Electronic Portfolio Scholarly Article Blog

Article Link: http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/edu/105/4/1188.pdf

The article begins by talking about an international report regarding secondary schooling in Western cultures. This report found that Western countries were severely lacking in literacy, numeracy/mathematics, and scientific reasoning, as well as sophisticated learning strategies. This lead to the group behind the study to investigate ways to promote the growth of students within these fields, and eventually the group decided that electronic portfolios could be an extremely useful tool to do this. The writers suggested that self-regulated learning through the use of electronic portfolios could help students develop motivational, behavioral and metacognitive abilities, all of which would help the students control their learning. However, they also realized that only specific students who are extremely self-motivated could truly benefit from this, as students who do not have the drive to regulate themselves could not gain the most benefit from this tool. The article mentions that electronic portfolios have three broad purposes: process, showcase and assessment. Electronic portfolios help the students process their work and keep things organized, and simultaneously showcase the students’ work since the student’s teachers and their peers can access his work easily and critique or review. It also allows the teacher to create assessments based on what the students have shown that they have learned, and helps the teacher identify who may be falling behind or moving ahead.

The study team conducted their experiment in Quebec and Alberta, provinces of Canada, among 21 4^th to 6^th grade teachers and their 319 students. They showed the teachers how to the ePEARL electronic portfolio program into their classrooms, and asserted that the teachers make sure to employ students that were highly motivated. The results of the study showed that the students mostly showed improvements in their standard literacy skills and their self-regulated learning skills, which lead the team to conclude that electronic portfolios can have a great beneficial impact on learning if employed properly. The article ends with the writers asserting their belief that electronic portfolios should be implemented on a school-wide or district-wide basis, that it should start being used at an early age and continue to be used during students’ school lives, and that electronic portfolios can be used to have students learn how to collaborate with each other, which is another important life skill that students can benefit from.

Questions

1)      What are the four fundamental skills that the international report showed that children in Western countries are lacking in? Literacy, numeracy/mathematics, and scientific reasoning, as well as sophisticated learning strategies.

2)      What are the benefits of self-regulated learning that the article presents? The article suggests that self-regulated learning can help students develop motivational, behavioral and metacognitive abilities, which can help students control their learning.

3)      What are the “three broad purposes” of electronic portfolios that the article mentions? Process, showcase and assessment.

4)      Where was the study conducted? How many teachers and students were involved?

This was conducted in Quebec and Alberta, Canada, among 21 4^th to 6^th grade teachers and their 319 students.

5)      What was the name of the program used? ePEARL

First Post! How I plan to teach in the future!

In my future classroom, I will be to try and adapt to all of my students' needs and encourage them to reach beyond their limits, while simultaneously doing what is allowed and necessary to bolster any students who may be falling behind.