Jennifer Munday

Using Blogs to Journal, Document, and Create Community

This chapter reports on a research project in which a group of students in preschoolteacher education participated in an educational intervention based on thedevelopment of process-based assessment ...

Preparing Future Career Ready Professionals: A Portfolio Process to Develop Critical Thinking Using Digital Learning and Teaching

It is uncommon to learn, work and grow up in a world without technology and so it is pertinent to explore exactly how digital learning assists in preparing our future workforce. Employers often note that new graduates (or the ‘new’ employees) lack critical thinking and problem solving skills and have poor communication, as their experience is often restricted to a worldview limited by a digital communication lens. This brief paper argues, therefore, that the need for developing critical thinking skills has never been more apparent as graduates/new workers transition to employment. The conference theme is Teaching and Learning in a Digital World and this paper investigates the what, how and why technology benefits learning. The Rowley and Munday (2014) Sense of Self model underpins the theoretical paradigm that encourages individuals to experience digital technologies to support critical thinking by exploring their own self-efficacy as a learner. Authentic learning is discussed via a simulated learner setting where individuals create evidence of their own professional or personal identity (or a hybrid of both) and discuss how utilising a reflexive process to create a portfolio (as both a learning and teaching tool) can support improvements in critical thinking. The paper concludes with strategies for exploring how we encourage students and/or new employees to reflect on the what, how, why and who of themselves through a critical thinking process associated with self-reflection and portfolio creation. Understanding the progressive ways portfolio process and products can be used to develop a professional identity through encouraging students to reflect and connect themselves to multi faceted professional identities benefits life long learning for future work readiness.

Mindful collections: Purposeful ePortfolios planned across an undergraduate degree

ePortfolios are becoming more valued as the bridge between higher education and employment in a profession. Professional bodies and prospective employers are beginning to demand more detailed documentation of experiences, skills, and learning, as pre-service professionals vie for limited positions in the workplace. This chapter provides an example of an undergraduate pre-service teaching degree program that proposes a model for effective design and accumulation of artefacts for inclusion in an ePortfolio. At each stage of the degree program the ePortfolio assessment task requires thoughtfully planned combination of four main ePortfolio purposes: Reflection, Development, Assessment, and Showcase. The various ePortfolio assessment tasks are designed to record and demonstrate a different aspect of professional learning, and a wide range of professional teaching attributes and skills. At the conclusion of the 4-year program pre-service professionals are able to assemble convincing arguments for employment by ‘showcasing’ their achievements in professional practice, development of knowledge, and accrued skills, along with the ability to deeply reflect on professional teaching dilemmas and daily practice. The tasks that enable accumulation of artefacts for the ePortfolio are explained, and examples are provided to demonstrate a successful model of a student ePortfolio. The model is adaptable to other professional degree programs as it encourages a beginning professional to have an appropriate collection of artefacts from which to select and confidently demonstrate preparedness for employment in today’s competitive workplace market.

Learning about Learning through Teaching

This research reports on the second phase of an inquiry into student teachers’ beliefs and practices with respect to teaching and learning in a community-based arts project. Student teachers’ beliefs about how people learn, their approaches to teaching and their understandings about how others and themselves learn are examined. The research presents data drawn from an examination of students’ teaching portfolios assembled following their delivery of teaching activities during a course project. Insights into students’ understanding about young children, motivation and learning are offered as well as some thoughts on how teacher education programs might be better able to develop student teachers’ pedagogical knowledge through such projects. Issues related to authentic tasks and learning outside the traditional classroom – for both teacher education students and children – will be discussed.