| The main purpose of this study was to empirically investigate the relationship between the quality of portfolios and students' use of self-regulated learning strategies. Also, it was intended to examine the impacts of students' use of self-regulated learning strategies along with their attitude toward the portfolio practice and assessment, as well as some background variables on the quality of their portfolios.; The quality of portfolios was determined by instructor's evaluation based on the 12 items on the checklists. A questionnaire called "The Learning Strategies and The Portfolio Practice Questionnaire" (LSPPQ) was constructed to assess students' personal data, use of learning strategies, and attitude toward portfolio assessment.; A pilot study was conducted in order to establish the reliability and validity of the LSPPQ and portfolio checklists. A total of forty-two undergraduate college students enrolled in either of the three Electrical Engineering courses: EE 407, EE 408, and EE 409 which were offered by the Engineering Leadership Development Minor (ELDM) Program, College of Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University participated in the pilot study.; For the main study, the subjects consisted of 52 students enrolled in the three ELDM core courses. They all completed the portfolio assignment and filled out the LSPPQ. Results of this study indicate that there was a significant relationship between the quality of portfolios and students' use of self-regulated learning strategies. Four variables were able to explain the degree to which those variables contribute to predict the quality of students' portfolio based on instructor's evaluation.; Findings of this study support theoretical hypotheses that there is a relationship between the quality of students performance on portfolio assessment and their use of self-regulated learning strategies. The motivation strategy seem to be the most significant predictor of the quality of students' portfolios. Due to the small size of sample which were not selected by random sampling procedures and the specific context in which this study was conducted, the results of this study may not be able to generalized beyond the context in general. Recommendations have been made for future studies to further investigate the relationship between portfolio assessment and the self-regulated learning approaches. |
