Writing Skills Lab Reflection Reflection Learning Outcomes Reflection

Writing Skills Lab Reflection

Reflection

Learning Outcomes: Reflection • • Define and evaluate strategies for rhetorical reading and building vocabulary Define and identify rhetorical context Identify active reading strategies Use context clues and other reading strategies to learn and retain new words

Why does learning about reflection matter?

Why does learning about reflection matter? Psychologist and educational reformer John Dewey once noted, “We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience. ” Throughout college, you will build an intellectual scaffolding that will not only prepare you for a career but also help you understand your identity and your place in the world. Reflection is the critical thinking skill that connects that scaffolding, building bridges between information and understanding, theory and practice, isolated knowledge and collective insight.

Introduction to Reflection in Thinking and Learning Reflect, often. If we take time to notice what just happened, we learn how the system operates. Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful. It’s amazing to me how much we do, but how little time we spend reflecting on what we just did. – Meg Wheatley

What is Reflective Thinking? Reflective thinking involves “consideration of the larger context, the meaning, and the implications of an experience or action. ”[1] In other words, reflection doesn’t just mean jotting down what you did or plan to do. It means considering why what you did or plan to do matters; it means writing to help you better understand something; it means exploring emotions, feelings, reactions, and knowledges; and it can even mean catharsis. Think of reflection as exploring the “so what” instead of just the “what. ” Let’s look at an example:

Reflective Thinking A lot of college students take four or five classes per semester while juggling many other responsibilities. So how do you maximize your learning in these classes? One way is through reflection. Take a lecture-based science class for example. A teacher can talk to a class for fifty minutes while students take notes, and students can study those notes in preparation for the test. But what too often happens in these instances is rote memorization of information in order to perform well on an exam. Some students with good memories may recall certain information down the road, but much of it probably gets lost over time.

Reflection as Academic Work – Knowledge Types There is a widespread belief that people have different learning styles (visual, aural, etc. ) and that those varying styles allow us understand make sense of material, such as the content in college courses. In reality, though, an overwhelming amount of research shows that people do not have different learning styles despite the prevalence of such views. We are all capable of learning in different ways, but central to becoming a better learner is critically examining ourselves. In other words, we need to be able to reflect honestly about what we learn, how we learn, and how we can best understand what we learn.

Reflection as Academic Work-–Knowledge Types According to the old saying from Confucius, “To know what you know and what you do not know, that is true knowledge. ” Reflection is an act that helps you better determine your own true knowledge about something. For many students, acknowledging their limitations or what they don’t understand about certain material can be key to real learning. Without such practices we may be faking our way through learning, which isn’t really learning at all. Writing can help us do that kind of deeper reflection.

Activity: Let’s take a lecture-based science class. A teacher can talk to a class for fifty minutes while students take notes, and students can study those notes in preparation for the test. But what too often happens in these instances is rote memorization of information in order to perform well on an exam. Some students with good memories may recall certain information down the road, but much of it probably gets lost over time. What do you recommend to help a student recall the information from a lecture class? What do you do as a student to reflect?

Reflections as a Continuum

Reflecting Across the Disciplines • If reflection seems like an act unique to your writing class, think about other courses and majors and how we see instances of reflection. • Consider health fields and professions. Early in their educations, future nurses, doctors, and other health professionals are taught the importance of reflection in their work. • Writing allows health care professionals to keep a reflective log of patients (think about why nurses and doctors rely on those charts and patient records so much).

Reflecting Across the Disciplines It is important to think of learning as interconnected, and reflection may allow a space for connections to happen: • • • Students in Mathematics may reflect on previous problems they have solved to help them think about pathways to tackle a more complex problem. Students in Economics may reflect on a simple economic model to help make more sense of complicated information. Students in Education may reflect on their growing knowledges of technology to help lay out innovative lesson plans for the classrooms of the future.

Practice Question What are some assignments that you’ve done in the past where you have been asked to reflect about your learning?

Frameworks For Reflective Writing The Borton Framework

The DIEP model

The DEAL Model Describe the experience Examine the experience Articulate learning by explaining what you learned and how you Learned it and why it’s important

Process of Reflective Writing

Process of Reflective Writing Reflective writing is a balancing act with many factors at play: description, analysis, interpretation, evaluation, and future application. Reflective writers must weave their personal perspectives with evidence of deep, critical thought as they make connections between theory, practice, and learning.

What is the process of reflective writing? Step 1: Review the assignment Step 2: Generate ideas for content Step 3: Organize content Step 4: Draft, revise, edit, repeat

Quick Review As you work your way through higher education, remember the following ideas: • • Reflection means exploring the “so what” rather than just the “what. ” Consider the four knowledge types when you reflect: self-knowledge, content knowledge, rhetorical knowledge, and critical knowledge or judgment. Reflect meaningfully on past events, present events, or future events. Reflect across all academic disciplines and into your careers. Structure your reflective writing using the DEAL (Describe, Examine, Articulate Learning) or DIEP (Describe, Interpret, Evaluate, Plan) models. Use Strong reflective writing relies on a process, just like other writing tasks. Explain the advantages that arise from managing people well