In the main phase, just like in the Propedeuse (first-year program), you will work mainly with the ‘Growth Portfolio’. Both the Dream and Design portfolios are not mandatory, but usually good documents to start a conversation with your mentor about what it is that you would like to learn and achieve in a given period.
Your Growth Portfolio is the document you submit for your assessment. It should provide sufficient insights for teachers and peers who are not directly involved in your process. It should have a reading time of no more than 20 minutes. There are several components that your Growth Portfolio must include (see: Content of the Growth Portfolio).
Your Dream Portfolio is generally your starting point. It provides you and your teacher with insights into the kind of work you really like and who your heroes are. Your Dream Portfolio is an important part of the conversations you have with your mentor within the context of Constructive Alignment, where you discuss what you want to create and how you think you will approach it (see the section: Constructive Alignment).
Your Design Portfolio is a showcase of your work and indicates who you are as a designer and where you stand at this moment. You do this by showcasing final products. This portfolio should be created in such a way that it is presentable to the outside world/industry and can be used when searching for an internship or eventually finding a job. You can decide the format yourself.
Your Design Portfolio could be a good basis for your presentation during your assessment, where you will talk about the designs you have made and explain why you made them in the way you did.
Constructive alignment is a clear and regular alignment between you and your mentor and/or other specialist teachers. In this alignment, you talk about your learning process. You discuss, among other things:
Constructive Alignment is not about feedback at the product level -for that, you can request consultations- but rather about how the feedback you have requested and made visible is part of your learning process.
The conditions necessary for Constructive Alignment are:
Coachability: The student is regularly present and/or his/her/their mentor is sufficiently aware of the student’s activities.
Professional behaviour: The student behaves according to the applicable industry standards and/or the work produced meets the quality level that can reasonably be expected.
Development at the appropriate level: Learning activities sufficiently correspond to the learning outcomes that can be expected for the level at which the student aims to work. If there is insufficient Constructive Alignment, the teacher may, as a last resort, decide to cancel the assessment.