In The Learning Portfolio, John Zubizarreta (Columbia College--Columbia, South Carolina) makes a compelling case for adopting the student learning portfolio as a way of enhancing and measuring "deep" student learning. This portfolio is not merely another big course assignment; at its best, the learning portfolio is developed throughout a student's college career and can play an integral part in the student's transition to a vocational life. This portfolio is also not merely a dumping ground for materials required by teachers or curricula; ideally, the student is led by this assignment into serious reflection about self, future, the nature of learning, and the significance of coursework. A tremendous variety of materials can make up the student learning portfolio and delivery can take the form of traditional print or electronic media (the most likely form of the future).

Though the student learning portfolio has been around for more than 15 years, some faculty might not be familiar with the concept, so Zubizarreta opens the book with a 45 page section introducing the learning portfolio, describing its common practice, and exhorting readers to take the student learning portfolio very seriously as "a rich learning tool."

The second part of the book is probably the most valuable, a 110 page section featuring descriptions of 17 successful student learning portfolio programs in a dazzlingly wide variety of institutions. From Oklahoma State University to Albion College and Cape Cod Community College, there is probably a featured school that matches your own in size and character.

The third section of Zubizarreta's book is also quite useful because it displays 14 excerpts from actual student portfolios, demonstrating not only the tremendous breadth of possible materials and styles but also the sincerity and passion of exemplary student work.

The final section offers "a wide assortment of practical materials-assignment sheets, guidelines, criteria, evaluation rubrics, and other materials-that various individuals and institutions have used." Of most interest to me were the evaluation rubrics from Arizona State University because the only weakness I can see in Zubizarreta's fine book is its insufficient discussion of the evaluation process. Who is going to read these portfolios and how labor intensive will the work be? Anyone who has faced a very tall stack of research papers at the end of a semester knows immediately that one must confront this. But Zubizarreta addresses these issues in only two very short paragraphs in his introductory essay and his discussion there is geared more toward helping the student than to helping the beleaguered faculty member. Zubizarreta begins "Time Commitment" and "Length" (p. 16) in a promising way, by saying "Let's cut to the chase," but aside from admitting that "time is an issue" and asserting that "I envision a model that is not. . .unwieldy," Zubizarreta offers little advice for administering the evaluation process. Individual faculty using learning portfolios in their courses might be able to find some useful tips in these two short paragraphs, but departments and larger academic units looking to use student learning portfolios for program assessment will find no help. Zubizarreta's fine book is convincing, but if "the considerable time involved 'is a major reason for the abandonment' of such projects," the issue of faculty time commitment needs to be dealt with more thoroughly.

Terry Nienhuis
Western Carolina University