Investigating Teacher Candidates’ Portfolios in the History of the Turkish Republic-I Course,

Investigating Teacher Candidates’ Portfolios

in the History of the Turkish Republic-I

Course

İzzet GÖRGEN Sabahattin DENİZ Ayten KİRİŞAssociate Prof. Dr., University of Mugla, Faculty of Education,Mugla, 48000, TURKEY

Assistant Prof. Dr. University of Mugla, Faculty of Education,Mugla, 48000, TURKEY

Assistant Prof. Dr. University of Mugla, Faculty of Education,Mugla, 48000, TURKEY

ABSTRACT

In this study, every activity in the portfolios prepared by the 4th year students intheir history classes studying at Social Sciences Teaching Department at Muğla University, Faculty of Education has been investigated and comments have been made and portfolio files have been assessed in terms of appropriacy criteria.

Keywords: portfolio, portfolio assessment criteria, Social Sciences teacher candidate, reflective thinking.

Introduction

With regard to constructivist teaching theory, portfolio assessment isone of the alternative ways of assessing and evaluating students in theclasrooms. Furthermore, in related literature reviews (Birgin, 2008;Demirören et al.,2009) unlike traditional methods of evaluation andassessment, portfolio assessment is recommended to be used in the field ofeducation as it provides students and parents with reliable data about thestudent , and strengthens the communication between the teacher and thestudent and that it encourages the student to learn and to self growth.This study tackles the results of the assessment of portfolio files of

social sciences teaching students that they kept for 7 weeks at MuğlaUniversity in their 4th year in fall semester of 2011-2012 academic year. 50teacher candidates, 34 of whom were males and 16 females taking the historyof the Turkish republic course took part in the study. In the first lesson,in order for the students to adapt they were informed of the content ofthe portfolio files and portfolio assessment criteria. In order for thestudent to develop his/her self discipline and awareness of responsibility,to present his/her future students knowledge, the student to understandwhat is happening in reality, to enable him/her the way of looking atthings, way of evaluating, and to enable him/her to be able to think inmany ways and to develop creative thinking skills, they were informed theywould have work on weekly basis to form. With regard to the relatedliterature (Meo, Susan L., 2007), the content of the study was determined. While the portfolio files were being prepared the teacher candidates

realised the following work:

WEEK Activity which has to do what has been

discussed in class

The file that is asked

to be completed during 7

week periodWeek

1

Within the framework of writing dialogues,

the students were asked to put themselves

in the shoes of England discussing to take

part in the first world war ; or the

representatives of Russia and France or

Germany, Austria-Hungary and those

officials of the Ottoman Empire who were

for and against taking part in the war and

asking dialogues from their viewpoints.

Criticising a novel or a

book with first hand

source features in line

with the topics of the

history of the Turkish

Republic and developing

ideas on how to use this

book as teachers in the

future.

Reading an academic

article on the Turkish

history related topics

and preparing a report

and developing ideas on

how to use this book in

the future in classes.

2.

Hafta

Week

2

Preparation of the matrix, which is one of

the graphic organisers over the fronts of

the Ottoman Empire in world war I

3.

Hafta

Week

3

“ Letters to my mum” activity with a

historical content which has to with the

soldiers fighting in Gallipoli as Turkish

soldiers or enemy soldiers who penned what

they experienced and their views of the of

the war.

4.

Hafta

Weeek

4

“There is a meeting” activity has to do

with what would you have done if you had

taken part in the meeting against the

occupation of Izmir by Greeks and the

students’ writing of their feelings of what

they had felt and their thoughts.

5.

Hafta

Week

5

Preparation of postcards for a propaganda

from different viewpoints during the war of

independence

6. Within the framework of the subject of the

Hafta

Week

6

Turkish history preparation of biography

and developing ideas concerning the

presentation of these topics in class in

the future.

7.

Hafta

Week

7

Reflective writing that refers to the

period of portfolio file preparation.

Furthermore, every week at the beginning of the class information wasobtained over the students’ Works and suggestions were developed withregard to problems encountered.

