Judie Cross

1. Reflective ePortfolios
for Teachers: A Case Study
Dr Judie Cross with
Jane Lock, Suzanne Norris
and Kara Whittingham

2. Project Name: Reflective ePortfolios: Career Development in Education
Year of funding: 2010
This project assisted its learners achieve competence at an ISLPR of 4
specifically in the following:
• NSWTSUS403B Apply sustainability practices;
• NSWTPLG402A Initiate, plan and manage a project to build capability in
an industry or community context;
• NSWTPLG403A Evaluate options for career development;
• NSWTTCH402A Apply emerging technology to communicate with others.
These units form part of the compulsory requirement should these
learners seek to complete their Certificate IV in Career Development
(9040).

3. OTTs in NSW come from culturally and linguistically diverse
backgrounds. They are predominantly female migrants/non-
English speaking background learners, who have been
experienced teachers of Language, Mathematics and
Science, as well as other key learning areas, in their first
homelands. In NSW, they have usually migrated to a life in
suburbs that are geographically widely dispersed and
hence, they often find blended learning an especially
attractive option.

4. Overseas trained teachers (OTTs) in NSW need to achieve four
As in the Professional English Assessment for Teachers
(PEAT), an extremely challenging vocational English test unique
to the registration requirements for teachers in this state, before
they can obtain approval to work in NSW Public Schools.
This project sought to address the attitudes held by OTTs to
this test and the task of developing their careers as educators
in a new country, by empowering them through an introduction
to, training and practice in :
• the creation of a range of written text types;
• use of emerging technologies for the purpose of
creating ePortfoliosthat were reflective.

5. • ePortfolios seemed somewhat technologically daunting
• Reflection initially appeared a little vague

6. OTTs embraced the opportunities that new technologies have
opened up; for example, using interactive whiteboards (IWBs)
and connecting to schools remotely.
Training was offered (e.g. in
Moodle, Mahara, Tale, Interactive
Whiteboards, Connected Classroom, Adobe) and shared
with
everyone in the project.
“I felt speechless when I saw the new technology in Australia.”

7. Reflection occurs when light rays
“bounce” off a surface.
Regular reflection occurs at a smooth
surface like metal, and forms a clear
image.
Diffuse reflection occurs on an
uneven surface, where a clear image
cannot be seen.

9. The law of reflection is that the angle of the
incoming ray is always equal to the angle
of the reflected ray.
Periscopes work because the reflection
of a mirror reflects down onto another
mirror, letting the person looking through
the periscope see the reflection above.

10. A securely attached infant is often
given to illustrate how personality
can be a positive result of the bond
formed between the mother and the
child during infancy. Further, this
“secure” type of infant may develop
personality traits that are a reflection
of the intimate relationships formed
throughout his or her lifetime, and
especially the love the infant feels
reflected in the mother‟s gaze on him
or her.

11. Language Teaching Research
14(2) 208–223
© The Author(s) 2010
Reprints and permissions: http://www.
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1362168810363940
http://ltr.sagepub.com
Exploring MATESOL student
‘resistance’ to reflection
Cindy L. Gunn
The American University of Sharjah

12. A genre approach to teaching was adopted
in order to introduce culturally appropriate written text types
(personal, informal and formal) as well as relevant technologies
(Moodle, Mahara and Adobe Pro 9 Extended) and also
the concept of reflection itself.

13. The OTTs were thereby upskilled: they incorporated in these
Reflective ePortfolios a record of their
qualifications, achievements, lesson plans, methodologies and
reflections.
They have since been able to use this learning experience to
enhance their professional personas and self-esteem as they
endeavour to embark on a teaching career in a new country.

14. Levels of Reflection
Hatton and Smith (1995) identified four levels in reflective writing:
1. Descriptive
The writing is not considered to show evidence of reflection.
2. Descriptive reflective
This shows some evidence of deeper consideration in fairly descriptive
language. However, there may be no real evidence of the notion of
alternative viewpoints.
3. Dialogic reflection
The reflection is analytical or integrative, linking factors and
perspectives.
4. Critical reflection
This writing takes into account the views and motives of others and considers
them against your own . . .This writing shows evidence that you are aware
that actions and events may be „located within and explicable by' multiple
perspectives, and are located in and influenced by multiple and socio–
political contexts‟.
Source: UNISA, Introduction to Reflective Practice at unisa:
http://resource.unisa.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=834

