E-Portfolio Design and Critical Reflection: A Field Experience Inquiry

• In Event: Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: Implications for Learning From Reflection and Portfolios

Abstract

This paper first reconceptualizes critical reflection in teacher education based on previous theoretical underpinnings of reflective teaching. It then analyzes prospective teachers’ ePortfolio-based reflections to understand to what extent they were reflecting critically, and why they reflected the way they did. Results show these reflections contained more assumption analysis of classroom teaching than concern for the impact of macro social and political aspects of education on micro classroom teaching. The study highlights the evaluative feature of the ePortfolio in encouraging prospective teachers to reflect positively on their field experiences. Based on these findings, the paper provides a framework for teacher educators and ePortfolio designers to design and integrate ePortfolios into the preparation of critically reflective teachers.

Author

• Katrina Liu, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater