More on Portfolio Theory
“Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.” Aristotle
From Richard Larson
In recent columns I have advocated a portfolio approach to evaluating the educational attainment of learners. Test scores can be one component of the portfolio, but there needs to be more, perhaps much more. How many of you have seen grade A test scores from students whom you believe really do not know the material tested? By ‘knowing’ the material, I mean going beyond rote memorization and ‘pattern recognition’ in STEM courses, where once the pattern is recognized as “algorithm 62”, the student only needs to fill in the numbers for algorithm 62 and ‘turn the crank.’ In math and other STEM classes, good test taking is often reduced to this – memorization and pattern recognition. And if you asked the student similar questions a couple of weeks later, how likely is it that he/she would still get an A grade?

What I am getting at is that STEM students can get by using masterful test strategies without knowing the material deeply. Is it too much to ask that for at least a portion of the material, the student gets to know it deeply, moving to a place where he/she ‘owns’ the material? On a personal note, my first real teaching experience was in grad school, where I served as a TA for a large enrollment undergraduate applied probability course. I thought I knew the material. After all, I got an A in the course as a student! But I discovered that I did not know the material. Teaching someone, learning how to explain it several different ways, that requires that you get on top of the material to a totally new level. You must own it. It almost becomes part of your DNA. You do not fear forgetting it. And the most difficult students to teach are the ones who are struggling; reaching them and getting them to their Eureka moment is a huge challenge.

Back to STEM learning and Aristotle’s quote: Why not require that a student’s portfolio include teaching other students in his/her class? Example: a student, with monitoring and supervision by the in-class teacher, could lead the now-famous ‘flipped classroom,’ made popular by the Khan Academy with its over 3,000 short learning videos. Suppose on a give day the Khan Academy home viewing assignment focused on the Pythagorean theorem in geometry. Then the next day’s flipped classroom might include alternative derivations of the Pythagorean theorem, applications in real life and possible extensions. The class would be highly interactive, problem-focused, involving lots of collaboration. But the student assigned to lead the class that day would have to study the material to an entirely new level, much higher than that required to get an A on a test. That’s hard work. But work that would show the student what it really means to own material, perhaps even love the material as ownership often brings about a sense of pride and new knowledge of the beauty of math and science. The in-class teacher, monitoring the entire flipped class led by our student, would record a paragraph of observations in the student’s portfolio, evaluating the student’s knowledge of the material and his/her ability to lead the class in this way. Seems to me that such a portfolio entry would convey a lot more than a letter grade on a test. And, best of all, the student will discover that “Teaching is a Learning Experience”!

Richard Larson is the Mitsui Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT. He is also the Director of MIT LINC and the Principal Investigator of MIT BLOSSOMS.

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