Assessing learning through portfolio use by university students. The experience of an esp class in Venezuela

Abstract

Portfolio use has widely been recommended for facilitating learning as well as for assessing it. However, in Venezuela this tool has scarcely been used and explored, especially in the ESP field. Hence, the objectives of the present research were, in the first place, to describe portfolio use by university undergraduate students enrolled in an ESP course and secondly, to know their perceptions about its use. In this sense, the study had a descriptive, transversal design. Participants were 95 students taking ESP as part of their subjects in the first year of their careers. Data were gathered directly from students’ portfolios and through a Lickert 20-item questionnaire. The analysis of the data was descriptive. Students had a media score up to 14,74 in their portfolios (Standard deviation= 4,24). Besides, it was possible to observe that students perceive portfolio as a useful tool for learning and assessing learning, even more useful than a regular written test. It was also observed that some students admit that they did not follow instructions for building portfolios properly and that that might have negatively affected the elaboration and helpfulness of it. It was concluded that portfolio happens to be helpful for students with tight schedules like dentistry students because it let them to manage better their time for evaluations. Hence, it is recommended to inform ESP teachers and students more about learning tools like portfolio that enhance students’ autonomy and that let them to manage their own progress, especially in higher education levels.