Elena Perea Úbeda-Portugués
Reflection on the learning process
Learning is both an active and reflective process. Though we learn by doing, constructing, building, talking, and writing, we also learn by thinking about events, activities and experiences. This confluence of experiences (action) and thought (reflection) combines to create new knowledge. Both action and reflection are essential ingredients in the construction of knowledge.
The optimal learning environment provides sufficient time for both action and reflection. This is often difficult given the pressure to cover the curriculum and prepare students for state exams. Because of these and other demands, we often must end an activity without giving students some formal or informal means of discussing what and how they have learned. Thus, an opportunity for the meaning making, the introspection of reflection, is lost, and true learning is not fully actualized. Further complicating this, in our formation as teachers we may not have learned how to engage students in authentic speech where they are allowed to honestly share their viewpoints about a particular activity, as opposed to giving formulaic answers (reflection versus recitation). We may attempt to get students to reflect but they sit silently, unwilling or unused to sharing their thoughts, and we are unsure of how to elicit such thoughts.
Writing:
Essays, journals, letters, and written persuasive arguments are all effectual means of prompting student reflection. Students can do reflective writing individually or in pairs or groups. Journals, especially if not graded and if their private nature is maintained, can be a very potent tool for prompting student reflection. In this website you can read my journal used as a reflective tool.
Forums and chats:
A differet type of writing reflection can be done using the new technologies. It is very common for online courses to demand their students certain participation on frums about a topic or to comment on other participant's work to help with reflection. This has become as simple as twitting with a common hashtag. Then all the twits about the topic can be found and can start a class discussion or debate.
Student potfolios.
Portfolios, both digital and non-digital, are an excellent way of prompting students to reflect on both the subject matter learned and on their own learning. Because they can be saved students have the opportunity to revisit ealier oppinions and ideas and contract them with their present situation and knowledge. Digital portfolios provide a forum for students to both construct the fruits of knowledge while simultaneously reflecting on it, sharing their understandings with a larger audience in the process. This website and the bogs, wikis and websites from my collegagues are a perfect example. You can see who the same content spurs very differet reflections on learning.
Guided Reflection Activities.
There are many simple guided reflection activities that spur students to reflect on their learning, to critically evaluate knowledge (as is age appropriate) and to become cognizant of their new formations of knowledge. Elementary school teachers (in particular) often end units of study by asking students what they’ve learned from a particular activity, thus blending action and reflection. Life maps, where students draw important personal landmarks and developmental routes, can be adapted for an academic exercise. Mind maps are also a very helpful tool to put all what has been learnt together and make connections among those ideas at the same time. Finally, thinking routines such as the the KWL activity: “What do we know? What do we want to know? What have we learned?” are commonly used tools for getting students to reflect upon what and how much they have learned about a particular body of knowledge.
Art.
Many students are much better expressing their ideas visually rather than verbally or in writing. Drawing and painting, especially for younger students, may be a more appropriate way to elicit reflection and analysis about a particular topic or series of events, especially for students who have some level of discomfort communicating orally or through the written word.
Discussion.
As humans we are speech-making beings and many students welcome the chance to share their “inner speech” with their
classmates. Whole group, and more intimately, small group and paired discussions, provide varied formats for students to assess their learning, share opinions, and discuss concepts about a particular activity. These shared dialogical spaces can assist learners to make sense of their learning and the learnings of others. The range of questions and comments posed by a variety of individuals offers multiple perspectives on a concept or event and spurs deeper— and different types of — deliberation on the part of the learner. Individual conferences with the teacher, if conducted in an open, non-threatening atmosphere, can also be a wonderful way for student and teacher to co-reflect on an event, story, or learning experience. In the language development area of this portfolio you can see who we've used discussions to reflect on learning.