Findings and Comment

On the basis of the reflective diaries of portfolio files the following

data were obtained:

1- The activities performed at the end of courses related to the course topics covered

a- Within the framework of writing dialogues, the students were asked to

put themselves in the shoes of England discussing to take part in the first

World War ; or the representatives of Russia and France or Germany,

Austria-Hungary and those officials of the Ottoman Empire who were for and

against taking part in the war and asking dialogues from their viewpoints.

In the reflective diary of a teacher candidate his/her views over this work

were as follows:

“The other activitity that I liked most was the representatives of

world war I. It is an activity that I will for sure use in my classroom.

Furthermore the other teacher candidates made similar remarks:

“This assignment required lots of research. Resources were abundant.

I prepared this assignment making use of both resources and the

accumulation of my knowledge. This assignment would not have been

realised without any knowledge of the Allied Forces and the Central

Powers”

“Putting myself in Enver Paşa’s shoes and writing the reasons to take

part in the war is an interesting but a comprehensive idea. It enabled

me to get t know allaspects of the war. It looked as if I had

experienced them myself”.

These views are important as they reflect different people’s opinions

over the Otoman Empire’s taking part in the first world war or not and

therefore it initiates the teacher candidates, and provides them with an

ability of using research and knowledge.

b- Another activity the teacher candiates were given was “Preparation

of the matrix, which is one of graphic organisers over the fronts

of the Ottoman Empire in world war I”. When the portfolio files of

a total of 50 social studies teacher candidates were examined, it

is seen that the vast majority (49 students) had prepared the

matrix with regard to the war front which were in line with a

historical content were appropriate.

c- In the diary of the teacher candidates “ Letters to my mum”

activity with a historical content which has to with the soldiers

fighting in Gallipoli as Turkish soldiers or enemy soldiers who

penned what they experienced and their views of the of the war.

Their views of the so-called activity are as follows:

“While writing the letter I formed a fiction in my mind as if I

had been martyrized fighting in the front in those years and

written a letter to be passed on to my parents incase I was

martyrized”

“Can say that this study develops a sense of empathy”

“I would like to state that I went through emotional states

while writing the letter”.

“Last year I went to Çanakkale (Gallipoli) and found a chance

to see the places where the war had taken place. I imaged that

I had written this letter in those trenches”

“The assignment caused emotional intensity”

“It could be a striking activity. Expressing knowledge with

emotions can make the student’s learning more effective”.

“I had slight difficulty with the letter, I could not develop

empathy fully. Then I viewed the documentary on Gallipoli after

that I wrote it”.

During the course the memoirs, poems etc gathered from different

sources on what had happened in the Gallipoli front were used, and then the

teacher candidates were given instruction for writing letters. It is maybe

due to the fact that the topics covered in the course were insufficient it

was observed that the teacher candidates searched for the topic again.

d. “Within the framework of there is a meeting” activity which has to

do with what would you have done if you had taken part in the meeting

against the occupation of Izmir by Greeks and the students’ writing of

their feelings of what they had felt and their thoughts. It was understood

that the students developed a slogan phrases based on the art of oratory

but they did not include statements about why such a meeting was held, and

what was to be done. In the reflective diaries the teacher candidates had

such views over this work:

“I wrote a meeting over the occupation of Izmir. I wrote it solely

in my own statements. I had conducted a research on the occupation

of Izmir and the meeting over this issue. In light of this

knowledge I wrote about the meeting”.

In this activity which required the teacher candidates to

imagine to act, they were seeen to enter a process of

investigation.

e- In the activity of “Preparation of postcards for a propaganda from

different viewpoints during the war of independence” the teacher

candidates were thought to have realised meaningful work that was in

line with the historical content and transmitting messages through

visual preparation, aesthetic concerns were not taken into

consideration. A postcard developed by a teacher candidate is as

follows:

2. Within the framework of the subject of the Turkish history

preparation of biography and developing ideas concerning the

presentation of these topics in class in the future. The teacher

candidates prepared biographies on anyone or any topic they liked.

