This document summarizes Vesna Radivojevic's learning journey and research project on portfolio-based language assessment (PBLA). The summary is: 1) Vesna analyzed her experience in the master's program and with PBLA using cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) which examines contradictions between new and old activities. 2) She interviewed ESL teachers and found tensions between traditional assessments and the new PBLA model, as well as tensions between assessment for learning versus assessment for certification. 3) Applying CHAT revealed contradictions at the personal, interpersonal, institutional, and societal levels that affected teachers' experiences with and perspectives on PBLA. Vesna's research provided

1. Portfolio &
Research Project Presentation:
My Learning Journey
By Vesna Radivojevic
July 2014

3. My Activity and Contradictions
T: Natalia, Karen, Susie, Larry, Glen,
Bruce, books, articles, WebCT, Doodle,
Moodle
3
S: Vesna 1 O: Master’s Degree (Outcome)
activity
“Old” learning
activity
Learning

4. My Motives and Goals as a Learner in
EDUC 816 and MEd Program
(Initial: Personal/Professional development) (Initial: Learning)
Motives(Confidence) Activity (Doing school)
Goals (MEd) Actions (Master’s Program)
Conditions Operations
(Classroom, WebCT) (Class participation, WebCT discussions)

5. How did I persevere?
Engagement by Bruce Beairsto
(2014)
Meaning
AgencyEfficacy
Motivation by
Daniel Pink (2009)
Engagement

6. Achievement
Learning
Engagement
?
Teaching
(Bruce Beairsto, January, 2014)

8. The Gift of Confidence
Jean-Paul Sartre

9. Scaffolding in Program
Implementation
“… attend to [providers’]
their expectations,
motivation, and sense
of self-efficacy,” since
these affective factors
contribute to the results
of the implementation
and support for the new
program (Durlak and
Dupre (2008, p.338).

10. Synthesis
Educational Objectives – Help or
Hindrance? (Eisner, 2009)
Problem solving
An organization is a problem to be
solve
Appreciative Inquiry
An organization is a mystery to be
embraced.
“Each of us must even be allowed
to possess two or three
philosophies at the same time.”
Anatole France
Every day concepts and scientific
concepts
Leadership Styles
Universal Design
Diversity

11. Change
Engestrom - Expansive
Learning in CHAT
Mezirow’s Transformative
Learning
Robert Kegan’s
Transformative Learning
Argyris – Double Loop
Learning
Lave & Wenger – Situated
Learning

12. What is Portfolio-Based Language
Assessment (PBLA)?
PBLA is a “teacher-based approach to
language assessment that is integrated
throughout the teaching/learning cycle” and
uses a learner portfolio for both formative and
summative assessment (Pettis, 2010, p. 1).

14. Using Cultural-Historical Activity
Theory (CHAT) to Examine ESL
Pathways Teachers’ Experience with
Portfolio-Based Language Assessment
(PBLA)

15. Research Questions
Why did the teachers experience discomfort
while developing and field-testing the PBLA
model?
How could prospective teachers apply this
assessment model with more ease?

16. Methodology
• Qualitative research study
• Semi-structured interviews
• Common themes
• Contradictions

17. Central Activity System: Using PBLA to
Assess Students’ Performance
Tool: Portfolio-Based Language Assessment
O: Students Outcome: Better AssessmentS: Teachers
Rules:
Leading
team
makes
decisions
Division of Labour:
Between community members
Community:
Materials developers,
project leader, advisors,
PBLA experts
1
1
“Old”
activity
Tool: Summative Assessment
3
2 2

18. Study Highlights
Intra and Interpersonal planes of
Activity
• Teachers need to examine
their motives and goals for
teaching this curriculum
and integrating PBLA.
• Collaboration and
engagement in the
community lead to learning.
Institutional and Societal planes of
Activity
• Dialogue on teaching and
learning perspectives in
community
• Continuous support
• Addressing contradictions
in community

19. Tertiary contradiction between
traditional assessment models and
PBLA
Contradiction between the use value and exchange value in
activities in capitalism as reflected in assessment
Dual purpose of PBLA
Assessment for learning (use value)
Assessment for certification (exchange value)

20. Utility of CHAT and its Concept of
Contradictions for my Research Project

22. “One is truthful only at the cost
of being rich in contradictions.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

24. Synthesis
“Cultural–historical activity theory embodies
much needed hope.” (Wolf Michael Roth,
2004, p.7)
Scientific and spontaneous concepts
Theory and praxis

25. Challenges
• Complexity of AT
• Separating different
levels of
contradictions in the
interview transcripts

26. What am I Curious about?
CHAT as Framework for
Curriculum Development in ESL
Boundary Crossing Laboratories -
Engestrom

27. “Change is a process and not an
event.” Hall and Hord (2011)

28. Change Growth, Purpo se
Mediation
Sy nthesis Ho pe
Mediation S upport
A ntithesis
&
Thesis

29. “You gotta learn to fall before you learn to fly” (Paul
Simon)

30. The End
The Beginning