...............................
Chapter TwoLiterature Review
2.1 Critical Conceptions
There are two critical conceptions in this study, including e-portfolios andautonomous learning. As far as e-portfolios are concerned, definition and characteristicsof e-portfolios have been listed below. As for autonomous learning, the features andinfluencing factors have been elaborately illustrated.
2.1.1 E-portfolios
Portfolios can provide a platform for students to assess their learning based on therecordings of their own learning processes, not just the feedback from their teachers.Through their own reflection, students can explore strength and weakness and theneffectively adjust their learning strategies.
1. Definition of E-portfolios
A portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that displays the student’s effort, progress and achievement in one or more areas. The collection must includestudent participation in selecting content, the criteria for judging merit, and evidence ofstudent self-reflection (Paulson and Meyer 60-63).
Dr. Helen C. Barrett, who is famous for researching portfolios and electronicportfolios, believes that learners use electronic technology to collect and organizelearning content and materials in a variety of formats (audio, video, images, text, etc.).Standards-based electronic files use databases and hypertext technology to clearly showthe relationship among standards, goals, works and reflection.
McMillan (235) considers that portfolios are often used for both formative andsummative evaluations, recording and evaluating student progress and learningachievements through systematically targeted collection and evaluation of student workover a period of time.
...........................
2.2 Theoretical Basis
The theoretical basis is set in the constructivism learning theory and socio-cultural theory. Learning is not a transfer of knowledge from the teacher to learnerbut the process of constructing knowledge by students themselves. And according tosocio-cultural theorists, the zone of proximal development has expanded the concept tothe interaction between learners and learning tools. Due to the selective attention andlimited memory capacity, leaning tools can assist learners and learn from thecontributions of the learning tools. Students can evaluate themselves performance andobtain some feedback from leaning tools to scaffold themselves. At the same time,students can accept teachers’ feedback to promote their self-reflection about theirlearning through learning tools.
2.2.1 The Constructivism Learning Theory
Constructivism is basically a theory based on observation and scientific studyabout “how people learn” (Alesandrini et al 119), which means that people constructtheir own understanding and knowledge of the world through experiencing things andreflection of those experiences. Constructivism advocates student-centered, discoverylearning where students use information which already existed in their minds to acquirenew knowledge.
Constructivism was firstly proposed by the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, hesuggested that through the partial changes or totally transformation of previousknowledge, individuals build new knowledge based on their previous knowledge. Heproposed that people's cognitive development needs the combination of internal factorsand external factors and the interaction between self-ability and peripheral environment.Learners construct their knowledge out of their experience. Dewey assumed thatlearning is an active process where learners need to be active to participate in it andlearning is not the passive delivery of knowledge from teachers to learners which exists“out there” (157) but that learning involves the learners interacting with the world. Hebelieved that learners should actively construct the knowledge not passively ac