The remarks in their reflective diaries by the teacher candidates are

as follows

“In the biography work my topic was the Nusret minelayer. We all

know about the heroism of this ship in Gallipoli but I did not know

about the rest. From this poit of view it helped me alot but I had

difficulty reaching the sources as I could not find any articles or

books particularly written for the Nusret.”

“I learnt the unknown aspects of Ali Fuat Cebesoy. I searched for

the pictures. I felt as if I had taken a historical journey. I will

use all the knowledge that I have gained in all my classrooms in the

future. I also gained instructive and strategic knowledge outside the

classroom in everyday life.”

“I wrote Kazım Karabekir’s biography. I consider this assignment as

the most instructive one. I am sure no I know alot more about Kazım

Karabekir.”

In the reflective diaries the teacher candidates stated that they had

learnt in detail about the person or the thing they prepared

biographies on.

3- In Criticising a novel or a book with first hand source features in

line with the topics of the history of the Turkish Republic and

developing ideas on how to use this book as teachers in the future,

it was seen that books and novels with first hand source features had

been selected. In fact, the teacher candidates had been informed of

the books they could read and provided with examples, some of the

teacher candidates preferred the booknames they had been given and

some preffered the ones they already knew in line with their

interests and the ones they reached as a result of their

investigations.

The teacher candidates remarked the work had put pressure on them in

terms of time but made such comments as reading of the sources

written at the time had increased their knowledge.

In writing of the reflective diaries they uttered such remarks over

the topic:

“...It has introduced me to the book “Zeytindağı” which I have

started reading and I will want to read again later.”

“The book I read was interesting. It really gives pleasure to one

reading what happened at the time from the first hand.”

But in this study it was found out the students had extracted the

book summaries from the internet. When the students’ works were

evaluated on the basis of the predetermined criteria, it was found

out that they had extracted from the internet completely in the

process of reading and preparing reports, and that they were warned

against it. Some of the students prepared from their assignments from

the beginning whereas some others did not. One of the limitations of

portfolio is that students cannot be prevented from plagiarising. But

due to checks, observations, and interviews this can be minimised.

Despite all this, it was identified that the teacher candidates had

plagiarised from the internet particularly with regard to bookreviews

and article reviews.

4. In the activity of reading an academic article on the Turkish history

related topics and preparing a report and developing ideas on how to

use this book in the future in classes, the students were presented a

list of articles that they could read, some of the students studied

the articles they selected and some selected the ones they liked. But

they were seen to be inadequate in reviewing articles and writing

reports. What they stated as the reason was they had not conducted

such a work before. For example, a teacher candidate writes the

following in his/her reflective diary:

Student A:

The most difficult assignment I had was the review of an article. I

had this difficulty as I was never shown any examples on this topic and

that I was not trained at all on how to review articles all my life as a

student. It is highly probable that my assignment has major deficiences.

Another teacher candidate also made similar remarks:

“The topic that put most difficulty in my file was reviewing an

article. I experienced deficincies as I had not done anything

previously on this issue. This assignment has taught me how to review

articles.”

However there are those who think they have benefited from this work.

For example:

““Thanks to this assignment on articles I have felt like a

researcher.”

The teacher candidates’ remarks yielded although they found this work

useful, they encountered some difficulties as they had not done any

such work before.

An investigation based on the reflective writing reflects the self

evaluation of the teacher candidates and this was realised through the

consistency of analysis.

The general assessment of the portfolios was in the form of an

assessment conducted by a lecturer based on the criteria that were to be

present in a portfolio file. With this regard, the following are the

criteria used in the assessment of the portfolios prepared by the teacher

candidates.

Table 1- The criteria for the assessment of the types of

activities that were in the teacher candidates portfolios. Kriterler

Criteria

Açıklama

Remarks

A- HISTORICAL CONTENT

True historical knowledge

(person, chronology, place and time)

True historical narrative

Supporting allegations with evidence

Indicating cause and effect relationship

B- TEXT STRUCTURE

Connection between paragraphs

Introduction, body and final parts

Readibility

Accuracy to grammatical rules

Reveling the main ideaC- CREATIVITY Using an original topic

Using creative visual materials

D- ACCURACY

Abundance of sources

Formal accuracy

E- PERFECTIBILITY

The work to be given in time and completely

F- REFLECTIVE THINKING

What have you learnt?

