Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach - Public defense of my PhD thesis at the Vrije University of Brussels, October 13th, 2015

1. Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach
PAUL LESLIE – 2015
THE TAOS INSTITUTE
ADVISER: DR. CELIANE CAMARGO -BORGES
VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL
PROMOTER: DR. NADINE ENGELS

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Narratives of learning: Introduction
 The portfolio approach to teaching and learning:
 Provides methods through which educators, students, and
administrators can make our thinking visible
 Incorporates elements (tools) of Internet-based technology
Blogs, cloud file storage, social media,
“THE MEDIUM IS
THE MESSAGE”
Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach October 13th, 2015

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Narratives of learning: Introduction
 The portfolio approach to teaching and learning:
 describes a set of overlapping spheres of intentionality
The personal portfolio
The community of inquiry
The demonstration of competency
Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach October 13th, 2015

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Narratives of learning: Introduction
Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach October 13th, 2015

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Narratives of learning: Introduction
October 13th, 2015Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach
 The portfolio approach to teaching and learning:
allows the practitioner to be intentional in their lifelong quest for
learning
… as a result ...
 the practitioner can better contribute to and support all participants
in their communities of inquiry.

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Narratives of learning: Introduction
October 13th, 2015Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach
 Freire (1996) tells us that the truly reflective and liberated
educator, “presents the information to the students for their
consideration, reconsiders her own considerations as the students
express their own” (p. 62).
Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of the oppressed. London: Penguin Books.

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Narratives of learning: Introduction
October 13th, 2015Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach
 As Freire (1998) notes, we must create for our students and
colleagues “the possibilities for the production and construction of
knowledge” (p. 30).
Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.

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Narratives of learning: Introduction
October 13th, 2015Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach
 The practitioner also has, as Freire (1998) notes, “to accept as a
duty the need to motivate and challenge the listeners to speak and
reply” (p. 104).
Freire, P. (1998). Pedagogy of freedom. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.

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Narratives of learning: Research questions
October 13th, 2015Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach
• Research Questions

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Narratives of learning: Research questions
October 13th, 2015Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach
• The personal portfolio
What are the range of skills and processes that will allow
practitioners to present their own unique voice to their community
of inquiry and their stakeholders?

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Narratives of learning: Research questions
October 13th, 2015Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach
 The community of inquiry
What processes and skills must we develop as practitioners in
order to participate in communities of inquiry and benefit from each
other?

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Narratives of learning: Research questions
October 13th, 2015Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach
 The demonstration of competency
How can we work with other educators and students to allow them
to determine their own voice without abandoning the institutional
voice that comes from learning outcomes, program outcomes and
the demands of the professional workplace?

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Narratives of learning: Research methodology
October 13th, 2015Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach
 Research Methodology
 Autoethnographic review
 Reviews of individual portfolios
 Interviews and focus groups

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Narratives of learning: Conclusions RQ 1
October 13th, 2015Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach
Time span of discretion – what good is our experience…

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Narratives of learning: Conclusions RQ 2
Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach
 Teaching presence
 We must be able to provide
direction in our communities
(Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000)
October 13th, 2015

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Narratives of learning: Conclusions RQ 3
Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach
 Display artful competence
 Intentional selection of media
to display goals
 Competencies and goals
determined by practitioner and
institution
October 13th, 2015

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Narratives of Learning: Conclusion
October 13th, 2015Narratives of Learning: The Portfolio Approach
Time is ripe for a portfolio approach…
We have a set of media tools that allow us to share our ideas more
readily with a larger audience
Intentional social constructionist processes allow us to direct our
attentions to specific communities and stakeholders to achieve a
greater epistemological freedom