Elementary Education Online, 13(3), 806-819, 2014. İlköğretim Online, 13(3), 806-819, 2014. [Online]: http://ilkogretim-online.org.tr Webfolio Application in Primary Schools: Teacher and Student Perspectives Sayım AKTAY 12 Mehmet GÜLTEKİN 3 ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study is to determine functionality of webfolio system in primary schools. This study was conducted on 4th grade Science and technology, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Turkish courses. The participants of this study are 4 th grade students and their teacher in a primary school in Eskisehir during the 2008-2009 academic year. A qualitative research design, naturalistic inquiry approach, has been adopted in this study. The data have been gathered through semi-structured interviews conducted with the teacher and the students. The data were analyzed through content analysis technique. It was found that both the teacher and the students found the webfolio system beneficial. The teacher and most of the students believe that webfolio system is more effective than traditional portfolio system. Keywords: Web based portfolio, webfolio, primary education, performance based assessment SUMMARY Purpose: The aim of this study is to determine the functionality of webfolio system in primary schools. Method: This study was conducted in the 4 th grade Science and Technology, Mathematics, Social Studies, and Turkish courses. The participants of this study are 4 th grade students and their teacher in a primary school in Eskisehir during the 2008-2009 academic year. Naturalistic inquiry approach, which is a qualitative research design, is embraced for this study. The data of this study has been gathered through semi-structured interviews conducted with the teacher and the students. Since there was no webfolio software available, the researcher developed a webfolio system. Afterwards, the researcher piloted the product and fixed the errors encountered. Finally, the researcher conducted the research using the revised webfolio system. Conclusion and Discussion: As a result of the study, it was revealed that both the teacher and the students found the webfolio system beneficial. A majority of the students and the teacher believed the webfolio system to be more effective than traditional portfolios. The teacher held the belief that the webfolio system facilitated sharing, use, peer evaluation and access to webfolios and that the webfolio system was safe and permanent. The teacher reported that the webfolio system was better than the traditional portfolio system with respect to the advantages of the webfolio system in critical thinking, safety, sharing, accessibility, permanency and physical advantages. All the students generally reported positive views about the webfolio system. The students believed that the webfolio system facilitated sharing, communication, peer evaluation and carrying the files and cooperation between the students. In addition, the students also believe that webfolio system increased the quality of their products. Students stated that Science and Technology course was easier via webfolio system while Mathematics course was harder. However, some of the students mentioned that they had no difficulty with using the webfolio system in any of the courses. According to these students, experiencing technical problems, having difficulties getting used to webfolio system at first, some of students’ having inadequate technological knowledge, and receiving discouraging feedback from peers were negative aspects of the webfolio system. 1 This study is derived from the doctoral thesis, “Web-Based Portfolio (Webfolio) Application in Elementary Schools”, which was prepared by Sayım AKTAY with the expressed knowledge of advisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mehmet GÜLTEKİN. 2 Dr., Giresun University, Faculty of Education, sayimaktay@gmail.com 3 Assoc. Prof. Dr., Anadolu University, Faculty of Education, mgulteki@anadolu.edu.tr