Student teachers’ views regarding the usefulness of reflective journal writing as an eportfolio alternative assessment strategy: an interpretive phenomenological analysis

Abstract

The global trend shows that most universities implemented eportfolios in most of their undergraduate and postgraduate courses. In this paper, the reflective journal was implemented as one of the Economics Education eportfolio activities to investigate the usefulness of reflective journal writing on Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) student learning to enhance professional growth. For the sake of this paper, the researcher decided to employ an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis approach. In this case, the researcher pieced together different reflective journal writings on a weekly basis of creating a bricolage of information from the data collected. Several themes were identified: (1) Gratitude for constructive feedback by the mentor teacher to enhance the teaching of Economics. (2) Improving and advancing critical thinking abilities (3) through careful planning of teaching practice to develop a teaching philosophy. (4) Successful monitoring and assessment methods to advance their learning. (5) Rethinking lesson planning and presentation to become a reflective teacher. (6) Mentor and coaching support for teaching Economics Education. (7) Demands and challenges of reflective journal writing. It is suggested that higher education institutions (HEI) use the findings of this exploratory study to inform the implementation of reflective journal writing as an eportfolio activity for a teacher education course.