December 16, 2020
UW–Madison alumna Katrina Liu recently published a book titled, “Critical Reflection for Transformative Learning: Understanding ePortfolios in Teacher Education.”
Aimed at educators and ePortfolio designers, the book “provides a research-based guide to using ePortfolios to develop critically reflective teachers capable of transformative learning for educational equity,” notes the description on the Springer Education website.
The description continues:
(The book) begins with a conceptualization of critical reflection in teacher education, then analyzes the social discourse of prospective teachers’ teaching practice through their ePortfolio reflections, triangulated by classroom teaching observations and interviews. The results of the research show that prospective teachers’ reflections are performative and do not typically trigger transformative learning, in large part because of discrepancies in the structures of the ePortfolio, the goals of the teacher education program, and the mentoring and supervisory practices. With this analysis in hand, the book turns to practical questions, providing a transformative framework along with examples and tips for teacher educators to use the author’s methods to understand and analyze prospective teachers’ reflection and support their transformative learning.
Liu is an associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She earned her doctorate from the School of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction in 2011.