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E-portfolios and the development of students’ reflective thinking at a Hong Kong University

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Abstract

E-portfolios have been adopted by higher education institutions as assessment for learning tools to develop students’ reflective thinking and their ownership of learning. This paper examines how e-portfolios are integrated in an undergraduate course at a Hong Kong university to develop students’ reflective thinking. Based on the qualitative data collected and analysed from both the teacher and students in the course, this paper first discusses the different levels of reflective thinking that the students developed as they were working on their e-portfolios. It then identifies the factors that facilitate and hinder students’ development of reflective thinking, how the facilitating factors are enabled and what the hindering factors need to be addressed. These key findings highlight the pivotal role of the teacher as a learning facilitator and guide, the scaffolding role of the toolkit to support both teachers and students, and the necessity of the technical capacity building and support in the implementation of e-portfolios in higher education.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education and Human Development, The Education University of Hong Kong, 10 Lo Ping Rd, Taipo, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Foujia Sultana, Cher Ping Lim & Min Liang

Authors
  1. Foujia Sultana
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  2. Cher Ping Lim
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  3. Min Liang
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by FS, CPL and ML. The first draft of the manuscript was written by FS and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Cher Ping Lim.

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Sultana, F., Lim, C.P. & Liang, M. E-portfolios and the development of students’ reflective thinking at a Hong Kong University. J. Comput. Educ. 7, 277–294 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40692-020-00157-6

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