How a Portfolio is Organized

The Portfolio is a document of your learning process, and your learning. Its aspects closely follow the idea of aspects in a cycle of learning (See EXPERIENTIAL ED (C.1)).

Planning: The LEARNING PLAN (see section A.2) details the goals of your learning, the methods you will follow, and the basis for evaluation.
Doing: The Portfolio might include field notes, class notes, insights, poetry, essays, impressions and so on. These "working journal" pieces show the process of the actual learning experiences.
Observing: The Portfolio includes formal presentation of your academic work, in which the experiences are crafted into thought-out expressions of learning. Information and ideas are drawn together into patterns.
Reflecting: This crucial part of the learning process deals with the meanings, the broader contexts, and the relationship of the learned material to the learner. These are usually essays integrating the learning with the goals of the Learning Plan, the world, and the learner's new outlook. The SELF-EVALUATION/INTEGRATIVE ESSAY (see section A.3) is a part of this.

These aspects of the Portfolio may be kept separate, but often merge and flow into one another. Any given piece of documentation could conceivably deal with all parts of the process.

Generally the Portfolio is a flexible thing, evolving in the hands of you and your advisor as the semester progresses. However, there are some basic structural requirements, for ease of record-keeping and for the purposes of keeping our school accredited. Here they are, slightly paraphrased from the Student Handbook:

Title Page (name, date, semester, regional Center, name of faculty advisor)
Table of Contents (with page numbers, unlike the table for this Guidebook. Check section on TABLES OF CONTENTS (G.5).)
Introduction (incl. LEARNING PLAN (see section A.2))
Body of the Work. The required work for each segment of the Learning Plan. Papers and other forms of documentation may be distinct or they may be molded into an organic whole. The basis of evaluation must be made clear. This is where most of the documentation of process takes place, including:
- working journal pieces
- formal presentations of learning, including essays, critical analysis, or finished art or performance
- self-evaluation/integrative essay (see section A.3) and other integration
Bibliography/Sources (see section E on FOOTNOTES/BIBLIOGRAPHY)

Portfolios should be typed, double-spaced if not on a computer, bound in some way, and made in at least two copies (one for the regional Center, and one for World Headquarters)--a third copy should be made for yourself if you want it.

Each of the Centers may have its own additional requirements for Portfolio format, some of which follow here (the ones that the editor knows about, anyway):

Latin American Center: Rumor has it that they require an index?
North American Center: Students in the first-year program take seminars for the bulk of their learning, so in addition to the 2-3 copies of your Portfolio mentioned above, they also must hand in the segments from the individual seminars to the respective faculty. That was a lousy sentence, make sure to revise it later.
European Centre: they have a particular kind of binding (glue-bound, not loose-leaf), that they want you to use.

Workshop Discussion Sparks

The function of each part of the Portfolio (outlined above)
How well each part fulfills its function

Inspired and Creative

Make your Portfolio Beautiful! Make a fancy cover and use unusual paper. Make sure it is still legible, though.

Rigorous Training

Look through some old Portfolios to get the hang of it.

AAAAAGGGHHHH!

If you are not sure whether you are meeting the requirements or not, talk with your advisor about it.

See Also

The Student Handbook
HISTORY OF PORTFOLIO (B.1) for some background on the necessity of required standards in the Portfolio
EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION/LEARNING CYCLE (C.1)
LEARNING PLAN (A.2) and its subsections
SELF-EVALUATION/INTEGRATIVE ESSAY (A.3)
TABLE OF CONTENTS (G.5)
DIARY AS TOOL (C.3)
INTEGRATION (C.5)
SENIOR THESIS (I.1)
STYLES OF DOCUMENTATION (D)
ADVISORS AND ADVISING (I.3)
and, of course, all of the other sections in this Guidebook, since they are all related to portfolio creation, one way or another.

Contribute to the Portfolio Resource Guide!!!

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