Using Facebook as an e-portfolio in enhancing pre-service teachers’ professional development

Muhammad Kamarul Kabilan
Universiti Sains Malaysia
This study aims to  determine if Facebook, when used as an online teacher portfolio (OTP), could contribute meaningfully to pre-service teachers’ professional development  (PD)  and in  what  ways  the  OTP  can  be  meaningful.  Pre-service  teachers  (n  =  91)  were  asked  to develop  OTP  using  Facebook  and engage in learning and professional development  (PD) activities for 14 weeks. Questionnaires, open-ended items and reflective reports  were used to  collect  data  and  it  was  found  that  many  of  the  pre-service  teachers  benefitted  quite significantly in terms of their development  as future teachers  through these five facets: (i) community  of  practice;  (ii)  professional  learning  and  identity;  (iii)  relevant  skills;  (iv) resources; and (v) confidence.
Introduction
Pre-service teachers tend to be satisfied with their existing knowledge and practices, and  seldom do they attempt to generate new knowledge, create and experiment with new practices or validate their own ideas (Alfonso, 2001;  Kabilan, 2007). If  this is  not  addressed, then these future teachers have the tendency to depend heavily on their preconceived ideas, thoughts and understandings of how they should teach, learn and develop as a teacher rather than consistently, constructively and critically reflect on  their teaching practices.
Darling-Hammond  (2006)  suggests  that  in  order  to  overcome  deficiencies  and  other  variables  that influence  teachers’  work  and  their  effectiveness,  one  solution  is  to  engage  pre-service  teachers  in performance  assessment,  which  will  help  pre-service  teachers  gain  deeper  understanding  of  what  they lack  and  what  they  need  to  further  improve.  According  to  Darling -Hammond  (2006),  performance assessment  has  the  capability  to  evaluate  “what  novice  teachers  have  learned  and  organize  learning, deliberately marrying knowledge and application, rather than assuming one automatically follows from the other”  (p. 114). Eventually, pre-service teachers  will  progress towards enactment of knowledge and learning  in  practice  rather  than  remain  at  a  level  of  mere  intellectual  understanding.  Examples  of performance  assessment  include,  among  others,  portfolio  (and  electronic  portfolio),  project  work  and
seminar presentations.
Creating  and  maintaining  e-portfolio  are  advantageous  to  pre-service  teachers  because  these  practices provide  them  the  “opportunity  to  consciously  monitor  and  assess  their  own  current  knowledge  and  to understand pedagogical and subject contents continuously and consistently”  (Kabilan & Khan, 2012;  p. 1018). Electronic  portfolios are  also effective in guiding pre-service teachers’ independent learning, selfevaluation and reflective practices (Klenowski,  2000), creating a feeling of  self-satisfaction as a future professional  (Sherry  &  Bartlett,  2005),  engaging  in  deep,  sustainable  and  transformational  learning experiences (Tosh, Werdmuller, Chen, Light, & Haywood, 2006), and enriching perspectives with diverse approaches, views and activities of learning (O’Brien, 2006).
In this study  of Malaysian pre-service teachers,  Facebook  was  chosen as the e-portfolio platform for two main  reasons. First,  Facebook  is  a  popular  social media and networking site  with more than 1.23 billion active  users  (as  of  February  2014,  http://zephoria.com)  worldwide.  In Malaysia,  it  is  the  most  visited social media website  with 10.4  million users,  of which 3.5 million are learners  aged between 18 and 24 (Subramaniam,  2014).  Through  Facebook,  users  can  connect  and  interact  with  members  of  various communities  with  similar  interests,  and  educators  can  support  their  learning  and  development individually  and  as  a  community  of  practice  (Godwin-Jones,  2008).  Second,  despite  Facebook’s popularity  and  the  recognition  that  PD  programmes  and  experiences  can  be  provided  with  the  aid  of technology (Kabilan, 2005;  Kabilan  & Embi,  2006;  Kabilan, Wan  Adlina,  & Embi,  2011),  a literature search reveals that  there is a paucity of research  on the use of  Facebook  as an e-portfolio in enhancing teachers’ PD have been published.
Hence,  this  research  utilised  Facebook  as  an  e-portfolio  to  enhance  the  PD  of  Malaysian  pre-service teachers of various subjects and across curriculum.  Pre-service teachers were selected because  they  often lack confidence and pedagogical content knowledge (Aida Suraya, Ramlah, Habsah, Sharifah Kartini, & Mat  Rofa,  2006),  awareness  of  meaningful  classroom  practices  ( Kabilan,  2007),  and  assessment  and teaching  and  learning  practices  (Nykvist,  2009 ).  Apart  from  enriching  the  literature,  this  research provides  researchers,  educators  and  PD  facilitators  with  valuable  knowledge  and  insights  into  the potential  of Facebook  to engage  individuals as a community of practice  in meaningful and relevant  costfree PD.
The main aims of the study  were  to determine if  Facebook  can be utilised as an e-portfolio to enhance pre-service teachers’ development experiences and to identify its benefits as an e -portfolio, particularly in terms of its contribution, if any,  to the pre-service teachers’ development.  This research was guided by the following research questions:
i.  Can Facebook be utilised as an e-portfolio to enhance and support teacher PD meaningfully?
ii.  How does the Facebook environment, when utilised as an e-portfolio, contribute meaningfully to
pre-service teachers’ PD experiences – individually and as a community of practice?
Literature review and theoretical perspectives
