The landscape of professional development for teachers in the UK has shifted significantly in recent years with reflective practice acknowledged to be an essential aspect of the professional and personal growth of teachers. Reflective teachers will engage in reflection not only as individuals but as communities of practice (Dalmau and Gudjonsdottir, 2002). The electronic portfolio (e-portfolio) is one way of providing teachers with a tool to aid them in this reflective process throughout their career and to support them as a life long learner. The theoretical underpinning embedded in the e-portfolio process lies in the concept of the ‘reflective practitioner’ (Dewey, 1933; Schön, 1987; DE, 2005) with technology assisting the cyclical recording of self, peer and tutor evaluations against competence goals and also providing a framework for presenting teachers’ development needs and achievements against the teacher competence model. The recent emergence of initiatives in e-learning and teacher education across the UK and Europe (DfES, 2005; EC, 2001; HEFCE, 2007; DE, 2004, GTCNI, 2007) led to collaboration on the development of a career-wide e-portfolio for teachers in Northern Ireland. A unique combination of representatives from the universities to government agencies engaged in a policy-making debate addressing the role of e-portfolios spanning initial teacher education to headship. The second phase of this work involved three initial teacher education institutions piloting the use of an e-portfolio with student teachers who used it to set goals and reflect on their development of the teacher competences during their school practice. This study is an evaluation of the project with specific objectives being to investigate tutors’ and students teachers’ attitudes to the e-portfolio and perceptions of any issues and challenges in using it for formative and summative purposes.

A purposive sample of twenty student teachers on postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) courses from each of the three institutions took part in this project. Questionnaires were administered to all of the students to gather information on their attitudes to and views about the e-portfolio. Focus group interviews were also held with a subgroup of students to probe some of the issues evolving from the questionnaires and to improve validity through triangulation. Questionnaires were also sent to tutors from the three institutions who were involved in working with these student teachers to gain their views on the value of and issues arising from the students’ use of the e-portfolio.

Initial findings would suggest that the e-portfolio is easy to use for most students however a small number of them experienced technical difficulties accessing the system from their placement schools and home. This constrained the time available to reflect upon their goals. The perceived purpose of the e-portfolio varied across the students with some viewing it as a potential area to ‘showcase’ their achievements while others provided a honest and open account of their struggles in reaching the required teacher competences. Most student teachers raised concerns about the time involved in completing the e-portfolio. Despite the intuitive nature of the interface, concerns were raised around the navigation between two key areas of the system – the Goals and the SkillsBuilder – as students became confused when their aims for development listed in the SkillsBuilder did not transfer into the Goals area automatically. Tutors also highlighted the time needed to provide written comments on an individual basis to each student who had shared their goals. In a number of cases, group feedback would have been more appropriate and therefore further training and development in these options would be desirable. In general the e-portfolio was deemed by students and tutors to be a valuable tool for engaging student teachers in the reflective process and many students and tutors found it beneficial in mapping professional development against the teacher competence model.