Developing and Presenting a Professional Portfolio in Early Childhood Education

Written for courses in Introduction to Early Childhood Education, Early Childhood Student Teaching or Field Experience, and/or Curriculum in Early Childhood Education.

This preeminent manual has been developed to assist pre-service teachers in early childhood education to successfully develop a professional portfolio from start to finish.

Using a step-by-step approach and numerous examples to assist the early childhood major in successfully developing a paper or an electronic professional teaching portfolio, this entire text has been designed to support the development of the professional portfolio and the pre-service educators in the process. This manual will guide its readers from demonstrating how to collect items for a personal and professional portfolio, to how to manage and organize materials, and finally how to discuss and present the final product upon graduation and for future employment opportunities. Although the premise of the text is based on the platform the authors have implemented to support their own student interns going through the portfolio process at Towson University, this manual has a widely universal appeal for all students in a wide-range of early childhood programs–including community and technical colleges, four-year institutions and online distance education programs--as they develop their professional portfolio from just the beginnings through the final presentation The authors had the foresight to take into consideration the nature of  a variety of different programs in many different early childhood education programs and how they introduce the portfolio process, making it a versatile text or supplemental guide for several points of entry for students working on their portfolio from start to finish. Wiltz’s text is appropriate for programs for which the portfolios are started in the Introduction to Early Childhood course and compiled as students make their way through the programs; or when the portfolio process is introduced in a Curriculum course, for instance; and for the Student Teaching, Practicum, or Capstone course.