Portfolio Assignments in Teacher Education: A Tool For Self-regulating the Learning Process?

This study examines the effects of a portfolio programme on self-regulation – and thus among third year students of teacher education training to be secondary school teachers. Data collection was by means of self-reporting before, during and after the portfolio programme and via perception questionnaires. The study indicates a significant increase in self-regulation. The portfolio programme therefore improves students’ capacity to go through their learning process independently, although the analysis also shows that the rising score with respect to the construct ‘self-regulation’ stems from the increase of only one sub-scale (regulation). The comparison of the students’ own opinions with those of the portfolio supervisors also reveals the weak links in the self-regulation cycle. Students have difficulty evaluating and re-orientating their learning process. It also appears that students do not set and/or implement new objectives themselves, which means that they cannot regulate their own learning process on a completely independent basis because they have not thoroughly mastered all the components of the self-regulation cycle