Improving literacy and metacognition with electronic portfolios: Teaching and learning with ePEARL

Can an electronic portfolio that is both a multimedia container for student work and a tool to support key learning processes have a positive impact on the literacy practices and self-regulated learning skills of students? This article presents the findings of a yearlong study conducted in three Canadian provinces during the 2007–2008 school year initially involving 32 teachers and 388 students. Due to varying levels of implementation our final data set included 14 teachers and 296 students. Using a nonequivalent pretest/post-test design, we found that grade 4–6 students who were in classrooms where the teacher provided regular and appropriate use of the electronic portfolio tool ePEARL (i.e., medium–high implementation condition, n = 7 classrooms and 121 students), compared to control students (n = 7 classrooms and 175 students) who did not use ePEARL, showed significant improvements (p < .05) in their writing skills on a standardized literacy measure (i.e., the constructed response subtest of the Canadian Achievement Test-4th ed.) and certain metacognitive skills measured via student self-report. The results of this study indicate that teaching with ePEARL has positive impacts on students’ literacy and self-regulated learning skills when the tool is used regularly and integrated into classroom instruction. The potential for technology to radically transform and improve education is widely recognized by policy makers, scholars and practitioners (Campuzano, Dynarski, Agodini, Rall, & Pendleton, 2009; Canadian Council on Learning, 2008; CEO Forum on CEO Forum on Education, 2001; Dynarski et al., 2007; Ungerleider & Burns, 2003; Zimmerman & Tsikalas, 2005), however there have been mixed results when new technologies meet the realities of the diverse and changing classroom contexts of North American public schools (Abrami, Savage, Wade, Hipps, & Lopez, 2007; Abrami et al., 2006; Avramidou & Zembal-Saul, 2003; Azevedo, 2005; Barrett, 2007; Bernard, Bethel, Abrami, & Wade, 2007; Cuban, 1993; Cuban, Kirkpatrick, & Peck, 2001). Electronic portfolios (EPs) are one such innovation that has slowly been introduced in post-secondary environments, and more recently in K12 classroom settings. EPs build on the evidence of what is already known about effective portfolio pedagogy, and makes working with portfolios more engaging, dynamic, and accessible for students, teachers, and parents. EPs can offer valuable opportunities for integrating technology into K-12 classrooms. Not only because they are multimedia containers, but in ways that deepen students’ learning experiences by placing the student at the centre of his/her learning and scaffolding essential metacognitive skills such as goal setting, identifying strategies, and reflecting on one’s learning. The electronic portfolio tool described in this research project, ePEARL was designed based on Zimmerman’s (2000) model of self-regulation. The software was developed using research evidence and feedback from teachers and students in order to build an electronic portfolio that supports the development of selfregulated learning and literacy skills in constructivist classrooms.