Malamatenia Tsirika^1,, Domna – Mika Kakana², Aikaterinh Michalopoulou¹

The purpose of this work is to develop, implement and evaluate e-portfolio as an alternative method of assessment in a kindergarten classroom. This research follows the methodology of qualitative research and specifically action research. Particularly, the e-portfolio was designed by the teacher-researcher as a website using state-of-the-art technology in order to present to the parents the best works of their children in the classroom. The participants of this survey were students of a small kindergarten classroom in a private school in Trikala, Greece, during the school year 2014-2015. Initially, a portfolio tool was implemented within the classroom in a paper format at the start of the school year and after three months, a fully functional implementation of an e-portfolio was used throughout the rest of the school year. The evaluation of the utility of the e-portfolio was conducted by the teacher-researcher in several layers, including participant observation on a daily basis (calendar), semi-structured individual interviews with children and open-ended questionnaire combined with semi-structured interviews with the parents. The data collected throughout this procedure, were processed and categorized using thematic content analysis. The thematic areas that emerged from this analysis concerned the application of the e-portfolio, the attitude of the children, the children’s emotions, emotions of their family environment, the frequency the e-portfolio was used, peer relationships, child - family interaction and general feedback about the e-portfolio. The results reveal a positive attitude towards the promotion of self assessment and peer assessment through the use of the e-portfolio. Furthermore, the parents showed great interest for the e-portfolio tool and reacted positively in using it. As a result, the e-portfolio was proved to be successfully implemented in a kindergarten classroom, and its application revealed that the peer assessment among the classmates helped the children to develop the process of self assessment at a high level.

action research, portfolio, e-portfolio, alternative forms of assessment, self assessment, peer assessment