Experiencing meaningful learning through portfolio development in ecology

• Main Author: Tolentino, Carmina Villariba
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2008
• Subjects: Ecology > Study and teaching; Portfolios in education; Biology; Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/244; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_doctoral/article/1243/viewcontent/CDTG004584_P.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

In our changing society, students need to practice at using a variety of skills and strategies. Students need to acquire knowledge, to interpret and communicate their information, and to solve problems and make decisions. In doing all of these, students require a wide range of critical and creative thinking skills and strategies which they can apply to a variety of situations. Futhermore, Michael (2001) reveals that teachers expect their students to be able to apply what they know about a certain concept to novel situations. More so, teachers expect students to self-regulate and define their own learning goals and evaluate their own achievement. When students can do all these, one can say that they understand that particular concept. Or, one can say that meaningful learning has occurred. In relation to this, educators have been searching for a tool that can identify students learning experiences because traditional methods of assessment provides only information of what the students do not know and not what they do know (Slater, 1997). As a result, educators were able to perceive that a sound portfolio can exhibit a predetermined, systematic, informative, tailored and authentic learning of students (Valenzuela, 2001). It documents the interest, experiences, progressions, and achievements of an individual that enables an evaluator to assess the level of interest of that person (Sewell, Marzal & Horn, 2004). In this study, the learning experiences of 21 pre-service teachers of Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation as they undergo portfolio development in Ecology iii uncovered meaningful learning in various ways. These experiences which emerged in the extant data were coded, categorized, compared, and theorized that there is a significant relationship between meaningful learning and portfolio development in Ecology of preservice teachers of Manuel S. Enverga University Foundation. And even after portfolio development, meaningful learning is still eminent in the reflections of participants. As the first two hypotheses elucidate, meaningful learning was revealed by preservice teachers as they experienced learning while they worked on their project. After which, the participants went into the generation of their portfolio and writing of reflections on their projects. Through all these elements, preservice teachers gained values, connected with their work, and were transformed into active learners, hard workers, and critical thinkers. Experiencing meaningful learning through portfolio development in Ecology could mean for them as believing and gaining interest to the project and course, generation of portfolio while choosing artifacts that demonstrate skills and exhibits personalities and through careful planning and conceptualizing, gaining values, connecting and transforming themselves after portfolio development.