PORTFOLIO AS A LEARNING AND EVALUATION TOOL: UNIVERSITY STUDENTS’ OPINIONS

Correctly used portfolio is an important tool for both teachers and students. In Romania portfolio is used both in pre-university and university education. At university level it is especially used in humanities, social and political studies, and arts, and less used in sciences and mathematics.

In relation to instruction, developing a portfolio is a method that encourages reflection, facilitating the monitoring and optimization of the learning process. In most cases, however, portfolios are used as an alternative to traditional assessment based on knowledge tests. In both cases (portfolio based learning or portfolio assessment) these type of products highlights students' effort during the learning process.
This paper analyzes the opinion of a group of BA and MA level students, who follow various courses at the Education Sciences specialization, regarding the purpose and context of using portfolio in university training its benefits to learning, assessment and individual development. To explore students' opinion questionnaire with 36 items was used, most of the items being of Likert type. The results show that students favorable appreciate working on a portfolio, regardless if it is done individually or in groups; and they acknowledge the role of portfolio in developing higher-level thinking skills. They also stresses that teachers specify the structure and content of the portfolio they need to develop. Other results related to portfolio use will also be discussed.