1) Traditional testing promotes "teaching to the test" and takes away the pleasure of learning, focusing only on rote memorization. 2) Portfolios are proposed as an alternative assessment method that can provide a holistic view of a student's knowledge and skills over time through samples of their work. 3) Portfolios have been used successfully in American schools and universities to assess writing skills, as they provide a more complete picture than multiple choice questions. They have also been used to assess student teachers' performance through samples of lesson plans, materials, and reflections.

1. Assessment for Learning
Raana Jilani
Daily Dawn, January 22, 2012
One of the glaring disadvantages of relying on traditional testing as a method of assessment is
that it promotes „teaching to the test‟. Assessment experts, therefore, are of the view that tests
should be replaced by some authentic method of assessment – a method that would not only
assess what a student knows but also what he/she can do with that knowledge. Another argument
for this view is that tests and exams, the way they are used in our schools, take away all the
pleasure of learning. The school routine becomes a drudgery for students and the classroom
emphasis on test preparation limits learning to rote memorization and then, regurgitation of facts.
Use of high-stakes tests at certain levels, for example college entrance, may be justified on some
grounds and that‟s why we see that they are still around. However, children deserve some
opportunity to enjoy learning before they are physically and mentally ready to take the pressure
and stress of competitive exams. In schools, we need to create an environment where children
can learn easily and happily and feel in charge of their learning. The American educationist John
Holt believes that, “children do not need to be made to learn” because every child is born with
what Albert Einstein called, “the holy curiosity of inquiry.” Schools should help spur this
curiosity, as well as feed it.
This is where portfolios come in. Artists and designers have used it to showcase their best work,
but for some time now portfolios have become a tool for performance assessment. By definition,
a portfolio is a collection of one‟s best work, selected from a larger body of work accomplished
over a period of time. As an assessment method, portfolios are constructed in much the same
way, providing an authentic body of evidence of an individual‟s achievements.
Unlike a traditional test that attempts to evaluate a lifetime‟s learning in a snapshot of two or
three hours, portfolios give a holistic picture of an individual‟s knowledge, skills and abilities
acquired over time. A portfolio provides a good look at what an individual is capable of doing as
well as highlighting his/her growth over time.
Writing portfolios are a common assessment tool in American high schools and universities. In
fact, it was for the assessment of writing that portfolios were first used as an assessment
instrument in 1983. The teachers who use writing portfolios instead of multiple choice questions
(MCQ) or essays for assessment are basically of the view that a student‟s performance on MCQs
about grammar and vocabulary is a very incomplete measure of his/her writing skills.
Portfolios can be of various types, depending on the purpose of assessment. For example, for
several years Aga Khan University- Institute for Educational Development has been using
portfolios for the assessment of student teachers‟ performance over an academic semester. These

2. portfolios contain samples of students‟ papers, their lesson plans and teaching materials and their
reflective notes on their own teaching practice.
Another type of portfolio that can be used in elementary schools is a portfolio of project work
children do at school. A number of universities around the world ,especially in business schools
and medical colleges, have adopted Project-based Learning (PBL) as a way to facilitate the
development of students‟ critical, creative and problem-solving skills and autonomy in learning,.
This method of instruction engages students in real-world tasks and requires them to draw from
many sources of information and disciplines. A portfolio of project work gives them an
opportunity to present the outcome of their efforts in an authentic way. In these approaches, the
focus of all instructional activity is on learning and not test scores. Ongoing feedback from
teachers not only provides a way of assessing students‟ performance but also keeps the focus on
learning. PBL as a method of teaching and portfolios for assessment provide an interesting
learning-centered combination for schools.
– Ms Raana Jilani is Assistant Manager, Middle School, Aga Khan University Examination
Board.