Teacher candidates' perceptions of traditional classroom assessments and electronic portfolio classroom assessments

Electronic portfolio assessment is becoming an important means to demonstrate competency in an authentic way in higher education. Across the country, a number of schools are turning to electronic portfolio classroom assessment to help evaluate teacher candidates' progress in becoming a teacher. To be successful according to accreditation agencies, Colleges of Education must demonstrate candidate progress through the use of assessment data that reflect individual programs and the college's conceptual framework.;The purpose of this study was to determine if there are differences in teacher candidates' perceptions of the contributions of traditional classroom assessments and electronic portfolio classroom assessments to the candidates' development of their understanding of education core content areas and the use of reflections. The secondary purpose of this study was to determine teacher candidates' knowledge of Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC)(1992) principles given hours spent within the traditional and electronic portfolio classroom assessments.;Data were gathered and analyzed through a web-based online survey during the 2006 fall semester. 73 teacher candidates completed all of the required data and were included in the study. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, Pearson r, and two-way analyses of variance.;The results found that when comparing hours spent working on the electronic portfolio, those teacher candidates who spent more time had significantly higher content perception scores than those who did not spend as much time on the electronic portfolio. Also, there was a statistically significant difference between the elementary and secondary levels for reflection perception scores for electronic portfolio classroom assessment with elementary level teacher candidates being more positive.;This study provided additional insight into teacher candidates' perceptions of traditional classroom assessment and electronic portfolio classroom assessment. It also led to a better understanding of teacher candidates' self-assessment of their knowledge of the INTASC (1992) principles.