John Zubizarreta

John Zubizarreta

John Zubizarreta is Professor of English, Director of Honors and Faculty Development, and former Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Columbia College. He has published widely on modern American, British, and comparative literatures; teaching pedagogy; honors education; teaching, learning, and administrative portfolios; academic leadership; and faculty development. A Carnegie Foundation/C.A.S.E. Professor for South Carolina, he has also earned recognition for teaching and scholarly excellence from the American Association for Higher Education, the South Atlantic Association of Departments of English, the National United Methodist Board of Higher Education, the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education, and other educational organizations. John has led faculty development workshops and delivered keynote addresses worldwide, and he has mentored faculty nationwide and abroad in enhancing and documenting teaching and learning. His most recent interests have turned to student learning portfolios designed to improve learning through reflection, collaboration, and evidence.

The Learning Portfolio for Improvement and Assessment of Student Learning

with John Zubizarreta

Engaging students not only in collecting selected samples of their work for assessment, evaluation, and career development but also in continuous reflection about such work and about the process of developmental learning is a powerful complement to traditional measures of student achievement.  The portfolio approach to gauging student learning is a compelling and diverse method of recording intellectual growth, involving students in a higher-order, critically reflective process that enriches their educational experience and helps transform them into self-directed, reflective learners.