Electronic Portfolio Skills Development Research Project

Abstract

Professionalism is one of the four components of the Winona State University Effective Educator Program for Teacher Education. As part of the professional preparation of teachers, all pre-service mathematics education students enroll in the teacher education course "The Professional Educator". The curriculum of the course incorporates technology skills and professionalism. Each mathematics education pre-service student along with their cohort in teacher education individually prepares an electronic portfolio documenting what he or she knows and is able to do as a beginning teacher. The electronic portfolio is digitized documentation of the knowledge, skills, pratice, and professionalism that mathematics education pre-service teachers bring to the the classroom as beginning teachers. The Electronic Portfolio Skills Development Research Project answers the questions:

1. How does systematic integration of technology and specific teacher education course content enhance the completion rate of electronic portfolios?
2. What skills used to develop electronic portfolios have pre-service teacher education students developed as a result of systematic exposure to technology?
3. How has the integration of systematic exposure to technology and the content of the professional education course "The Professional Educator" affected the amount of time spent developing an electronic portfolio?

Data collection from Spring 1998 through Spring 2000 supports this technology skills/teacher education research project and will be shared as part of the presentation. Essentially, the project provides information about the impact of integrating technology and teacher education content related to portfolio development, student perception of skills development, and amount of time spent developing an electronic portfolio. As part of the presentation, examples of electronic portfolios of mathematics education students will be provided.