A  review of  Facebook  use by students and teachers by Khe (2011) reveals that  Facebook  has “very little educational  use”  (p.  668)  since  there  is  limited  empirical  evidence  to  support  such  use.  Junco  (2015) suggests that  Facebook  may hinder learning processes  and negatively influence academic performance. Furthermore, several key issues that concern privacy, safety and inappropriate contents in  Facebook have curtailed its use in educational contexts. Papandrea (2012) critically highlights actual cases whereby some educational institutions have restricted electronic communication between teachers and students to avoid inappropriate relationships  from developing. Kwan and Skoric (2013) too find that intensity of  Facebook use and engagement may lead to bullying and victimisation of students in the Facebook community.
Nevertheless,  Facebook  can be a  valuable  pedagogical tool and  a communicative platform  (Papandera, 2012),  as  well  as  a  meaningful  learning  environment  (Kabilan,  Ahmad,  &  Abidin,  2010).  Roblyer, McDaniel, Webb, Herman, and Witty  (2010) and Selwyn (2009)  concur that researching  Facebook  is a worthwhile effort to understand future research and learning possibilities using online social media.  It  is considered by learners as  a source of learning  (Arouri,  2015)  that can  be harnessed for  more effective distribution  and  sharing  of  learning  materials  and  increased  cooperative  learning  between  students (Asterhan & Rosenberg, 2015). These meaningful activities and engagement on Facebook have cultivated weak  learners  to  become  comfortable  while  discussing,  giving  opinions  and  forging  relationships  with peers  when  online  (Promnitz-Hayashi,  2011)  due  to  the  pedagogical,  social  and  technological  tools  of Facebook  as  a  learning  management  system  (Wang,  Woo,  Quek,  Yang,  &  Liu,  2012)  that  encourage,
support  and  sustain  meaningful  interaction  between  learners.  In  sharing  information  using  Facebook, students  are  actually  “communicating  with  larger  audiences  with  whom  they  might  have  no  personal relationship, but are doing so because they perceive the value of sharing their knowledge with the larger public” (Beach, 2012; p. 48).
In this study, the notion of community of practice (CoP) is integral. In terms of PD, the link between CoP and,  the  teachers’  practices  and  development  is  strong.  This  nexus  raises  pertinent  issues  such  as  the nature of socialisation in teaching practices, the type of CoP activities engaged in, the processes of CoPs that lead to productive  PD  and, the potentials of CoP in enhancing learning processes (Schwen & Hara, 2004). CoP is an activity system or groups of people or participants who share understandings about what they do and what that means in their lives and commun ity (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Other relevant aspects of  PD  using  e-portfolio  include:  (a)  sharing  of  sets  of  problems,  common  issues  and  passions  about  a topic;  (b)  exploring ideas and creating tools, standards and documents;  and (c) deepening of knowledge and expertise by interacting with others on an ongoing basis (Wenger, McDermott & Snyder, 2002).
An  important  concept  in  CoP  is  the  notion  of  domain  –  the  problems  and/or  issues  that  members experience.  Wenger, McDermott,  and Snyder (2002) signify the importance of domain in organising the knowledge created by the CoP that assists the members to  organise, share and distinguish ideas that are significant/insignificant  ones.  Members  of  a  CoP  are  expected  to  commit  to  the  domains  and  share practices that  they  have created in resolving the domains.  Without this commitment,  the CoP is rather meaningless.  It is  just a  group  with  no aims and directions.  According to Hardey,  Tinney,  and Davies (2012),  such  organisation  of  knowledge  is  an  important  facet  of  e-portfolio  use  that  can  lead  to knowledge construction and refinement.
In e-portfolios, when teachers share and compare their knowledge organisation (in the form of  artefacts) and construction, observations and understanding with others, learning is  “transformed from a personal (learning)  activity  to  a  social  (learning)  activity”  as  the  teachers  are  exposed  to  challenges  and confrontations  of their own “meanings through interaction with others”  (Kanuka & Anderson, 1998;  p. 74). This would facilitate  PD  in ways that include among others, confidence and self-growth (Kilbane & Milman,  2003);  information  and  communication  technology  (ICT)  skills  (Abrami  &  Barrett,  2005); creativity  (Campbell,  Cignetti,  Melenyzer,  Nettles,  &  Wyman,  2004);  meaningful  learning  (O’Brien, 2006);  independent  and  collaborative  learning  (SongHao,  Kenji,  Takara,  &  Takashi,  2008);  and pedagogical  knowledge  and  skills  (Kabilan  &  Khan,  2012).  In  terms  of  PD,  using  Facebook  as  an  eportfolio  is  a  systematic  and  deliberate  decision  to  design  a  learning  environment  that  promotes  a meaningful  learning  culture,  and  utilize  it  as  a  platform  that  scaffolds  relationships  between  learners (Lock, 2006), Many researchers regard Facebook as a meaningful socialisation tool that could be used for learning (see Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007; Madge, Meek, Wellens, & Hooley, 2009). Therefore the
focus of  this study  is  to discern if  Facebook  can be an appropriate  online environment to integrate one’s individualistic learning activity into a meaningful and socially collaborative learning activity through e portfolio, and thus contribute significantly to the teachers’ PD.
The  above  individualistic  learning  resonates  with  Mezirow’s  (1990,  2000)  theory  of  transformative learning  as  “stages  in  cognitive  restructuring  and  integration  of  experience,  action,  and  reflection” (Stansberry  &  Kymes,  2007;  p.  489),  whereby  individuals  focus  and  learn  as  reflective  learners.  In addition, Willink and Jacobs (2012) assent that OTP  can “foster transformation in teacher beliefs through critical reflection, ownership  of learning, and personal agency”  (p. 18). These are the  features that are integrated into the OTP in this study, whereby elements  of transformative learning, critical reflection and performance  assessment,  are  interwoven  –  each  overlapping  each  other  and  simultaneously,  each affecting each other.

