Some students take the word “diary” a bit too literally and produce a diary style report “First I had breakfast, then I went to the library for two hours and finally I started writing my first page” while others use it as a “dumping place” for all sorts of feedback and other emotions. “I do not like finance as a subject” or “It was very useful to get the lesson material well in advance in order to prepare for the lesson and during the lesson we were briefed very well on how to write the assignment” I really enjoy reading these so-called reflective diaries because partly students speak out their feelings about the course, the lesson, the subject and their perception of life as a whole in here.
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However interesting all this may be, the reflective diary is not the place to put any of this. It is meant to be something different and I am trying to get the idea across in this blog post.
1. Background Information
The reflective diary is to be handed in with every assignment on the Bachelor level and should contain ca. 500-1000 words. Although it does not form part of the assignment as such it is taken into account for marking and a good reflective diary can bring the grade up by one alpha numeric while a poor reflection can drag the grade down by 1 alpha numeric.
These are the criteria the marker uses to assess the reflective diary:
Journal Grade
High level of reflection and critical evaluation based on the assessment criteria. gain 1
This demonstrates a “Stepping back” from the events. alpha numeric
The reflection would be analytical or integrative grade
Reflected with some success, may have concentrated on process rather than neutral
feelings or issues.
This could be quite descriptive, but with some justification.
No Reflective Journal submitted or Journal limited to descriptive writing, lose 1 alpha
no evidence of discussion numeric grade
2. What is reflection?
After having performed (for example after having completed an assignment) a reflective practitioner should reflect upon his/her work and state ways of how to improve in the future. The first step involves being self critical and recognising that your work is not perfect. It is about stating your weaknesses. Recognising your weakness is absolutely crucial for personal development and continuous improvement.
After a lesson, a reflective teacher would think about the lesson: were the handouts structured in a logical manner? Did learning take place? Did I overload the students with information rather than making sure the basic concepts are understood? Should I have done more or less group work? Did the students really understand how they should write their reflective diary?
The second step is all about finding methods of improving this for the future.
Having found that actually all of the above went wrong, the teacher then should take action and try to improve for the next lesson. How can I improve my handouts? This is a question of better preparation. I should decide on what I am covering in my lesson beforehand and then once in the class not jump around between subjects and create confusion for students. In order to make sure learning has taken place I should allocate more time to activities in class where the students should actually apply different concepts and finally to get the reflective diary idea across, I write an entry for the blog to clarify this.
And the third step is a trial and error step. In the next lesson the reflective teacher will try to improve and see how the new concepts work. Is it really worthwhile allocating more time to activities at the cost of not covering that much of the lesson plan? Do students actually read the blog entry and do they manage to produce better reflective diaries as a result of this?
And it can of course be foreseen that the actual experience will have other issues again and there will be more aspects to improve upon and the never ending learning cycle starts all over again.
With this example I illustrated Kolb’s learning cycle, a model with four different steps, one should follow for an improved learning experience. I find this model ideal for students to refer to when reflecting upon their work.
Kolb, j.A. (1984) Experimental Learning Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs
3. Why is reflection important?
In today’s lifelong learning environment, students, teachers and anyone else are required to constantly improve. There is always more to learn out there and there is always so much more you could do better. Of course it is not possible to do it all at once and perfection cannot be achieved. However, it is an important skill to seek, find and improve upon one’s personal weaknesses.
Through developing a reflective, questioning attitude within our students, we aim at developing and educating graduates fit for a successful career in an ever-changing world where they are required to constantly question themselves and look for opportunities of further improvements and personal development.
It is important for students to develop this skill because students should take control of their personal development and ensure that they get the most out of every learning possibility.
4. What are problems students are facing?
Reflecting on your own assignment is quite a difficult task and many students fail to see the point and the importance of this. Furthermore as it only has a minor impact on the final grade, the calculating student just makes sure that there is something titled “Reflective Diary” to tick the box and will not bother too much wasting time on such a secondary report.
Another issue is that our students are highly efficient when it comes to producing reflective diaries. Once you have written one, you change the title of the subject and the assignment and there you go, a new reflective diary in less than 5 minutes.
This is the wrong approach. For the above mentioned reasons, practicing reflection is very beneficial even beyond the grade for your assignment.
I also was asked the following question in class “What should we reflect upon if we are perfectly happy with our assignment and do not see any weaknesses?” Well, it is of course a pre-requisite to see your own weaknesses. I personally believe that if students do not see their weaknesses it does not mean that they do not have any. In fact one of their weaknesses is not to be self critical enough to see their own weaknesses. My advice for all those students who cannot find their weaknesses is to actively seek for them. There will always be weaknesses, for example linked to the research undertaken and there are often language weaknesses or time management or organisational issues, just to mention a few of the most common ones.
A further issue is that students get defensive about their weaknesses and shift responsibilities to others. “I was under time pressure because I was busy finishing other deadlines for my employer while I had to write my assignment.” This again is not part of what should go into your reflective diary. Here it should be about those things that are under your own control.
Finally, it is important to understand that recognising our weaknesses is not something we should be ashamed of. On the contrary, it is the first step to improving and is therefore something we should be proud of.
RSS Alle
University of Wales
