Digital portfolios to enhance metacognition. Action research in visual arts

• Published in: Netla
• Main Authors: Arnarsdóttir, Sandra Rebekka Önnudóttir, Gunnþórsdóttir, Hermína, Elídóttir, Jórunn
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Icelandic
• Published: Menntavísindasvið Háskóla Íslands 2020
• Subjects: digital portfolios; visual arts; differentiated learning; reflection; metacognition; rafrænar ferilbækur; sjónlistir; einstaklingsmiðun; ígrundun; námsvitund; Iceland
• Online Access: https://ojs.hi.is/netla/article/view/3260; https://doi.org/10.24270/netla.2020.7

Modern teaching is influenced by the ideas of inclusive schools where all students are provided with a quality education, regardless of their needs (Menntavísindastofnun Háskóla Íslands [University of Iceland Educational Research Institute], n.d.). This is the task teachers face daily. To do so they need to use a variety of teaching strategies that suit each student’s individual needs which can be a daunting task. Being able to use methods that each student can adjust to own abilities and provide multiple ways of expression and communication, can be an advantage. Teaching visual arts, I4 needed to find a way to let my students record their creative process as well as their learning, all the while using inclusive methods. It was my hope that creating digital portfolios would be a way to meet this goal.This paper reports findings from action research where I implemented the use of digital portfolios in my own visual arts teaching among thirteen to fifteen-year-old students. The aim was to integrate inclusive teaching methods as a way to enhance metacognition. The study was an action research project conducted during the school year of 2017– 2018 where I focused on developing my own teaching methods and supporting professional enhancement with continuous reflection on the intervention at hand. The school year was divided into five periods which coincided with the five phases of the action research. In total, 87 students participated, 50 girls and 37 boys. 33 students joined more than one phase, some participated in up to three phases.The research question was as follows: how can digital portfolios support inclusion in visual art teaching? Data was collected in five different ways, (1) discussion groups between the researcher and the students at the beginning of each of the five phases, (2) my researcher journals, written up during all five phases, (3) an anonymous online survey that the students answered at the end of each phase, (4) evaluation of the students’ digital portfolios and (5) focus groups among a sample ...