Methods
This study, conducted in a Malaysian university,  utilised a mixed method research design, which involved the gathering of qualitative and quantitative data that provide   a better understanding of how  Facebook, when  utilised  as  an  e-portfolio,  enhanced  and  supported  meaningful  pre-service  teacher’  development experiences.  This  design  enabled  the  drawing  of  a  complete  picture  by  identifying  trend  and generalisations,  which  include  in-depth  and  comprehensive  knowledge  of  participants’  perspectives (Creswell & Clark, 2007).

The participants and context of research
The  participants involved in this research were 91 pre-service teachers (12 males and 79 females) from Universiti Sains Malaysia. All 91 were in their final semester of their  Bachelor of Education  academic programme.  They  specialised  in  various  fields,  including  teaching  English,  mother  tongue/native language,  history,  science  and  geography.  They  were  enrolled  in  the  Information  and  Communication Technology  in  Education  course,  which  aimed  to  equip  students  with  the  knowledge  and  skills  to  use various  current  interactive  ICT  tools  and  the  pedagogies  of  using  them  appropriately  and  effectively across the curriculum (Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2010). The  course’s assessment was 100% coursework that focused on two online project works;  one  of it is the  online teacher portfolio  (OTP)  that is  worth 35 marks.  As  part  of  their  course  requirement,  students  were  asked  to  individually  create,  develop  and maintain an OTP using Facebook for 14 weeks and an individual report to explain their OTP.

