Professional portfolios enable teachers to own, drive and monitor their on-going professional development, the growth of their personal intelligences. However, a portfolio’s worth is denigrated unless it is much more than just a serendipitous scrapbook. Metacognitive reflection is what enables it to be much more.
The diagram and discussion that follows illustrates how such a process allows the individual teacher to own the portfolio. 
Planning
Here is a possible example: “Questioning is an essential part of teaching. We expect students to give answers when called upon, but how often do we give them instruction in developing thinking skills round this? Therefore I want to examine the impact on my teaching and the students’ learning when I specifically introduce processes that develop thinking rather than just concentrate on right answers.”
Finally to round off this rationale section, ask yourself the question, “What professional development am I gaining from my portfolio?”
The rationale should provide a succinct answer. In this case, “I am gaining professional development by experimenting with different strategies and techniques when I ask questions.”
I am labouring the point here. Unless portfolios are designed as a tool for teachers to further develop their capabilities and capacities – to grow their personal intelligences – why keep them?
2. Essential question
The essential question provides the thesis for the portfolio. This is the specific against which the teacher development is to be discussed. Note that it is the catalyst for reflection, not for judgement or measuring. Following the rationale as stated above, an example would be, “Will the student answering of questions become more strategic by including analysis and evaluation in their answers?”
3. Related questions
Related questions drill down into the detail needed to answer the more general essential question by asking specific questions. Ideally they should aim to grow both the teacher’s interpersonal and the intrapersonal intelligences.
Interpersonal intelligence questions (ones that are directly related to the teacher’s impact on the student) could be such as, “Do students answer questions in more depth when a three- or six-second interval between asking the question and requiring an answer is used?”
Intrapersonal questions (ones that look at the growth in capabilities and capacities of the student as a result of the teaching) can look for improved student performance such as, “Does asking each student to paraphrase the previous answer increase their overall understanding?”
4. Professional goals
Professional goals are specific to each teacher’s professional development (growing their personal intelligences) in one or more areas that are relevant to the overall portfolio. This is where the commitment is made to refresh old knowledge, upgrade to new knowledge, and abandon superseded knowledge by reviewing the research, experts’ views, and leading practitioners’ views.
In the example that is being followed above, there are several distinctive areas to examine. The first, and perhaps most important is reflection, or metacognitive reflection to be even more specific. That is the context in which everything else will be revealed. Thus this should perhaps be the first goal to be included. To review the literature on reflection is too general. Something more specific is required such as, “To review both on the Internet and in at least one of Art Costa’s books the Habit of Mind called metacognition.”
Questioning is also central. Therefore, there must also be something to do with that. “To review on both the Internet in teacher magazines, and teacher professional development books researched information about asking questions.”
Finally as this portfolio is also about higher- level thinking skills, something about that is also required. “To review current Internet information on Anderson’s revision of Bloom’s taxonomy with specific reference to the higher levels.”
At the novice level – that is the first and early use of a portfolio for professional development – one rather than several goals may be more appropriate. As the expertise develops, more sophistication can be added by having several goals as above.
There is another type of goal that needs including, too. That is a personal commitment goal: “To develop a portfolio that reflects my growing expertise in the development of student ability in answering questions.” Important here is to link the personal growth, the continual learning of the teacher, to student growth.
Finally there is a decision to be made about collaboration: “To discuss questioning with other teachers, particularly those teaching in the level above mine to understand what they see as strengths and weaknesses.”
If you or your school are not yet ready to collaborate, leave this part out. Ultimately, though, the benefits of collaboration are too valuable to leave out. Collaborating with other teachers from outside you own school will be invaluable but do not force it before you and those you wish to collaborate with are comfortable to do so.
Analysing and evaluating
This is the engine room of the portfolio where data is collected and assessed at least
weekly and when appropriate, daily. The best data will be anecdotal, the stories that the students and you can tell. These stories could well start with the prior attitude or ideas about questioning by asking the students to respond to a question such as, “What do you find easy about the questions that are asked in class?; what do you find that is hard about the questions that are asked in class?:; what could the teacher do to make answering questions easier for you?; and what could you do to make it easier for you to answer questions? This will give you base line data.
The real value of such student-generated data will be its on-going nature, showing the journey that you and your students are making. Moreover, it provides an authentic voice directly to the teacher on the student view of the teaching and learning. Time needs to be set aside for this at least weekly. There are many variations to collect these views. One teacher has the students writing a weekly letter to themselves.
A must is introducing students to using “because” in these reflections. That ensures students use analysis and evaluation and thus higher-level thinking skills are forced which results in more sophisticated anecdotal data.
Once collected, it is the teacher’s turn to write. Extracts from a student or from several students’ work is selected, analysed and evaluated with a view to understanding what this tells the teacher about the students in their class and the teaching and learning opportunities they are being giving. From that, the question can be asked, where to go from here? This is the classical feedback spiral in action: plan, take action, assess, and modify.
Creating
In practice, creating is not a section like this at the end. Instead it is on-going, the culmination of each individual analysis. That is why the arrows go both ways in the diagram.
A final thought: Do think about format, layout and page design. It can and will have a huge impact, not just in helping your organisation, but also in the impact it will have on anyone else reading it. I prefer creating an individual e-book but there are many alternatives from blogs to commercial products.