Investigating the use of a mobile portfolio app to develop pre-service teachers’ reflective abilities and orientations to learning to teach

Mobile technologies are expected to provide many benefits for teacher reflection during teaching practice. However, empirical studies on these outcomes are still scarce. In an experimental field trial, we tested the effects of different variants of a mobile portfolio app on the development of pre-service teachers’ self-reported reflective ability, their orientations to learning to teach (e.g. developing ideas through discussion), and the interaction between their use of the mobile portfolio and orientation with regard to the development of reflective ability. Although there were only small direct effects of using the mobile app to foster reflective ability, the use of the app seemed to enhance the willingness to develop ideas for teaching practice through discussion and communication with mentors. These orientations were positively correlated with reflective ability; however, they showed no moderating effect on reflective ability when using the app.