The BiSE project EPASS – ePortfolio for lifelong learning is concerned with the development of reflexive skills and self-regulatory abilities for prospective teachers with the help of the digital ePortfolio platform Mahara. The project is funded in the framework of the “Lehrerbildung in Baden-Württemberg” programme of the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg.
Project goals
- Through the portfolio work, students acquire reflexive skills by questioning their knowledge, competencies and actions and relating them to each other.
- By reflecting on the various parts of their training, students obtain a better understanding of the profession and as a consequence can justify their actions in a theory-led way.
- Linking the theoretical and practical phases ensures transfer between theory and practice.
- The ePortfolio helps to relate individual disciplines, teaching methodology and educational sciences to each other so that students build up an interconnected knowledge base.
- By allowing them to deal in-depth with their own professionalization, the ePortfolio enables students to develop a sound pedagogical self-concept. By reflecting on their own stances and attitudes toward the profession, teaching and school in general, students are able to question and examine their own individual aptitude for the teaching profession.
- Working with the ePortfolio fosters students’ ability for self-regulation and thus lays an important foundation for lifelong learning.
- Through interaction with the ePortfolio medium, students acquire media and digital skills (digital literacy).
Project implementation
The project’s main task is to help students and teaching staff with ePortfolio work with the aid of the open source platform Mahara.
We offer various types of assistance here. Apart from general, cross-disciplinary events on ePortfolio work, we offer advice and support on concrete possibilities to implement an ePortfolio in your courses.
The project is also actively involved in the portfolio network in Baden-Württemberg, which was launched following the network congress that took place at the University of Konstanz in May 2019.
Project background
The main task of teacher education is the professionalization of prospective teachers. With the help of their studies and teacher traineeships, they should become experts in teaching and learning and see themselves equally at home in their disciplines, teaching methodology and the educational sciences. It is important in this context to relate these different areas and requirements to each other and connect them in an expedient way. In addition, the skills acquired during the university training phase should be transferred to the practical training phase so that students act in a theory-led manner. An important prerequisite for this is reflexive skills. The ePortfolio can help to foster and further these skills. Portfolio work also supports users’ ability for self-regulation, which is fundamental for lifelong learning.