A Tablet-based Teacher e-Portfolio tool for Documenting and Reflecting on Next Generation Science Instruction

The Problem - Teacher Reflection (Professional Development) AND Evaluation

Teaching, like any profession is a series of skillsets and practices that you are constantly refining and adjusting. While there are several ways to document and reflect upon one’s teaching practice, portfolios enable teachers to collect a rich body of evidence to support in-depth reflection. HOWEVER, traditional portfolios are cumbersome, significantly time intensive and do not provide an opportunity to reflect on teaching in ‘real time,’ and make critical shifts in instruction and assessment to support students in the moment.

The Solution - Tablet based Teacher e-Portfolio

As a member of the e-QIS team, I collaborated with stakeholders from UCLA, RAND, the University of Notre Dame, Stanford University and the Los Angeles Unified School District to pilot this innovative tool in 37 eighth grade science classrooms. Teachers collected artifacts (videos, photos and files, such as lesson plans) and were able to reflect on these items in ‘real time.’

While there were initial challenges with technology, and teachers getting used to the android platform, “… , teachers reported that the eQIS portfolio tool offered a valuable evidentiary basis for reflecting upon their instruction and assessment practices. Some teachers noted that the portfolio collection process enabled them to think carefully about which artifacts to collect to capture their instruction. Several teachers reported that the guiding (annotation) questions were particularly useful to them as a substantive guide for reflecting upon their next steps for instruction and assessment practice.”