15. Structures for encouraging dialogic reflection
When it came to the ____________________________________________, I really
wanted to do it well. In the event, the session was
____________________________________________ and left me feeling
_____________________________________________________________________
___________________ ____________________________________________. I
need to think about why ____________________________________________could
have such an effect on me.
I am reading what I wrote earlier about it. Now I return to it, I do have a slightly
different perspective. I think that it was
____________________________________________. I have talked to
____________________________________________. I notice that my confidence
____________________________________________. However, I am feeling
____________________________________________ and I can begin to analyse what
I could do better in the ____________________________________________. It is
interesting to see the change in my attitude after a week.
Several of my colleagues told me afterwards that
____________________________________________ and they commented that I
handled ____________________________________________. That is interesting
because
___________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________. I need to do some thinking

16. NSWTPLG402A Initiate, plan and manage a project to build capability in
an industry or community context
This unit in the Certificate IV 9040 Career Development (PEAT) aims to
assist learners develop the skills and knowledge required to initiate and
manage a project to advance an organization‟s goals, or their own
goals, thereby building capability, in a work, community or educational
context.
PERFORMANCE CRITERIA:
3. Conduct and manage projectby allocating regular time for reflection in
which to answer critical questions about lexico-
grammar, register, layout, content, audience and time management
3.4 Maintain effective communication with stakeholders
4. Devise improvement strategies by brainstorming key success indicators
and using
a ‘best’ and ‘worst’ activity and/or ‘what if’ scenario to encourage learners to
reflect
4.1 Evaluate project against key success indicators
4.2 Evaluate own performance
4.3 Document strategies to improve procedures and personal performance

17. “This unit explores electrical energy use and its impact on the
environment in the context of students‟ personal consumption of
energy in their everyday use of technological devices and other
electricity-powered objects. From this personal perspective,
the unit then expands to a global context looking at the future of
energy use.
The name iEnergy 2.0 reflects this context. The „i‟ in front of
energy represents the personal focus of the unit: it is about how
much energy each student uses, what volume of fossil fuels
were used to produce that energy, the waste products which
were produced and ultimately the impact of those waste
products on the environment. This will be conducted as a
personal energy use monitoring project where the students
monitor their own usage of electrical devices and correlate this
with their ecological footprint. ”

20. Creating circuits

21. Summary &
Comments
Supplementary funding for this project meant that
valuable time could be spent developing relevant
models and practice materials.
The common theme of sustainability further
motivated students as they have found it can be
applied in a range of teaching areas and levels.

22. “A good education and access to top facilities and opportunities to learn is critical
to providing students with the best start in life. In Australia, this new technology
plays a significant role in education.
In my previous experience, as a Maths teacher, I taught students from families
with limited education and resources. The students in my class used this
technology only in the school and not at home. Though I am well trained in
Microsoft PowerPoint in my teaching, which helps me to teach my syllabus more
easily, I felt speechless when I saw the new technology in Australia.
To be frank with you all, my technology skills need to be updated now. It is
necessary for me too. Overall, these powers of technology can enhance language
awareness and better understanding of subjects.”

23. Example of Hot Potatoes quiz created for
Sustainability.
http://sielearning2.tafensw.edu.au

24. “Sharing our reflections as teachers is a great idea and I believe
it opens the gate and gives us opportunities not only to share
but also receive some new ideas.”
“I understand the benefit of writing the reflection now, because
it is allowing me to realize what I could have done differently,
so that I can teach the same or a similar lesson more effectively
in the future.”
Paraphrase: “I feel sad” . . . after we had the lesson on
reflection because we never had time or guidance to do this
in Fiji . . .

25. “Then I had a game online on verbs which we did as a sum up of
my lesson. It went well I asked Anastasia about it, she said
that it was good, and maybe I could have given them
something to write as I had few minutes left from my time.
After talking with her, I thought of so many ways I could have
made the lesson more effective; one of them could be that
after playing that game I could have asked them to write five
sentences with a verb in it and underline their verb. I will keep
this in mind when I do something similar next time . . .”

26. Selected references
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Falmer Press.
Halliday, M.A.K., &Matthiessen, C.M.I.M. (2004). An introduction to functional grammar (3rd ed.). London, UK: Arnold.
Johnson, M. (2004). A philosophy of second language acquisition. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Kaplan, R. (2001). Cultural thought patterns in inter-cultural
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Erlbaum Associates.
Paas, F. (2010). Evolutionary educational psychology: How a new view of cognition can advance research in
educational and cognitive psychology (PowerPoint). Rotterdam: Erasmus University & the University of
Wollongong.
Smith, D., & Hatton, N. (1993). Reflection in teacher education: A study in progress. Education Research and
Perspectives, 20(1), (pp. 13-23). The University of Western Australia.
Swain, M., Kinnear, P., & Steinmann, L., (2011). Sociocultural theory in second language education. Bristol, UK:
Multilingual Matters.
Swales, J.M. (1990.) Genre Analysis. English in academic and research settings. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
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