OTP implementation
The  purposes of creating, developing and maintaining  an  OTP were to: (a) describe, display, share and discuss/dissect their teaching philosophies;  and (b) describe, display, share and discuss/dissect  artefacts related to one’s own PD activities and experiences (past or current ones).  The specific roles and activities hat were performed by the researcher and the participants (chronological order) during the 14 weeks  

Implications and conclusion
Both quantitative and qualitative data confirm that  Facebook  is a  potential  tool for  an  OTP, one  that  can meaningfully  enhance and support  pre-service  teachers’  PD. This is possible due to the features of the Facebook  environment and the tools available in this online social media that encourage  an interactive socialisation  process.  This  includes:  collaboration;  sharing  of  experiences,  ideas  and  artefacts  and building them into an online resource/database;  learning from each other;  networking and connecting to each other; and the continuous practices of supporting and encouraging of each other. Through the above intricate and complex socialisation process in the OTP, most pre-service teachers  in this  study  experienced  transformative  learning,  critical  reflection  and  performance  assessment  via personal  learning  and  social  learning  in  a  CoP.  through  many  of  the  activities,  interaction s  and engagements  that they  encountered during the OTP process. Their experiences lead to enriched ideas and experiences  that  facilitated  (re)construction,  (re)configuration,  and  (re)fining  of  knowledge  that  was personal and meaningful to individual members of the OTP, as well as to the OTP community as a whole.
They  augmented  their learning and development as a pre-service teacher,  and  realized the importance of engagement  in  future  PD  initiatives  as  an  in-service  teacher.  Clearly,  there  is  a  nexus  between transformative  learning,  critical  reflection  and  performance  assessment  that  are  embedded  in  the  OTP. This node leads to PD if both personal and social learning are heightened .
Although  at  the  onset  of  the  project  participants  were  motivated  by  grades,  they  gradually  began  to identify  the  aforementioned  socialisation  processes  as  integral  modes  of  self-learning  and  self-development.  By  selecting  appropriate  materials  for  the  construction  and  development  of  their  OTP , coupled  with  the  various  personal  experiences  and  professional  engagements  in  Facebook  enabled participants  to identify their professional portraits  and discern the benefits and the overall value of OTP for  their  PD.  The  OTP  process  was  able  to  bring  and  connect  pre-service  teachers  from  different backgrounds, regions, and cultures, in a virtual melting-pot  for them to discover the views of different and diversified thoughts and perceptions of the world  through  a  critical reflection  and learning from the reflection  of  their  own  experiences.  Previous  research  results  suggest  personal  knowledge  and experiences  influence  opinion  and  impact  ones’  professional  views,  leading  to  construction  and  reconstruction of knowledge (see  Kagan, 1992; Lai & Pek, 2012).  Such influences  add dimension to  one’s existing knowledge,  contributes  to the profundity of pre-service teachers’ thoughts and ways of thinking and perceiving.
This  study  strengthens  the  notion  forwarded  by  Darling-Hammond  (2006)  and  Kabilan  (2007),  that empowering pre-service teachers is crucial in aiding them to make decisions and complete assignments in ways that generate ideas, views, knowledge and answers  -  ways that also  engage them in  the process of improving  their  effectiveness  as  future  teachers.  As  the  findings  suggest  and  as  supported  by  other research,  using  social  networking  such  as  Facebook  as  an  OTP  for  pre-service  teachers’  learning  and development must include an  understanding of its purpose and a clear conceptualisation of the envisioned e-portfolio. Walker and Cheng (1996) identified understanding of purpose and conceptualisation of PD as the two of the most significant features of an effective and meaningful PD programme .  Also, instructors should  support  learning  and  development  processes  in  the  OTP ,  as  recommended  by  Watkins  (2013).
Kabilan and  Khan  (2012) believed that enlightening and engaging  pre-service teachers  in accepting OTP as  a  practice  has  future  implications  for  their  PD.  Hence,  future  studies  should  also  explore  how instructors  can  support  pre-service  teachers’  learning  and  development  using  a  social  network environment  such as  Facebook  as an  OTP.  In addition, the  entwined relationship between  personal and professional  facets  of  socialising  in  OTP  warrants  further  examination,  especially  how  personal connections  may lead to PD

On its own,  Facebook  is just another social  network  site  but if  used appropriately and purposefully, it offers an amalgamation of socialisation and professionalisation  –  two overlapping facets that influence and empower each other in meaningful and prevailing teacher education and development. Findings from this  study  indicate  that  an  OTP  embedded  within  a  social  network  enhance s  and  supports  pre-service teachers’ meaningful PD. Members become a community of practice, acquire professional learning and identity, and gain relevant pedagogical skills, resources and confidence. These are some of the tenets that most pre-service teachers in this study, as well as other contexts and settings, lack and need help with, and what teacher education programmes at many universities aim to achieve

Sourch : Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2016, 32(1). 20 Ascilite