Reconceptualising Pre-service Teacher Education at Victoria University: Putting the Byte into Inquiry Learning

Abstract

Educators are always striving to challenge and transform preconceived notions of teaching and learning. In Australia, Government Reviews of Teaching and Teacher Education strive to achieve two main objectives- developing an innovative capacity in students and a culture of innovation in schools. In response to this, many higher education institutions are developing, trialing and implementing various innovative approaches to teaching, learning and assessment. One Australian University, Victoria University (VU) is no exception. For many years, the pre-service teaching course offered at VU has had a very successful inquiry based learning and teaching focus. However, significant changes in the use of ICT in teacher education in recent years have called for significant action. Taking into consideration that many of VU’s students are situated in communities with the lowest level of access to ICT, staff at VU set out to redesign the first year Bachelor of Education course to challenge students to engage in inquiry learning through digital technology. This paper reports on how staff at VU have been engaged in conversations about the possibility of digital portfolios as a platform to integrate inquiry learning and digital pedagogy. As the beginning of a series of conversations in this journey, this paper demonstrates how digital portfolios can be used to offer students opportunities to create and recreate knowledge.