When teachers initiate the process of student-kept portfolios in high school language arts, they draw upon implicit beliefs about knowledge, learning, and teaching. This study shows that why we use portfolios is as important as how we use them. / I begin by exploring the century old history of teaching high school English wherein we can identify a contrast to portfolios, what we call traditional education. The ethical, classical, grammar based and non-academic traditions have shaped our definition of the subject, as well as the content. By examining where portfolios come from in the history of teaching English, we can then uncover the beliefs that are implicit in using them. / Next, I review the work of Tolstoy, Ashton-Warner and Dewey who developed innovative teaching methods based on an original set of beliefs. I connect them to beliefs that are implicit about knowledge, learning, and teaching in today's portfolio classrooms. / Like these three innovators, teachers in today's portfolio classrooms have reinterpreted their role as teacher and evaluator. The portfolio teachers in this study hold common beliefs that relate to both the history of the subject and to the work of innovative educators in our past. These common beliefs, found in the concluding chapter of this thesis, are the reasons why some teachers use portfolios.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.35369 |
| Date | January 1998 |
| Creators | Oelmann, Julie M. |
| Contributors | Beer, Ann (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Education.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001621794, proquestno: MQ43927, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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