WhatsApp Support for School Experience e-Portfolio Development: A Conversational Approach

Abstract

This paper reflects on the different ways of learning fostered by Whatsapp in the development of school experience e-Portfolios.  Student teachers in one institution went through their school experience and practice teaching with an expectation to submit portfolios in an electronic format as evidence of their engagement with the theory and practice of teaching. WhatsApp interactions between student teachers, the school experience co-ordinator, and the practitioners in the Academic Development Centre, supporting the development of e-Portfolios, had to be relied on during the process of developing e-Portfolios. Informed by Laurillard's conversational framework on the six ways of learning, this study analysed the possibilities of WhatsApp support in the development of e-Portfolios by student teachers in one university. First and fourth-year education students on school experience provided qualitative data on the ways of learning that are best and least served by WhatsApp. Their accounts and evaluations of their interactions and support through WhatsApp were expressed narratively. Meaning units were extracted through content analysis and allotted to themes and categories suggested by the conversational framework. This study reports on the usefulness of the framework to evaluate WhatsApp support as well as the ways of learning that are most and least served by WhatsApp support on the development of e-Portfolios of evidence on practice teaching. Recommendations on the efficacious use of WhatsApp support for e-Portfolio development, the practices that would foster the realisation of all the six ways of learning, and enhancement of e-Portfolio development for the school experience are furnished. Suggestions are also proffered on further research about purposive use of WhatsApp and the conversational framework on e-Portfolio development.