Abstract:

In the problematic reality of the higher education didactics, it is necessary to support students to increase awareness about the knowledge required for their future profession. An instrument, already widely widespread, especially at international level, that can support students in this direction, is the e-portfolio. The e-portfolio, as well as being a final product and an inventory, represents a process, a deepened practice of reflection and self-assessment. The student, who forms his e-portfolio during the training process, is able to analyse his or her educational, vocational or extra vocational experience. This instrument constitutes a valid support for the real awareness of the professional competence acquired in the learning path and, potentially, of the ones to be filled. Therefore, in education, the e-portfolio is also considered as an evaluation tool, seeing as how it supports both student self-assessment process and the evaluation made by teachers. The e-portfolio allows student to document and realize a meaningful, responsible and authentic evaluation process. Through collecting and reflecting on the materials produced it shows to students that the university experience can have a strong relevance for their future work.
Recognizing the affordances of the e-portfolio, through collecting and reflecting on materials produced, the student can recognize into university studies the value for the future professional experience. In fact, if the e-portfolio is not just a mere recording of documents, it can promote a reflective competence in terms of professional growth. In this paper, starting with a detailed study of the specialist bibliography, these authors define the actual state of the art over the use of the e-portfolio in the training path of future teachers. Especially, we will have focused on students enrolled in the course of Primary Education Science in Italy. In the second part, we will describe our case study: we analyse the feedback obtained from students stand up in the fourth years of the course in Primary Education Science about the value of the e-portfolio in their professional growth.

Keywords:

E-portfolio, teacher training, higher education, self-assessment, teacher professionalism.