Importance of Reflection and Portfolio Making to Teachers

Importance of Reflection and Portfolio Making to Teachers

Chapter 4 explains the significance of reflection to novice teachers or teachers in general. It emphasizes that a portfolio is not just a scrapbook but a reflection that makes a collection of work into a portfolio and tells the readers about one’s professionalism (Friedman 39). Therefore, reflection is vital for novice teachers because decision-making and active reflection help them grow professionally. A perfect example of active thinking that novice teachers often find themselves in is “reflection in action,” a process that enables them to reshape what they are working on while working on it (Friedman 39). For example, novice teachers are likely to reflect on what they learned from the lessons taught or planned units, implementations, and observations realized during instruction after teaching; such deliberations are described as “reflection in action.” So why is reflection critical?

Reflection helps new teachers actively grow and develop into the teachers they strive for and hope to be. In contrast, a portfolio allows one to disclose their thinking about their work, which is vital to teachers because it helps them crystalize their thoughts about learning and teaching. Reflection is critical, as it will be used throughout the portfolio-making process. For example, reflection thinking is used to select the artifacts one needs to include in their work. Reflection is also crucial in making a rationale statement describing the artifact chosen for use and why it is included in the portfolio. It also ensures teachers use standards like NAEYC or INTASC as a guide while considering every artifact selected for learning (Friedman 43). This is done using the three questions criteria: what, so what, and now. Standards are a perfect guide for deciding whether to add a specific artifact. Most imply that one is reminded that a rationale statement must accompany an artifact in one’s portfolio to educate the reader on why one added the particular artifact in the por45). Additionally, while writing a rationale, one has to know the type of portfolio they are making and the audience it will meet, and all these are made successful by reflection.

Work Cited

Friedman, Delores. Creating an Early Childhood Education Portfolio. Cengage Learning, 2011.

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Reflection and Portfolio Making

Friedman, D., Creating and Presenting an Early Childhood Education Portfolio: A Reflective Approach, Cengage, 2012.