Reflective Learning Journal Student Guide What is a Reflective Learning Journal? It is a piece of writing which allows students to record thoughts and insights about their own learning experience. It encourages students to review and consolidate learning, to evaluate performance, to plan future learning based on past learning experience. In such a way, students become capable to take charge of their own learning, and eventually to develop into independent life long learners. The term “Reflection” has been used widely and colloquially in academic disciplines, such as psychology and education. Nevertheless, in both settings, it simply means the process of thinking deeply with one’s awareness and conscious effort on an issue or event. The product of such a highly engaged cognitive process would be informing insights, strategies, plans and predictions on the issue one vigorously ponders upon. Psychologist and educators further differentiate two kinds of reflective thinking: reflection-in-action and reflection-on-action. The former suggests a simultaneous monitoring when performing or practicing a task; the latter suggests a retrospective evaluation after the task is accomplished. The meaning of the word “reflection” means writing something that becomes very meaningful and fruitful in the process of learning, which is one of the reasons why the use of Reflective Learning Journal in teaching has a long history. Reflective learning journal is well-accepted by many educators in higher education because it helps students to narrow the gaps between theory and practice, and most importantly heightens students’ felt need of constantly monitoring their learning progress. Learning should not be a passive process of simply in-taking information from tutors and lecturers, but rather an active process that requires a lot of personal thinking and questioning. By engaging in reflective journal writing regularly, you will find in it a personal space for you to keep records of your own ideas and thoughts, and these thoughts are then useful for yourselves to come up with solutions and novel approaches to get around problems encountered in the course of your learning. Positive outcomes expected  Students can gain a clearer overview of their learning progress  Students can gain an insight of their own strengths and weaknesses as a learner  Students can realize and recognise learning strategies which suit their personal needs  Students will become more capable in planning for overcoming learning difficulties  Students will understand and appreciate the importance self-evaluation in the role of improving oneself; and importantly  Reflective learners are more likely to develop a deeper understanding of their subject and to achieve higher grades as a result. Designing a Reflective Learning Journal The structure of reflective learning journal A journal can be structured with guiding questions (see the Prompt Questions Bank) or unstructured, in which students are asked to write about anything related to the assessment item or to their learning. An over-structured journal prevents reflective thinking, while an overly unstructured one might not encourage reflection to be made either. This type of reflective journal is characterised by little prompting questions, which give students the greatest freedom to ponder upon things that had the greatest personal significance to them. This regular writing exercise helps students to organise their thoughts, reflect on their work, identify problems, and find solution to them independently. However, students often feel confused and uncertain about what to write in this highly unstructured piece of writing. Therefore, we give simple instructions and jump-start questions to give students a lift, but these questions do not necessarily confine the structure or intrude the personal quality of students’ writing. See the following template: Notes:  This piece of writing should be highly unstructured, therefore it’s important that the guiding questions provided should be very open-ended, so that allow students to carry deep thinking on course-related issues  Only a few guided questions will do, otherwise, students will be overwhelmed and divert all their energy in attempting all the questions (which is not required) instead of taking a quality reflection on their learning The Prompt Question Bank Facilitating reflective thinking Students often get lost and frustrated when asked to write a reflective journal, and simply resort to writing a diary of events or document hours spent studying, for example. Students complain a lot and cry-out for guidelines to help them write a good reflective journal. To facilitate students’ reflective thinking we have included prompting questions in this Guide. This Prompt Questions Bank is a collection of questions for this purpose. Focus of reflection In the Prompt Questions Bank, we provide two sets of foci: one explores the learning experience itself, the other thinks about the learning experience in relation to one’s academic, professional and personal development. The first set “Explore a learning experience” deals with the specific and the immediate. This helps improve your performance. The foci of reflection are:  Content - the ‘what’s of the learning experience  Process - the ‘how’s of the learning experience  Reasons - the ‘why’s of the learning experience The second set concerns long-term issues and widening the perspective of students, helping you see the relevance of and appreciate what you are learning. Think of a learning experience