The Power of Reflective Practice Kim Filer Assistant

The Power of Reflective Practice Kim Filer Assistant Provost for Teaching and Learning Director of Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Virginia Tech kfiler@vt. edu

Session Goals • Understand the potential outcomes of reflective practice. • Consider issues related to scaling reflective practice. • Apply a template for scalability and use of reflection for assessment.

My History of Reflection • • • Teaching reflections Summer Scholars Maggie Anderson DEAL Model Reflection for everyone!

Journaling versus OR with Critical Reflection? • Journaling Record the day/experience • Deep Reflection through Journaling Transformative Experiences • Your personal experiences with Journaling? • With reflection? • How have you used reflections with students? • What worked well? What didn’t?

Reflection for Student Learning Why? • For connections—Avoid compartmentalizing lives/learning experiences • For complexity—Sensory, Cognitive, Emotional • For meaning-making—Cognitive Structuring for a developmental narrative • For habits of mind—Developing a habit of reflective practice

How are these benefits produced? • Attention • Mindfulness • Habituation • Decreased response to events or memories • Cognitive Restructuring • Deeper understanding of events and emotions, creating a story

Learning from Experience

Goals of the DEAL model generate learning • articulating questions, confronting bias, examining causality, contrasting theory with practice, pointing to systemic issues deepen learning • challenging simplistic conclusions, inviting alternative perspectives, asking “why” iteratively document learning • producing tangible expressions of new understandings for evaluation

DEAL Model (Ash & Clayton) • Describe • Explain from multiple perspectives • Articulate Learning

D Describe Experiences objectively: What? Where? Who? When? Why?

E Examine experience by learning goals using prompts Goal 1: Goal 3: Goal 2: Personal Growth Civic Engagement • Your strengths/weaknesses/ski lls/assumptions that emerged? • Effect on project/on others? • Do you need to change? How? OR Global Perspective OR Teamwork OR Career readiness OR… Academic Enhancement • Academic concept that applies? • Same or different from experience? Why? • Need to rethink concept? How?

AL Articulate Learning What did I learn? How did I learn it? Why is it important? What will I do because of it?

Try It as a Learner (a small sample)… Consider your experiences at the Institute this morning. Describe your experience objectively Ø In 3 sentences or less: Who? What? Why? Examine the experience from multiple perspectives Ø Service Engagement (to serve your institution): Based on your morning experience what changes to you believe are needed in the approaches taken? Why? Ø Personal Growth: At the session what was a previous assumption you brought to bear on your work? Was the assumption upheld? Was the assumption challenged? Describe. Articulate your Learning Ø What did you learn? What will you do because of the learning?

Design Your Own Reflective Structure

Describe your experience objectively • Describe prompt…in 3 sentences or less… Examine experience • Pick learning goals. Write Prompts. Articulate your Learning • Write Prompt Goal 1: Personal Growth E • Your strengths/weaknesses/skill s/assumptions that emerged? • Effect on project/on others? • Do you need to change? How? Goal 2: Goal 3: Civic Engagement Academic Enhancement OR • Academic concept that applies? • Same or different from experience? Why? • Need to rethink concept? How? Global Perspective OR Teamwork OR Career readiness OR…

Things to consider How often? What modality? Giving feedback?

Reflection for Assessment Do you need to aggregate reflection results for your program? • Qualitative analysis of trends • Rubric use for learning outcomes • AACU value rubrics (select the rubric matching the learning goals) • Civic Engagement • Problem solving • Integrative learning • Rubric use for student personal development • Self-authorship • Self-regulation • Agency

Questions?

Why Journal? Key Researchers • Dr. James Pennebaker (U of TX Austin) • 20 years of research connected to illness, victims of violent crime, and college student transition and stress • Dr. Robert Emmons (UC Davis) • Editor of The Journal of Positive Psychology • Dr. Laura King (University of Missouri) • Professor of Personality Psychology, studies meaning making in life • Dr. Joshua Smyth (Penn State) • Professor of Health, studies the health effects of writing • Dr. John Brookfield (U of St. Thomas) • Engaging in Critical Reflection as a teacher