MEDIA SKILLS AND PROFESSIONAL AWARENESS IN TEACHER TRAINING

The present paper documents the use of an e-portfolio to promote a process of reflection on digital skills the teachers with in-service teachers.

Learning to be a teacher is a complex process and a developmentally based portfolio that is open-ended, performance based and authentic (in that it is classroom based) offers a multi-dimensional approach to assessment that acknowledges this complexity.

Thanks to specific educational interventions and appropriate evaluation tools for self-assessment, future teachers should be helped to acquire the appropriate media skills necessary to develop the capacity to responsibly and autonomously choose proper media to design their media education courses. The development of a professional portfolio allows the performance of in service trainee teachers to be assessed in different ways by offering the means to collect, organize, interpret and reflect on their learning and practice. Portfolios also help in service trainee teachers understand and reflect upon the expectations of professional standards, in a functional, adaptable and portable way (Lambe, et al., 2013).

Teachers have been involved for 75 hours in experiencing a training methodology for the promotion of media skills necessary to design paths of media education.

The use of the e-portfolio as a means of course assessment was evaluated by the participating group of 91 trainee teachers. The methods of data collection took the form of an analysis carried out thanks to the use of a check list with 22 indicators deduced from the research (Calvani et al., 2008; Koehler & Mishra, 2009; Krumsvik, 2012), of which the frequency was observed.

The analysis of the e-portfolios revealed a high trainee teachers’ ability to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses, the typical causes of their mistakes as well as the ability to identify and explain the learning strategies used routinely, guiding them to mature self-evaluation skills for their own learning, thus realizing their progress along with the difficulties encountered. The use of the portfolio has therefore helped them develop reflection and self-assessment skills that are critical for the professional awareness and to excel in any area of life

The compilation of the e-portfolio has clarified the thoughts that accompany each production and usually follow the learning process. The narrative reconstruction of the learning process has allowed trainee teachers to formalize structures and concepts and to recognize what they have learned.