Learning
activities |
Outcome: Identify your current tracking methods.
Answer the following questions:
- Do you have ongoing or periodic check points?
- Do you review your notes with your learner?
- Do you ask your learner how he feels things are progressing?
Tips for group facilitators: Ask participants to explain
how they document learning. Create a chart which shows kinds of
documentation (ongoing, checkpoints, tests, journal, portfolio)
used by each program. Discuss why there is a variety of
documentation (does it vary by sector? by the practitioner's or
learner's style.?) and what purpose each serves.
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Why do
portfolios? |
There are currently a number of convergent and interwoven themes
emerging in the field of education: concern about accountability,
a shift towards outcome based education, and an interest in
alternative assessment models. The shift represents a concern
about what learners can actually do outside the classroom after
completing a course, as opposed to how long it takes them to finish
a course.
The field of adult literacy has not been insulated from these
issues. In fact, in many ways, the philosophy and practices of
adult literacy programs in Ontario reflect the "new view"
of education. Portfolios are one way to document this kind of
outcome-based learning in a very portable way. The portfolio
belongs to the learner; it represents what she can do and can pave
the way to the learner's next goal. There are currently many adult
literacy programs in Ontario using portfolio development as a way
to acknowledge learner achievement.
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Accountability |
In an increasingly competitive, businesslike environment, doing
what you say you are going to do—accountability— has
made its presence felt in the educational world. The consultation
and resulting document, Quality Standards for Adult Literacy:
A Practitioner's Guide to the Accountability Framework for the
Adult Literacy Education System in Ontario, represented one
response to this concern.³ After three years of consultation
with the field, including Anglophone, Francophone, and Native
representatives from college, school board, labour, and
community-based adult literacy programs, the Core Quality
Standards and accountability framework were approved by the
Ontario Training and Adjustment Board (OTAB) in June 1994. |
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