Secondary-school students' motivation for portfolio reflection

Several studies concluded that deep reflection is infrequently reached in student portfolios. An explanation for these disappointing conclusions might be that motivation for portfolio reflection determines the quality of reflection. This study aimed to examine the relationship between motivation for using digital portfolios and reflection. Participants were 156 eleventh-grade students in secondary education, whose motivation for composing a digital portfolio was measured by the motivation part of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. Portfolios of 37 of the 156 students were examined in terms of the amount and nature of reflection by means of a coding scheme based on Mezirow's model of transformative learning. On average, one-fifth (19.5%) of the paragraphs in a portfolio contained reflection, and paragraphs with deep reflection were hardly found (0.8%). It was concluded that motivation for composing a portfolio was fair, but not related to the amount and nature of reflection. This exploratory study gives rise to further research into factors that might influence the quality of portfolio reflection.     

Teacher learning in the context of educational innovation: Learning activities and learning outcomes of experienced teachers

This longitudinal study was aimed at increasing our understanding of how teachers learn. It was conducted within a national innovation programme in secondary education. During one year 94 teachers reported six learning experiences using digital logs. The learning experiences were content-analysed in terms of learning activities and learning outcomes. The former comprised six main categories, namely experimenting, considering own practice, getting ideas from others, experiencing friction, struggling not to revert to old ways, and avoiding learning—the first two categories being reported most frequently. Reported learning outcomes referred to changes in knowledge and beliefs, emotions, practices, and intentions for practice, with changes in knowledge and beliefs being reported most frequently and changes in teaching practices being reported rarely. Learning activities were associated significantly with all measures of learning outcomes. Type of learning environment was significantly associated with learning activities and learning outcomes. Results are discussed with respect to ways of fostering teacher learning.