The professional teaching e-portfolio as a training tool for digital teaching competence

Abstract

Teachers’ Digital Competence (TDC) is a real need and will soon become a legal requirement for teachers, a reality that poses a professional and training challenge that must be met with the best possible response. This article offers an analysis, and a validation with the help of 35 experts, of the use of the learning portfolio methodology to train teachers in this area. In the context of the study, learning profiles were used both in general and in digital format as TDC training instruments. The study strives to define the meaning, contents and ideal application of this methodology, and it comments on problematic issues raised by its use. The digital portfolio, a type of learning portfolio, can be a good instrument for organising and reinforcing learning during teacher training in a way that is consistent with the demands of the knowledge society, with the new roles of teachers and with the commitment to methodologies that promote learning by doing. This portfolio can also serve as the beginning of the professional portfolio and as a tool to guide teachers in their professional development and progress, as long as efforts to improve through practice are linked to a continuous process of evidence-based reassessment and reflection.