The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of electronic portfolio building in development of self-directed learning by fostering reflective thinking through electronic journals and by compelling individual to take responsibility and control of one&rsquo / s own learning in a practicum course among pre-service teachers from the Department of Foreign Language Education, Middle East Technical University. A qualitative case study research method was applied to analyze the data gathered from pre- and post-ICT surveys, pre- and post Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scales, interviews, and the electronic journals and artifacts demonstrated in pre-service teachers&rsquo / web-based electronic portfolios. The data were collected from eight 4th grade undergraduate pre-service teachers enrolled in School Experience course of the English Language Teaching program at METU during 2008-2009 Fall Term. Electronic portfolios, having the opportunity to provide multimedia displays, allow the pre-service teachers to monitor the outcomes of their learning goals and strategies regularly and by monitoring their studies and reflections they review their own work and have a chance to evaluate their learning and teaching process. Essentially, portfolios transfer the responsibility of learning and decision making to the student with its dynamic process / when students are required to reflect on the information they acquire and on how they acquire this information, they begin to accept their learning practice as a process under their control. This study recognizes the notion that information and communication technologies are crucial to teacher education for both learning and teaching / and takes the constructivist stance that using ICTs tools, mainly electronic portfolios in this case, enhances reflective thinking, authentic self-assessment, self-management, and ownership over learning process and facilitates technological competence which all in all foster self-direction in learning.

Research has shown that preservice teachers participating in traditional student teaching programs tend to focus on classroom management, with very little focus on student mathematical thinking. The student teaching program at BYU has been redesigned in the hopes of shifting the focus of student teachers away from classroom management toward student mathematical thinking. This study compared conversations between student teachers and cooperating teachers before and after the redesign of the program to work towards determining the effectiveness of the refocusing of the new student teaching program. The study found that STs and CTs in the different student teaching structures were talking about different things. Not only were the frequencies of conversations about pedagogy, students, and mathematics different, but the ways those individual topics were discussed was also different.