Context: The context of the study is
vocational teacher education and the participants are vocational student
teachers. They are studying in a blended learning setting as part time
students. They represent several disciplines of vocational education and
training. The vocational teacher studies take one year and are 60 credits. The
study relates to the discussion of vocational education and training (VET) and
teachers’ competencies that they are transferring to their VET students by
sharing the knowledge of their subject area and working practices. This study
is an exploration of one of these working practices: making competence visible
in a digital format.

Approach: Student teachers’ descriptions of their practices and recommendations
of supportive methods for composing an ePortfolio are reviewed and their
motivation to compose an ePortfolio is studied as a part of the personal
learning environment (PLE) philosophy.

Findings: The data revealed some typical practices, such as composing an
ePortfolio (the most popular ways of doing this were recording reflections in a
learning diary and using digital tools to document artefacts) and making
vocational teachers’ competence visible through an ePortfolio (understanding the
difference between workspace and showcase portfolios and what kinds of
competence to document). The recommendations mentioned by participants were
supportive methods of composing an ePortfolio (collaborative learning processes
with peers, lecturers’ feedback and assessment and clear instructions) as well
as methods of making vocational teachers’ competence visible (e.g. orientation
to ePortfolio work using learning objectives and assessment criteria for
ePortfolios). Participating student teachers are/were motivated to work with
ePortfolios in various ways and expressed an intrinsic motivation to pursue
personal growth and become a vocational teacher.

Conclusions: The study revealed vocational student teachers’ various
perceptions of scaffolding and motivational orientations to make their
competence visible through ePortfolios. These can be used to design scaffolding
processes to support students’ ePortfolio activities. ePortfolios are used as a
study method to promote student teachers’ career development and personal
growth and to help them acquire teacher competencies. The study concludes with
a review of the learning objectives and the assessment criteria for the
ePortfolio process in a vocational teacher education program.