in relation to your:  Academic development  Job ready and professional development  Personal development To do: After each reading and writing exercise for your fortnightly workshop activities (or Google searching on Pink Elephant, for example) spend some time considering the Qs in Area 1 and in Area 2 below. You don’t have to write specific answers, but these Qs will prompt you to think reflectively about your learning activity. Now document your reflection in any way you choose. The Prompt Questions Bank (Also known as ‘Reflection Menu’) Area 1 Explore a learning experience… Awareness Evaluation Regulation Content (What) What have I learnt? Do I understand what I have learnt? What else do I need to learn? What can I do in order to gain a better understanding? Where can I find more information? Process (How) How did I learn / do it? What strategy have I used in learning this topic? How effective is this strategy? How can I make this strategy more effective? Is the way I do it the best way? Reasons (why) Why learn it? What is learning? Why would I think so? Is this the only purpose of learning? What would be a more useful way to understand learning? How could this learning experience be interpreted differently? Area 2 Think of a learning experience in relation to… Awareness Evaluation Regulation 1. Academic development How does this learning experience contribute to my academic development? What is/are my short-term / long-term academic goal(s)? What does this learning experience tell about my choice of academic goal and path? Am I making good progress? Am I on the right track? All things considered, is this goal a suitable goal? Are there any other options? What other paths can I take to achieve my goals? What obstacles have I encountered? What is the source of the obstacles? Am I on the right track? How can I remove those obstacles? What other paths can I take to achieve my goals? 2. Professional development Same as academic development, just that this time think about the learning experience in relation to your professional development instead of academic development. 3. Personal development What does this learning experience mean to me? How does it matter to me if I failed or succeeded? What does this learning experience tell me about my potentials, and myself as a person? What do I know about myself? How am I living the most of myself? Meta-cognitive reflection The backbone of the Prompt Question Bank is a sequence of metacognitive reflections – the awareness of one’s learning experience, the evaluation of the experience, and the regulation of one’s attitude and behaviour for better performance and more fruitful experience. They are elements of one’s meta-cognitive abilities that enable one to become a better student and life-long learner, i.e. to grow, and reflection is the mediating process essential to the development and operation of these abilities. 1. Awareness of one’s learning experience Awareness of the current state is a necessary prerequisite of any conscious improvement. Students often do their study without knowing much about their current state of learning (e.g. how they learn, why they learn, etc). A reflective learning journal is a good place for you to start noticing your learning experiences. 2. Evaluation of the experience Between being aware of one’s learning experience and taking steps to do better is a stage where judgements must be made. An evaluation of the current state identifies problems and creates a felt need for change. It is sometimes useful to provide some criteria for evaluation. For example, in the prompt question “Do I understand what I have learnt”, understanding is a criterion for the evaluation, as contrast to memorisation that some students (and junior lecturers) mistakenly believe is important. 3. Regulation of one’s attitude and behaviour Knowing how one is doing does not lead to improvement unless one is willing to make some adjustments accordingly. This is where remedies are generated and alternatives considered. Writing the plans down also helps students commit to doing them. Questions at this stage are very important as they help students look at the situation in a positive light, rather than leaving them in despair which the finding out of problems at the evaluation stage has created. A reflective journal is designed to help you think deeply about your learning, especially on issues such as: your progress in learning, the difficulties you encountered in the process of learning, the strategies you have taken to get around those difficulties, and your evaluation of your own performance. General Instructions Quick reference What learning experience to reflect on? Your study during the week The object of reflection for this journal is your experience in learning during the 5 - 6 weeks writing the assignment report. Frequency and length expected Once or twice a week 100 – 200 words/entry  You are required to make one or two (or more if you like) entries per week, each about 100 to 200 words of length. You are instructed to make entries regularly rather than leaving it till before a submission date, and the quality of reflection should be the emphasis of your entries rather than worrying about the word count.  