A Portfolio Model for Music Educators - Hill

Britt Beil
MUSIC 23241
March 8, 2011

A Portfolio Model for Music Educators

               This is an informative article about how to properly create, explain the uses and importance, and the history of a portfolio. Today, many universities require a portfolio for a music education major to graduate and practicing teachers need to keep a portfolio to keep track of their improvements and accomplishments. Hill then describes what a portfolio is and a brief history of how it was created and formed. There are three types of portfolios, learning, assessment, and employment, all of which are significant and can be used for several different purposes and a teacher can use sections of each type to create an even better portfolio. Hill also mentions the significance of not only using a hard-copy of the portfolio, but also a digital copy for several reasons.

               In high school, we were taught in our English classes how to compose a resume and it was mentioned a few times that some people in the future would need to build a portfolio as well, but the teachers never went into much detail about it. I did learn a few things from the resume building that I think will be beneficial when creating my portfolio, like taking all of my positive attributes at the forefront and keep it very professional. The article mentions recording yourself as a performer or teacher and giving yourself some feedback to help build critical thinking and self-reflection abilities, I have done this for a few classes and I definitely feel like it helps show how you are improving and is effective in the learning portfolio.

               Based on the information I gathered from this article, I feel that using a portfolio is a very helpful and effective way to show growth, progress, and that you are capable of holding a job position. I agree that by having a digital copy of your portfolio definitely shows that the student or teacher is good with technology and can definitely be beneficial in the classroom. The brief history provided in the beginning of the article was very informative and interesting to read. I feel confident that I have a lot of the information needed to start the portfolio which is great.

Hill, Cheryl F. (2008). A portfolio model for music educators. Music Educators Journal, 95(1), 61-72.