MSU-B logo                                   Portfolio Handbook for Initial Certification

This handbook is designed to assist you as a future educator in developing a reflective professional portfolio. Upon entry to the teacher education program, you will begin to assemble your working portfolio. The working version of the portfolio will demonstrate your growth in thinking and knowledge during your education courses. You will be expected to collect artifacts from your courses and field experiences that meet the conceptual framework standards at certain competency levels. During your student teaching semester, you will begin to refine your portfolio, collecting only artifacts that meet the highest competency level of the conceptual framework. This polished version will serve as your professional portfolio. The professional portfolio will showcase your best work from the teacher education program, which will ultimately assist you in your search for a teaching position.

Purpose of a Reflective Portfolio
The teacher education portfolio process at Montana State University-Billings is designed to help you compile tangible evidence of your growth toward becoming an effective teaching professional. This portfolio should serve a number of beneficial purposes:
  1. Provide you opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and skills as an effective educator.
  2. Provide a logical way to organize and present your best work.
  3. Map your growth throughout the education program.
  4. Encourage you to reflect on your work and experiences, a crucial skill of an effective educator.
  5. Provide you with a personal marketing tool after graduation.

For employers, portfolios provide tangible evidence of your wide range of teaching skills, achievements and abilities. (A reflective portfolio highlights personal strengths and is more revealing of the pedagogical skills you have developed rather than just transcripts or test scores.) 

How will the portfolio process relate to the teacher education program?
The MSU-Billings teacher education program and the portfolio process are both designed around the MSU-B Initial Conceptual Framework (Appendix A). This common link will allow you to see how your learning experiences and your selections for the portfolio relate across the program as a whole. As you progress through the teacher education program, many of your courses will have activities that will be directed toward meeting one or more of the Initial Conceptual Framework outcomes.

This handbook will take you through the processes of:

Form:

MS Word
Microsoft Word

Adobe Acrobat Reader
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Appendix A:  Initial Conceptual Framework
Appendix C:  Progress Chart
Appendix D:  Itemized Conceptual Framework
Appendix E:  Benchmark Competencies
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)  
Examples of Artifact Rationale  
Glossary

The Portfolio Process

How will the portfolio be organized
    All portfolios will be organized around the goals of the MSU-Billings’ Initial Conceptual Framework. These goals will serve as a guide through your educational experiences and continue to guide you in your professional career. Thus, one of the main directives of the working and professional portfolio is to demonstrate to others that you are achieving success in meeting the high standard of teacher excellence set forth by MSU-Billings.
    In EDF 225: Human Development and Education or EDCI 500:  Curriculum Development, you purchase pre-printed portfolio tabs from the Book Depot as a required text for the course. These tabs will be placed in a three ring binder, which will become your working portfolio.  This three-ring binder will serve as the template for your working portfolio. It will be complete with tabbed sections for each specific area of the conceptual framework and a section for each of the three competency levels. (Level 1: Emerging Competence, Level 2: Developing Competence, and Level 3: Basic Competence) You will be expected to present at least one artifact for each competency level within each of the conceptual framework areas. 

Building your Portfolio
    Once you have been introduced to the portfolio process in EDF 225 or EDCI 500, you will begin collecting artifacts. An artifact is a piece of evidence from your various course work, school experiences, or life experiences that shows you have met a certain conceptual framework outcome at one of the three competency levels. These artifacts will come in various forms (lesson plans, papers, tests, letters from supervisors, etc.) and an Artifact Rationale (Appendix B) form that explains why the artifact was chosen and how it meets the conceptual framework outcome must accompany each piece of evidence.
    The artifact rationale is a crucial piece of the portfolio process. Once you select an area in which you wish to include a piece of evidence, your rationale or reflection must focus on how the artifact is representative of that area of competency. The reflections are a key component of the portfolio process and the success of your teacher education program, as well as your continued growth. 

Keeping Track of Portfolio Progress
    Artifacts and rationale statements must be reviewed and approved by your instructor, advisor, and cooperating teacher/supervisor. You will meet periodically with your advisor to discuss and review your developing portfolio. During these meetings your advisor will record your work on a Portfolio Artifact Progress Chart (Appendix C) which will be kept in the front of your portfolio binder. This chart will ensure that you are successfully progressing through the teacher education program in light of the Initial Conceptual Framework outcomes.  

Assessing the Portfolio
    The assessment of your portfolio will occur at three benchmarks in the teacher education program. 

Benchmark 1: Initial entry into the teacher education program
Benchmark 2: Admittance to student teaching
Benchmark 3: Professional portfolio (post-student teaching) 

A benchmark is defined as a point in time when an accumulation of artifacts are assessed to provide proof of achievement. These three benchmarks will serve as portfolio checkpoints to ensure that you are progressing successfully through the teacher education program in line with the Initial Conceptual Framework. Your working and professional portfolio must satisfactorily meet the assessment criteria at each benchmark. The rubric that will be used to score your artifacts can be found at the bottom of the Rationale Form in Appendix B.  

See Appendix E for a breakdown of on the Initial Conceptual Framework Competencies that must be met at each benchmark.

 

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