The opinions of the preservice teachers about portfolio as as alternative assessment method in the primary school science and technology class

This research is conducted with the aim to set forth the opinions of preservice teachers about one of the alternative assessment methods, the portfolio evaluation and its contents, which is recommended to be used more often with the renewed primary education program. The research is a descriptive study and in order to determine the preservice teachers? personal information, opinion and attitude on the portfolio evaluating method, a survey was made. The survey consists of questions to determine the teacher candidates personal informations, their points of view to the alternative assessment methods and the portfolio, their opinions about the content of portfolio, and some open ended questions which require them to state their thoughts, recommendations and comments about the portfolio usage. The data are obtained from Çukurova University primary science at 3rd and 4th grade and Hakkari University primary science preservice teachers at 3rd grade in 2011-2012 educational year. 107 preservice teachers took place in the study. The quantitive data was analiyzed in SPSS for Windows 11.5 package program. In the analysis of the quantitive data, chi square, frequency and percentage values are used. The results indicated that 4th grade intern students and 3rd grade preservice teachers who were taking measuring and assessment lessons, generally were not satisfied with their knowledge about the portfolio; however, they had a positive look on it. Even though most of them haven?t prepared a portfolio before, they believed that they would use this method when they started teaching. Answers to the questions about teacher candidates? points of view revealed that the students did not differ significantly in terms of grade level and the courses taken. About the contents of the portfolio, the frequencies of the answers of preservice teachers were examined and it is found that, they believed that in the portfolios science and technology lesson homeworks would take the biggest place. They also thought that the experiment reports should be in the portfolio certainly, the subjects that students want to review again don?t have to be placed in the portfolio. In addition, they saw that one of the things that the students are unwilling is to generate the outcomes of the Works and activities they conduct Daily, weekly and monthly. They thought that the frequency of making trip-observation reports and video records will differ according to the socio-economical situation of the environment. While the 4th grade preservice teachers could answer the open ended questions more because they were attending their internship, the 3rd grade preservice teachers couldn?t make many comments. The most suggested idea for increasing the use of portfolio was that teachers and preservice teachers should be provided more with qualified information so that they can guide their students in a better way. The obsevation of 4th graders about the use of portfolio during their internship is that the teachers find this method time consuming, boring and would rather use the traditional methods and that the teachers don?t have enough equipment for using portfolio method. While the number of preservice teachers doing their internships in schools which use this method is very low, the teacher candidates stated that according to the observations, most of the time, the problem is timing, unmotivated students and the unwill to take responsibility. When generally looked, the ones who have prepared a portfolio before, felt more competent and had positive thoughts therefore the suggestion that the practical application in teacher education is more important than the theoretical lectures is emphasized. Keywords: Portfolio assessment, Preservice teachers? opinions.