The Teacher e–portfolio (NI) Project The Teacher e-Portfolio for Northern Ireland (Te-PNI) Project Issues and Challenges Catherine Gormley RSCni Victor.

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The Teacher e-Portfolio for Northern Ireland (Te-PNI) Project

Issues and ChallengesCatherine Gormley RSCni

Victor McNair University of Ulster

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The Project

•To develop the concepts and specification for a career-wide and career-long teacher e-portfolio. (06-07)

•To trial e-portfolio processes and to test software platforms. (07-08)

•Test and refine processes 08-09

•Development and dissemination 09-10

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DE

BECTA

UCETNIC2K

Schools

CASS

RTUGTCNI

Te-P Group

Partners

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A collection of authentic and diverse evidence of teaching competence

that has been the subject of reflection, synthesis and selection for presentation to a professional audience for a specific purpose

Definition

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UPS and Thresholds

Performance Review Staff Development

Evidence of Competence

PRSDPortfolio

(Annually)

HEIsGTCNI

Continuing Professional Development (Career-Long)

Education Phase

How Learning is Recorded

(Milestones)

LeadAgency

Teachers’ Career Progression

Formative Profile Report

Initial Teacher

Education

Career Entry

Profile

InductionPortfolio

Professional Development Activities

Induction Early

Professional Development

Teacher Leadership

AccreditedCourses

Professional Qualification for

Headship NI

Assessments and

Certificates: Chartered

Teacher Status

Education and Library Boards

(CASS)

RegionalTraining

Unit

SchoolsHEIs Schools Schools

Early Teacher Education (3 Years)

Scope

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Rationale

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1. E-portfolios develop through a process of reflecting, selecting and presenting evidence of development

2. Based on GTCNI teacher competences/ National Standards for Headship (NI).

3. New forms of evidence need to be agreed across the whole profession.

4. User ownership of all e-portfolio content.

5. Organisational provision must conform to the Te-PNI specification.

6. E-Portfolio processes must be commonly understood across the profession.

Principles

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A Regional 5 Board Project 21 Schools NI Wide

• 24 Beginning Teachers• 21 Teacher Tutors

All Sectors Represented

• Primary• Post Primary

• Special • Controlled• Maintained• Voluntary

• Irish Medium• Integrated

Induction Project Partners

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Teaching & Learning

E-portfolios must produce real improvements in innovative practice that have the support of all professionals.

Technology and Standards

E-mature teachers need software that is fit for purpose, robust, adaptable and which can provide benchmarks for learning.

Strategy and Policy

The Te-PNI project seeks to integrate with and inform professional development and e-learning policy initiatives

Partnerships

A fully integrated and portable career-long and career-wide Teacher e-Portfolio

Relationships have been established with key UK agencies and our aim is to develop these into real working partnerships where learning is shared and joint projects are developed.

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Software

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12BMC Presentation

Outcomes

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Key Findings from the 2008-09 evaluation

1. E-portfolios had a positive impact on teacher development across a range of the mandatory professional development milestones that teachers undertake.

2. Student teachers and their tutors gave a positive endorsement to e-portfolio-based processes of Action Planning and Formative and Career Entry Profiling.

3. Students expressed a range of concerns including technical problems, duplication of paper-based and online activities and having to operate the software.

4. PGCE students had positive views towards their personal experience, whereas B.Ed. students were more cautious, suggesting that B.Ed., students, at the initial stages of their career are still developing their awareness of the importance of the plan-teach-reflect cycle.

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Key Findings from our 2008-09 evaluation

5. Beginning teachers and their tutors were exceptionally positive about the benefits of e-portfolio-based professional development.

6. School-based tutors largely mirrored the views expressed by beginning teachers and focused on the effectiveness of the technology to support more strategic and long-term benefits.

7. There was a strong positive correlation between users’ engagement in e-portfolio-based reflection and their identification and development of areas for improvement. We have distilled this correlation into a three-stage model of e-portfolio use, “Reflect-Identify–Develop”  illustrated on the next slide

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Reflect Identify Develop Model of e-Portfolio Application

Developmental Model

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Main Issues

Project - Strategic Vision

• Inform and where appropriate changes to the teacher professional development milestones

• submit recommendations for policy to DE/DEL/ESA

• Identify implication for infrastructure development

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Main Issues

• Te-PNI – to date – a pilot of e-portfolio process within current professional development milestones

• Much more CPD activity than these milestones – need for the development and maintenance of a central database of CPD activity linked to the database – (CPD Find a Scottish Online Support System)

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Main Issues

• Valued links with C2K have provided much needed guidance on the interface between technology and policy and have highlighted the need for more coherent provision in relation to: – Advice on procurement issues and strategies; – Coherent Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs); – Expertise on technical and infrastructural standards and

protocols; • Need for discussions around hosting, management

and maintenance of a centralised e-portfolio system• Licensing model with Pebble Pad – business model

unsustainable in the long term or numerically – DE?

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Other Issues• How each region and or sector (HEIs, CASS, Schools) would

organise its provision including proformas, resources, guides etc.; • How separate sectors would organise access to the e-portfolio

software (for example through GTCNI Registration); • How different groups would identify different needs for specific

users such as FPR, CEP Induction, EPD PRSD; - training issues• Helpdesk support and Gateway system from PebblePad• Working Group looked at open source, embedded software and

single licence• embedded software and single licence met compliance and

interoperability requirements for pilot• Need for comprehensive review be undertaken as a precursor to

any business plan for procurement.

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v.mcnair@ulster.ac.uk

http://tepni.com

Contacts