What benefits did you gain from these works?

What experience did the work gain you?

What contribution do you think it will make to teaching

life?

A- Data Obtained on the Basis of Historical Content

It was identified that the teacher candidates in the preparation of

matrix and “there is a meeting” activities in their portfolio files gave

true chronological information in line with history, and used an academic

language in preparing biographies, book summaries and article reviews. But

they were inadequate in supporting the viewpoints of the representatives of

the different countries with regard to the process of the Ottoman Empire

taking part in the war and writing dialogues to support their views with

proofs. They were seen to use bookish remarks. The activity of letter

writing started at the end of the class and they were asked to write the

rest at home. Although the students in this activity are fully aware of the

Dardanelles Campaign commomerated on march 18th every year and that in the

instruction they were asked to refer to the right time, place, events their

expressions were found to be emotional rather than historical. It was also

identified that they were mistaken over the history of the events in the

front of the Dardenelles.

B- “Data Obtained on the Basis of the “Text Structure”

Although some of the texts in the portfolios prepared by the teacher

candidates were hand-written they were seen to pay attention to

readability, accuracy to grammatical rules, revealing the main idea,

introduction, body and final paragraphs and establishing connections

between these pragraphs.

C- Data Obtained on the Basis of the “Creativity” Criteria

The portfolio work where the effect of creativity is most noticeable

is in the preparation of letters and postcards. In writing letters their

finding appropriate names, and finding the person writing the letter

appropriate names of that time and most important of all, their reflecting

creative ideas visually in a successful way were very effective.

D- Data Obtained on the Basis of the „Accuracy“ Criteria

The criteria of a total of 50 candidate teachers in their works were

the abundance of sources and biography work. It is understood that when the

biographies are investigated they provide information from various sources.

However it was seen that the teacher candidates did not pay attention to

writing and citing conventions. They were required to be informed specially

over this issue.

E- Data Obtained on the Basis of the “Perfectibility” Createria

This criterion involves whether everything that has to be present in the

teacher candidates’ portfolio files is available in them. As the teacher

candidates were told that they would get grades for almost anything they

had in the file, it was observed that they tried to put in the file all the

activities only one teacher candidate stated he/she could not cope with the

book summary due to his/her health concerns. On the new portfolio

submission date each teacher candidate was seen to submit his/her portfolio

file.

F- Data Obtained on the Basis of the “Reflective Thinking”Criteria

This criterion aimed to provide insights to whether the teacher

candidates had realised the importance of such a portfolio study, the

difficulties they encountered in their works, and whether they needed more

time or not.

Below are the statements of the teacher candidates:

“I can say it is more clever than the anxiety caused by exams or a

few questions to measure success.”

“I think it will be more beneficial to assign such type of

assignments, and projects to the students and that I have seen it

myself”

“The matrix has been a preliminary work for me to prepare

materials while presenting the class. It is a good activity, which I

can get my students to do as well”

“While preparing the matrix I became aware that I lacked

knowledge”

“Writing letters is a work which I can administer to my

students in the future as well”

I wrote Kazım Karabekir’s biography. I believe this assignment

is informative. I am sure I know more about Kazım Karabekir

“While writing Kazım Karabekir’s biography I gained lots of

invaluable knowledge”

“On the whole I think the activities were beneficial to us.

They helped us to search and find the information.”

The matrix was easy to do as I was just supposed to place the

information in the table that had already been given. It was not the type

of assignment that would have caused me difficulty.

With regard to the reflective diaries, it is understood that the

teacher candidates through the portfolio assignment process evaluated what

they experienced, identified teh easy and difficult aspects and developed

ideas.

