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The Roles and Features of ePortfolios in Two Australian Initial Teacher Education Degree Programs

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ePortfolios in Australian Universities

Abstract

This case study investigates the use of ePortfolios by pre-service teachers in two university settings in Sydney, Australia. The ePortfolio products discussed were created and developed as a means of chronicling the pre-service teachers’ professional development, and to encourage reflective practice. Students enrolled in a Music Education degree utilised PebblePad, an online, commercially-available platform that was provided by the university, and students were required to contribute regularly to their ePortfolio as part of several units of study across the course of the degree by creating, editing and uploading digital artefacts of music teaching skills and knowledge from assignments in each unit of study. The second group was enrolled in a general primary teaching degree, and included several mature age students whose attitudes and experiences with ePortfolio creation are presented in this chapter. This group of students was required to construct ePortfolios using the slide show presentation program, PowerPoint, since it is not dependent on internet access for either creation or reception. For both groups of students, one function of ePortfolios was to reflect on their learning experiences of becoming a teacher and to house artefacts and documents serving as evidence of meeting graduate teacher standards of the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. The students were engaged in reflective practice in creating their ePortfolio products.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The metaphor of scaffolding is commonly used in education to allude to the support structures put in place by the educator to guide students’ learning.

  2. 2.

    All excerpts from student ePortfolios are used with permission of individual student authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Wendy Brooks

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  1. Wendy Brooks
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Correspondence to Wendy Brooks .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Sydney Conservatorium of Music, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Jennifer Rowley

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Brooks, W. (2017). The Roles and Features of ePortfolios in Two Australian Initial Teacher Education Degree Programs. In: Rowley, J. (eds) ePortfolios in Australian Universities. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1732-2_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1732-2_7

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