own ideas but it was great to see that the schools had a collective stance of how they want to implement the portfolio with collaboration between staff.
Unfortunately, the portfolio is used as a collection of best pieces of a student's work in our school, which I feel doesn't show the progression of the student as a whole. This led me into thinking about implementing a PE portfolio and when I was researching about ideas, I came across a website that inspired me with different ideas (pyppewithandy.com) and I know I'm not the first teacher to be inspired by this guy.
Although I'm teaching full-time, I am also on a scholarship to complete a masters and I've decided to research about the impact of a portfolio in education. I had to conduct a small study initially to highlight any problems/issues that I may face when I conduct the big dissertation. Without going into the boring details of my assignment, I did find that the portfolio (sportfolio) does have an impact on students (Grade 5) engagement but with such a small sample size, it wasn't evident. Hopefully I can prove this with a bigger sample size for my dissertation. However there were other findings from this assignment that I didn't really think about that I thought would be interesting to share to the readers. Also, these are the things I will be addressing in my dissertation.
I usually started the portfolio task in class and asked students to finish it at home (10-15 minutes of homework). This would have given them more time, especially the students who are slow workers, to take their time. However, the issue I had was that the students kept forgetting to bring their portfolio sheets back to school. I am very conscious of how much theory work they do in the PE class, as both theory and practical are both important for the students growth and development, but I do think extension activities at home will keep them engaged for longer and possibly apply their knowledge to different contexts or situations.
I tried to incorporate a portfolio task per lesson but I found out very quickly that half of the students could keep up on top of the work and half of them couldn't. This is due to the development of their organisational skills. If students are forgetting their PE attire on a regular basis, how can I expect them to keep on top of their work?
When critiquing the literature, I never once thought I could use the portfolio as a communication tool for parents. This actually made sense to me later. Wouldn't parents day be so much easier if you had the portfolio to refer to and all interested parties can observe the learning journey taken?
I am beginning my research again for my dissertation and I have a few questions you may be able to help me out with.
I know all the students in PYP have portfolios and I also know the Development workbooks in Performing Arts is compulsory. Is there is any literature specific to IB of why and how a portfolio should be implemented?
Any literature you have come across in regards to PE and portfolios?
Any advice or suggestions before I begin my research?
Below are my aims and objectives for my dissertation. I will post a summary of my findings when I complete the masters (next year) but I will keep you up to date on my journey as I go along.
Aims:
To implement a ‘sportfolio’ to support teaching and learning in Physical Education.
To explore the ways in which a ‘sportfolio’ promotes learning and engagement in Physical Education.
To explore the ways a ‘sportfolio’ enables students, teachers and parents to work together to support learning and engagement.
Main Research Question:
In what ways can the ‘sportfolio’ promote learning and engagement in Physical Education?
Sub Research Questions:
How does the ‘sportfolio’ engage students and support their learning?
How does the ‘sportfolio’ support the development of teachers practice?
In what ways does the ‘sportfolio’ engage a parent to support their child’s learning?