Electronic Professional Portfolios for Pre-Service Teachers (Higher education)

Abstract

The electronic professional portfolio experience is at present being offered to pre-service teachers at UNE as part of the four year Bachelor of Education (Primary) Program (BEd). This offering has evolved during the last four years from a pilot project in 2001 with a small group of students developing a non-electronic professional portfolio. From 2002 to 2004 students have had the opportunity to undertake a one-semester elective unit of study in their final year to develop an electronic professional portfolio. Students engage in seminars and workshops, deconstructing professional teaching standards, reflecting on their teaching-related experiences, and developing technological skills. Assessment includes presentation in a roundtable situation. This year, 2004, saw the first intake of students into a new BEd program based around the development of a professional portfolio across all four years of study. Opportunities will be offered in all units of study to reflect on the various activities undertaken and to synthesize these in relation to the NSW Institute of Teachers Professional Standards. In First Year students are introduced to the Standards and are given the opportunity to develop a structure for their portfolio. Forty percent of assessment in the first-year Learning and Teaching unit is based around the portfolio, including an interview. The plan for Second and Third Year is to coordinate lecturers in each unit of study to write into their teaching materials specific activities that support the portfolio. These units include special education, gifted and talented education, teaching for active learning, and classroom (behaviour) management as well as units based in the curriculum areas. A structure to assist this process is already in place as second year lecturers have been having coordination meetings for a number of years. Each successive year students will be encouraged to reassess their portfolio so that the contents are always the best demonstration of competence. The final year of the new program includes a compulsory unit of study that introduces students to the many facets of professional life as a teacher and allows creation of the final electronic version of the electronic professional portfolio.