Past Projects

This self-study of teacher education practices (SSTEP) by four teacher educators stems from our SSHRC funded research into the use of digital portfolios for assessment over the past five years but is also informed by 15 years of ongoing research into assessment practices in higher education (Hopper et al., 2016, 2018; Hopper & Sanford, 2010). As part of our knowledge mobilization effort, a Google Site was created to host previous and current research and function as a platform to share our research (Digital Assessment and Portfolio, n.d.). During the process of constructing this website, we created a collection of short videos to capture the most important elements that we had each personally identified, to provide a succinct summary of our research. While creating these four videos focusing on different aspects of our research process and findings, we recognized self-study had been playing a major role in our individual and collaborative process as a team of researchers. 

This paper focuses on a high school Math teacher and his students in relation to a radical shift in his Math grade 12 assessment system, and subsequent transformation in pedagogy, as he embraced a competency-based curriculum. Based on the redesign of the BC school curriculum in 2015 to reflect a competency-based curriculum across all subject area and age levels, this paper with examine how this teacher’s practice reflected an integration of curriculum competencies with Math content, transforming his practice, promoting a collective learning experience within a high school Math community with his students and developing a “pedagogical hack” digital portfolio (dP) system to communicate and report student learning. The paper shows that when pedagogical hacked systems can be entangled with emerging teacher practices, coupled to digital assessments process that supports personalization of students’ learning, then a teacher can challenge neoliberal notions of ‘success’ and ‘ability’ as well as the values that continue to diminish opportunities for all students. This critical shift, a desire to decolonize and provide equity in our education systems and structures, offers some insight on what education can become.

This presentation focuses on a high school Math teacher and his students in relation to a radical shift in his grade 12 assessment system, and subsequent transformation in pedagogy, as he embraced a competency-based curriculum (Neelakandan, 2020). Based on the redesign of the BC school curriculum in 2015 to reflect a competency-based curricula across all subject areas and age levels, this presentation examines how this teacher’s practice reflected an integration of curriculum competencies with Math content, transforming his practice, promoting a collective learning experience within a math community and developed a “pedagogical hack” digital-portfolio system to communicate and report student learning.

CATE 2022 Presentation

WFATE 2023

Cloud-based tools are increasingly used in research processes. This presentation focuses on the practice of one research team making use of multiple cloud-based applications in preparing, analyzing, and sharing research data, as well as in collaborative writing and display of results. Important research ethics considerations are also explored as a foundation for this practice. We believe that our detailed description of the steps involved can be of help to researchers, particularly novice researchers who may lack research funds to have qualitative interviews transcribed. This mashed-up use of free cloud-based software makes data preparation from qualitative interviews cost-effective, more efficient, thorough and collaborative.

This presentation contains our findings on the use of digital assessment that leads to portfolios in schools and how these findings have impacted our thinking about teacher education.  We talk about three different types of portfolios, learning, showcase, and accreditation, and how the use of portfolios by our teacher participants has lead us to think of yet another type, the network portfolio. This is the link to the recording of our presentation.

This presentation provides the insights from two years of digital portfolio research project in elementary, middle and high schools. Case study findings show how digital assessment can lead to enhanced learning where students are motivated to learn, set goals for their future learning, find reward within the process of learning and recognize that they have responsibility for their own learning. 

Within the context of "building student success" and "personalized learning" in the BC curriculum, this presentation investigates how digital portfolios can transform the way we communicate and report student learning in BC schools. Emerging insights from the 1st phase of the study have been summarized. 

This presentation is focused on the question of "how did the use of a digital portfolio influence secondary teacher candidates learning in one term of a teacher education program?" Multiple case studies collect teacher candidates' narratives to show helpful insights on their growth mindset in regard to assessment for learning and emerging teacher identity.  

The study presents assessment practices recommended in the informed literature for reporting student learning and investigates how digital portfolios can shifts grades to the unique talents of students via an ongoing assessment platform. Connections between teacher education and school practice are also discussed. 

This presentation discusses the implication of the curriculum transformation in BC for the assessment in Teacher Education. Assessment practices focused on competency-based education by using digital portfolios and contract extending grading are also presented to show how Teacher Education can model such curriculum shifts. 

This presentation gives a summary of why and how we use digital portfolios in Teacher Education programs. We also share narratives through video footage on how students, staff and instructors experience learning with digital portfolios in the program. 

The first half of this presentation provides a summary of the ePortfolio (digital portfolio) practice in UVic, including some key learnings over the years. The next half is focused on bridging Teacher Education and professional practices in schools through the use of ePortfolios. 

This presentation is centered on digital portfolios as a mind tool to create an iterative learning process in Teacher Education. Reflective dialogues from participants in the exit interviews are shared to highlight its learning potential.