An e-portfolio as empowering tool to enhance students' self-directed learning in a teacher education course: A case of a South African university

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore Economics student teachers' views on the usefulness of an ePortfolio as an empowering tool which can enhance self-directed learning in a teacher education course at an open distance learning university. For the sake of this article, an interpretive bricolage research analysis was employed for data collection and a purposive convenient sampling was selected to collect data. Only PGCE (Senior Phase/Further Education and Training) SDEC00N students (n=367) which were registered students per module on myUnisa were targeted. Multiple pieces from the ePortfolios that were considered for the purpose of this study were their written assignments for creative writing, a research project, lesson plans, reflective journals entries, podcasts, blog postings, PowerPoint presentations and digital video clippings (DVDs) of classroom lessons. Data were collected and analysed on a weekly basis to create a bricolage of information from the data. Several themes emerged from the bricolage of information and practical implications were highlighted for higher education.