Portfolios for adult learners. The Value of Reflection in Higher education. A Case Study Conducted at the University of Padua

This paper presents a study carried out at the University of Padova with the aim to promote an active process of recognition of competences that adults enrolled in university degrees have already acquired within non formal and informal contexts. During the research 44 working students completed a learning outcomes portfolio in order to make their competences gained within past experiences explicit and comparable with the expected learning outcomes and therefore to tailor their educational careers. The study, through a mix-method approach, investigated the educational and guidance dimensions of the portfolio construction within a guided process for the development of competences awareness obtained by the reflection during and after the action. Results from interviews to adult students, teachers evaluators and tutor/advisers, showed that the autobiographic reflective process has the transformative power to bring out moments or past aspects and create new connections between these aspects, generating new coherences and perspectives for the future professional and personal life