The portfolios come in many forms: some look like budgets; some are journals; some are simple reflections on academic learning, experimental ideas, or development of personal skills. Just as portfolios come in many formats, the students use them in different ways. At one extreme are comprehensive documents similar to an architectural model. Students use these for resumes by selecting appropriate information for a particular job. Some portfolios consist of very personal statements about a student’s struggles and personal development; these are kept confidential and not shown to faculty and mentors.
What we’ve observed:
The portfolios move students to consider the concrete elements of their work and studies; generalities aren’t enough to provide adequate means of deliberation.
The portfolio usage points out that reflection is important, in particular because it’s analytical. It’s one thing to just think about an issue, and it’s another to go through the process of describing what was learned.
We have found that students continue using portfolios at all levels of their professions. When they just enter a field, it allows them to think about where they want to go. One former student, now a city worker, uses a portfolio as an ideas journal. He also volunteered to be a mentor, and he created a portfolio to help him handle that responsibility.
In the second year of the MPA degree, students have moved off campus to their internships and have only three formal meetings with the MPA faculty. During that year, the portfolio serves as a powerful connection between the faculty and students. It unites the fieldwork with academic work in a visible manner. The portfolio often registers changes in behavior and language as students develop their mastery of this subject.
Other observations:
The mentor that students select to help them on their portfolio generally becomes a life-long friend, a relationship that’s important for professional life.
The portfolio can be used for employment, but its most important use is to serve the writer as a self-reflective tool.
The portfolio pushes graduate students into more responsibility for their own work, both as students and professionals. The faculty and university are here to serve students, but they also need to explore what they want to do on their own. The portfolio meshes the academic world with practical applications.
The portfolio process also serves to put students into a configuration of life-long learning. It causes students to think about opportunities and their own life-long achievements.
Writing a portfolio encourages continual drafting and communication. Students have to sharpen their thinking and develop substance through their responses to questions they are asked about their portfolios.
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