A portfolio model of learning: Reframing assessment practices in a business cooperative education course

Abstract

This paper examines a portfolio model of learning in the assessment of student workplace learning. Using an interpretivist framework, an holistic assessment model is outlined in the context of a co-operative education course within an undergraduate business degree. The model involves the key stakeholders contributing to student learning, development and assessment through a ‘long conversation of informed dialogue’. In developing the model, attention is given to the prevailing positivist influences on assessment and the underlying assumptions made about ‘truth’ in learning. The paper argues that while criterion referencing may have progressed our assessment practices, positivist assumptions often underpin and limit our approaches to assessment in co-operative education. The model is presented within a social constructivist framework, arguing that cognitive and social development are key inter-connecting components of student’s workplace learning and therefore must be recognised and incorporated into assessment.