RESULT

The process of portfolio preparation is crucial as the teacher

candidates themselves took part in the portfolio investigation process,

experienced the process, were in a position to develop themselves, got

to know the difficulties in the process and gained awareness to cope

with this. In this way they will be able to develop ideas on their

Professional lives, and that they will have made preliminary work

relating to the primary school second grade students which they will

conduct.

In light of the reflective diaries; the difficulties they experienced

while preparing the portfolio files revolves around:

a- Their being or not being able to understand what the work is

all about at the beginning of the term

a- They had difficulties when they were supposed to prepare the

porfolio files before it was due as

They were also responsible for preparing other assignments from

the other courses.

b- They could not study efficiently due to the anxiety caused by the

KPSS (State Employee Selection

Exam) which is necessary to be appointed a tecaher

f- I had to read due to this study even though I do not like

reading.

It is understood in the reflective diaries that portfolio activities

gained the teacher candidates both knowledge and ability. Moreover, in

the reflective diaries reviewing articles, reading books and doing its

evaluation caused trouble due to a lack of both experience and time

constraints. There were also students who remarked they had problems in

dialogue forming activities. It should be considered normal for the

teacher candidates who stated that they had not conducted such studies

earlier to have a bit of problems with these studies which can be

regarded innovative.

The beneficial aspects of the reflective diaries the teacher

candidates found during this process were:

a. Understanding the historical topics beter thanks to such studies

b. Understanding the importance of using first hand sources in

history classes.

c. Developing imaginative skills in history classes by means of this

study.

d. Such studies have generated in them various ideas to administer

in their teaching lives.

e. They can guide their students better in their professional lives

in light of their own eperiences

However the study by Meo, Susan L. (2007) indicated that 35% of the

students thought portfolios had contributed to their professional lives

whereas 50% thought it a waste of time. On behalf of breaking this

perception portfolio preparation files work should be cnducted by the

teacher candidates.

The findings obtained indicate that the teacher candidates were naive

in portfolio preparation activities.

This will bring critiques over the applicability of the programme that is

already being implemented. For the teacher cendidates to get used to the

portfolio preparation process, they should be introduced to some various

reserach techniques. They should be asked to do research on different

subjects and different kinds of portfolio.

The students’ perception of some of the work in their portfolios as

homework is a problem to be encountered in the process.

Furthermore in line with the difficulties he/she has had in portfolio

preparation, the lecturer can resort to applications to minimise such

problems in the following studies.

REFERENCES

Andrew, Milson&Brantley M.S. (1999). Theme-based portfolio assessment in social studiesteacher education, Social Education; Oct 1999; 63, 6; pg. 374.

Atay, Derin. (2003). Öğretmen Adaylarına Yansıtmayı Öğretmek: Portfolyo Çalışması, Kuram veUygulamada Eğitim Yönetimi, Sayı:36, ss. 508-527.

Birgin, Osman. (2008). Alternatif Bir Değerlendirme Yöntemi Olarak Portfolyo DeğerlendirmeUygulamasına İlişkin Öğrenci Görüşleri. Türk Eğitim Bilimleri Dergisi, 6(1), 1-24.

Demirören, M.; Koşan, A,M & Palaoğlu, Ö. (2009). Bir Öğrenme ve Değerlendirme Yöntemi Olarak“Portfolyo” (Portfolio As A Learning and Assessment Method), Ankara Üniversitesi Tıp FakültesiMecmuası 2009, 62(1.)

Hatuk, M.H. (2010). Sosyal Bilgiler Öğretiminde Portfolyoların Kullanımına Yönelik ÖğretmenGörüşlerinin Değerlendirilmesi, Yayınlanmamış Yüksek Lisans Tezi, Adana: ÇukurovaÜniversitesi.

Kan, Adnan. (2007). Portfolyo Değerlendirme. Hacettepe Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi,32, ss.133-144. Meo, Susan L. (2007). Portfolio Assessment for History Majors: One Department's Journey,

Retrieved March 20, 2012 fromhttp://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2002/0202/0202teach1.cfm

Student Assessment in Social Studies, Retrieved March 20, 2012 fromwww.sdb.k12.wi.us/.../SocStudies_10.pdf