Messy to Meaningful: Reflection, Growth, and the Power of ePortfolio

“Students are learning. We’re encouraging integration, connection, consideration of how to show these different pieces or revise them over time… and then they are the creators.” ~Caterina Almendral

“It’s transformative for me. I’m curious about learning more, and I’m curious about getting students to see the way I feel about learning.” ~Michele de Goeas-Malone

Audio Case Study

Click to hear the audio interview with Michele and Caterina.

Written Case Study

For Michele de Goeas-Malone and Caterina Almendral, faculty leaders in LaGuardia’s Education Program, the journey into high impact practices began with discovery, deepened through collaboration, and continues today through a commitment to student development and programmatic coherence. Both began engaging with ePortfolio unexpectedly, de Goeas-Malone through a surprise capstone assignment in 2009, and Almendral through earlier experiences in other institutions. But once at LaGuardia, both found themselves immersed in a culture where reflection, integration, and student voice were not only encouraged but embedded in the program.

de Goeas-Malone recalls being “surprised” by her first assignment to teach a capstone course, but she quickly fell in love with ePortfolio and the reflective practices it promoted. “It was a new way of looking at learning that I hadn’t ever done before.” The ePortfolio revealed dimensions of student learning she hadn’t previously seen in traditional research papers. Almendral, too, was impressed by the multimodality of ePortfolio, but found the LaGuardia context more formative than summative. “It was really well interwoven in the Ed Program,” she remembers, “and the training was super helpful.” With backgrounds in educational psychology and instructional development, both faculty members were naturally drawn to practices that center learning, reflection, and growth over time.

This emphasis on growth, both for students and for faculty, became a recurring theme. “I didn’t know anything,” de Goeas-Malone says of her early days. “It was sink or swim.” Over time, however, she began reflecting more intentionally on her own teaching practices, just as she asked students to do. “I built metacognitive skills,” she says. “I had to figure out how I saw the connections my students didn’t yet see.” Almendral agrees: “It’s collaborative and not just about our students’ learning. It’s about our learning too.” She describes this evolution as “transformative,” driven by constant reflection and the desire to model the same kinds of thinking students are asked to do.

For both, ePortfolio became a connective thread across the curriculum, what they describe as “the anchor” or “the meta HIP” that integrates other high impact practices. Whether students were engaged in service learning, internships, or collaborative projects, the ePortfolio provided a space to document and synthesize their learning. “It makes learning visible,” de Goeas-Malone notes. Almendral adds that it offers a way to “travel over time,” to not only show learning in individual courses, but to connect those experiences in ways that reveal growth and deepening understanding.

One of the signature assignments that brings these values to life is the final integrative project in the First Year Seminar. What began as a small classroom activity evolved into a cross-semester, multimodal reflection rooted in social justice. Students begin by writing school narratives, then engage with Langston Hughes’ poem “Harlem,” exploring its historical and cultural context. From there, they connect the poem to readings in culturally responsive teaching, watch documentary clips on educational inequality, and discuss current school segregation. “It doesn’t look like it’s connected at first,” de Goeas-Malone explains, “but we’re building the connections with them.” The project culminates in a digital ePortfolio that asks students to bring together these various threads, English, history, education, and personal experience, and reflect on their meaning.

Students present their portfolios in a celebratory final session, often surprising themselves with what they’ve created. Almendral notes that many cite their most challenging assignment as the one they’re most proud of. “They saw that they could do it. It becomes a highlight.” de Goeas-Malone agrees, describing the ePortfolio as a space where students move “from messy to ownership.” The emphasis is on growth and process, not perfection.

That sense of ownership extends beyond students to faculty as well. de Goeas-Malone and Almendral both see their roles as program directors not just in terms of administration, but as collaborative leaders shaping a shared vision. As program director, de Goeas-Malone has shaped the work. “It has my bias, but it’s also a community.” Faculty build portfolio prompts together, design assignments that support program goals, and learn from one another’s approaches. She notes, “It’s unusual, because we’re not siloed.” Almendral adds that this work strengthens faculty understanding of the curriculum and supports students’ long-term development.

There are challenges, of course, particularly time. Without studio hours in Early Childhood Education, integrating ePortfolio work can feel rushed. “If it feels like a lot of work for me,” de Goeas-Malone says, “it’s a lot for them.” Almendral also notes the difficulty of updating templates in real time as ideas evolve. Still, both remain committed to the work, recognizing the impact it has on students’ engagement and confidence. “One of my students linked to her ePortfolio in a graduate school application,” de Goeas-Malone shares. Others share their ePortfolios with employers or return to them to reflect on their educational philosophies.

Asked whether high impact practices are especially important for LaGuardia students, both answer with a resounding yes. “Everybody needs this,” de Goeas-Malone says. “It makes learning more equal.” Almendral agrees, noting that the point of high impact practices is to reach all students, not just a select few. To scale this work, they suggest renewed institutional support for professional development, protected time, and faculty-led spaces to share, publish, and reflect on what’s working. “We were at the forefront,” de Goeas-Malone says. “We need to keep talking about the good work we do.

Courses Targeting High Impact Practices

• EDF101: First-Year Seminar for Education
• ELE205: Language and Literacy in Early Childhood Education

Other High Impact Practices Used

• First-Year Experience
• Learning Communities
• Collaborative Assignments and Projects
• Diversity and Global Learning
• Internships
• Service Learning and Community-Based Learning
• Undergraduate Research
• Writing-Intensive Courses
• Capstone Courses and Projects

About

Michele A. de Goeas-Malone holds an M.A. in Linguistics from the CUNY Graduate Center. She teaches courses in Linguistics and Education, including Introduction to Language, Foundations of Bilingual Education, Language and Literacy in Education Courses: K-12, First Year Seminar in Education, and Education Technology. She has previously taught courses in Syntax, Language Acquisition, and Quantitative Methods in Speech Pathology. Michele de Goeas-Malone’s research focuses on ePortfolio pedagogy, digital pedagogy, culturally relevant pedagogy, culturally responsive pedagogy, teacher preparation, and teacher identity development. Her other research interests include the development and processing of complex syntax in elementary and high school second language learners and its relationship to reading comprehension in the first and second language, and sociolinguistic and cultural variation in the development of language and literacy.

Caterina Almendral is a Co-Director of the Education Program at LaGuardia Community College. Her research focuses on accessibility in technology for first year pre-service teachers and computer integrated teaching education. Her background is in educational psychology and her interests and teaching include incorporating universal design and accessibility in education. She has designed curriculum and developed learning experiences that enable pre-service teachers to consider and address barriers to high quality education.