The key is authenticity. If your journal isn’t reflective and doesn’t contain a serious reflection about your free-reading report topic, then no marks will be awarded. Remember, reflective learners are more likely to develop a deeper understanding of their topic and to achieve higher grades as a result. Assessment Check for completion 20% of final grade Your reflective learning journal accompanies your 3-4,000 word Celanese report and contributes to 20% of your final grade for this course. The criterion for assessment of the reflective journal is the satisfactory completion of the task, i.e. making regular entries as required. The focus of this exercise is on reflection. Requirement for submission Draft due in Week 8 for feed-forward. At the conclusion of Week 11 included in your full written report. See the report template under the Assessment menu item on l@g. Your journal will be scrutinised in two stages, on the dates specified in the adjacent column. You need to submit your reflective journal and Celanese assignment together in one document using the mandated report template. Detail Guidelines This section offers further guidelines to making journal entries that are reflective and significant to you personally. What learning experience to reflect on? Reflect on your process of learning. Record any observations, experience, thoughts and insights that are significant to you as a learner, or even as a person. Prompt questions for your reference: The function of prompt questions is to stimulate your reflective thinking. You don’t need to (in fact, you are not supposed to) answer every one of them in any entry.  How what I have learned relates to my other experiences?  What implications does it have regarding my learning?  What difficulties have I encountered in applying my knowledge in dealing with everyday situations?  What would be the causes for those difficulties and how could I overcome them?  What have I found today and read about? What does it mean to me?  What do I find difficult in understanding? Why?  What do I find difficult in accepting? Why?  How could it be different? Sample entry Here is a sample fictitious entry to a reflective learning journal with Dr Bruce’s comments on the right. What to write in the Reflective Learning Journal? Reflective learning journal writing is very different from academic assignments that you have been writing, such as the Celanese case report. It is a piece of flexible, personal, informal piece of writing. If you are unsure about how to start, and how to write, don’t just scribble something in the journal, or write in week 3 “I did this and answered these Qs, and submitted my answers for marking”. Writing something truly “reflective” is the most important part of the process, see if these tips can give you a lift! “I don’t know what to write!” 5 tips on what to write in a journal entry: - Start off with whatever is in your mind about your learning experience in the assignment - Don’t just throw in events in chronological order. This is not a diary. - Describe the meaning of what you learnt in your reading and in finding the readings. Also, your reaction, feeling, opinions, views on both the learning process and the learnt material - List the good and the bad, strengths and weaknesses you consider you demonstrate in the course of your learning - Make advice for yourself and make plans for your learning in the near future “Now I know what to put in the entry, but how should I write it?” 5 tips on how to write a journal entry: - Write in first person “I”, as if you are writing a letter to a friend. - There is no right or wrong answer for a journal entry. Bruce bangs on about this point. Therefore, feel free to express your ideas, opinions, and thoughts - Don’t hesitate to share your personal experience if that helps to illustrate your point - Don’t limit yourself to words – diagrams and pictures are ok too - Don’t be too intimidated by English rules. It’s okay to make minor grammatical mistakes initially if that does not interfere with the transmission of ideas. But proof-read and correct later before submission. - And don’t worry about referencing in a journal. Woo Hoo. What learning experience to reflect on? Your study during the week The object of reflection for this journal is your experience in learning during the 5 - 6 weeks writing the assignment report. Frequency and length expected Once or twice a week 100 – 200 words/entry  You are required to make one or two (or more if you like) entries per week, each about 100 to 200 words of length. You are instructed to make entries regularly rather than leaving it till before a submission date, and the quality of reflection should be the emphasis of your entries rather than worrying about the word count.  The key is authenticity. If your journal isn’t reflective and doesn’t contain a serious reflection about undertaking the Celanese case, then no marks will be awarded. Remember, reflective learners are more likely to develop a deeper understanding of their topic and to achieve higher grades as a result. Assessment Check for completion 20% of final grade Your reflective learning journal accompanies your Celanese report, is part of the 3-4,000 word total, and contributes to 20% of your final grade for this course. The criterion for assessment of the reflective journal is the satisfactory completion of the task, i.e. making regular entries as required. The focus of this exercise is on reflection. Requirement for submission Draft due in Week 8 for feed-forward. At the conclusion of Week 11 included in your full written report. See the report template under the Assessment menu item on l@g. Your journal will be scrutinised in two stages, on the dates specified in the adjacent column. You need to submit your reflective journal and Celanese assignment together in one document using the mandated report template. -