E-Portfolios in teacher education for individual and programmatic development:
Building on tradition through technological innovation

Tim Hopper and Kathy Sanford

SSHRC-funded 2007-2010

Summary
Professional portfolios encourage student teachers to think more deeply about teaching and content, be more conscious of theories and assumptions that guide their practice, and engage in collaborative dialogues about their teaching. Within a teacher education program electronic portfolios (e-portfolios) also offer the potential for a more deliberate and cumulative improvement of teacher education programs (Anderson & DeMeulle, 1998).We seek to discover how an evolving electronic portfolio process (multi-media storage and retrieval of electronic learning evidence), developed within a teacher education program, can create a self-renewing system that grows from both individual and programmatic assessment of student learning. Through an action research process this study will examine how e-portfolio development can positively influence students’ growth as teachers and program renewal.