How to Make the Best of Your Degree
Portfolios provide an excellent tool for students to make the best of their degree and improve their career development by demonstrating their graduate attributes and skills relevant to professional practice. Psychology students who follow the advice in this book will be well-placed when they enter the job market, and whenever they wish to demonstrate how their learning translates into practical skills.
This book provides a practical guide that takes readers through the main concepts of portfolio assessment. It turns the portfolio-building process into a well-defined set of steps that relate to a wide range of circumstances. Importantly, the book explains how to select evidence. It provides examples of how to use:
- Witness testimony
- Reflective learning journals
- Diaries and working notes
- Samples of work
- Videos, photographs and audio recordings
The book concludes with a checklist to ensure all aspects of the portfolio-building process have been completed.
Using the process described in this book will ensure a well-presented portfolio that makes the most of your degree and accurately reflects your acquisition of graduate attributes.
Dr. Trudi Cooper lectures in Youth Work Studies at Edith Cowan University. She has been involved in the professional education of practitioners for many years. Before lecturing for Edith Cowan, Trudi gained substantial and varied field experience as a practitioner, trainer and lecturer in community and youth work in the UK. Trudi has undertaken research into the use of portfolios as an assessment tool, and has been extensively involved in curriculum development for training courses in the Community and Youth Work field.
Trudi has a PhD, a Masters Degree in Educational Research, a Graduate Certificate in Education. Her PhD examined concepts of quality in higher education teaching and learning.
Dr. Lynne Cohen is a Senior Lecturer and is Undergraduate Coordinator in the School of Psychology at Edith Cowan University (ECU). She teaches in both the undergraduate and postgraduate psychology programs and has recently been awarded a National Teaching Award by the Australian University Teaching Committee. She has been involved in education for the past 30 years and is on the ECU Faculty Teaching and Learning committee. Her research focuses on issues in higher education and has many publications and presentations on learning and teaching in higher education. She is the current editor of the community psychology journal Network. Dr Cohen is also a community psychologist and researches and teaches in the area of sense of belonging and its relationship to successful outcomes for students.
Dr. Julie Ann Pooley is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at Edith Cowan University since 1991. She is involved in teaching in both the undergraduate and postgraduate psychology programs and has recently been awarded a National Teaching Award by the Australian University Teaching Committee. Her current research is focusing on communities facing natural disasters, through which she trying to determine what enables communities to become resilient to impending threats. She is also interested in the area of environmental education and attitudes towards the environment.
