Reflecting is a key activity for becoming mindful, to becoming self-aware, and for learning. It also helps the student learn writing skills and notetaking. Reflecting is just not for students, but that is for another note.

Reflecting is a key part of deliberate practice, and this is what builds cognitive abilities.

Cutting to the chase...

• Reflections are personal and we are pretty sure that there is not a right way or one specific way for a student to do a reflection.
• The reflection should not be about specific stuff that is learned, but how it is learned and what the student is learning about learning. The reflection should be about what they have tried, what has worked, what has not worked, and what are the plans for the future.
• If something went better than anticipated and expected, why? If something took longer or did not have the expected results, why?
• Part of the reflection thinking can be similar to what is done in continuous improvement. Some students like a recipe and a plan-do-check-act cycle of monitoring and adjustment can help them.
• If reflections are to be assessed, the emphasis should be on the content and not in the format and if the student is reflecting upon things that will actually help them become mindful, self-aware, and learn.
• As a student is learning how to reflect, they will likely need some guidance and some coaching.
• Some students will be overly cautious about what they will put down in the reflections if they know someone is reading it and if there is a grading and they will reflect to whatever is being graded.
• The students will need to see the value in doing reflections. They will need to see the value to themselves. They also need to see the value from sharing and doing it as a class activity.
• A general reflection done weekly, read by an instructor, about the general week’s learning (not facts and figures but WHAT was learned), and the ups and downs during the week, can give great insights into how the term is going across all of the courses for the students and provide feedback for how to alter or adjust a course.
• Depending on how open a student is, the reflections also give an opportunity to reach out and provide some coaching as to potential counselling needed or other suggestions about learning, studying, mental well-being.
• A positive, trustful relationship is needed between the student reflecting and the instructor, if the reflections are to do their job.
• A first-year foundational, concept course is possibly a good place to start the reflecting activity and have it as part of the course itself. Other courses can reinforce the need in the use of reflections. Subsequent terms and courses can also reinforce the use of reflections.
• There are pros and cons to having students do a reflection in later terms as part of an official course activity. Doing the reflection in the first term only, is possibly not enough repetition and reinforcement for some students to create a habit. And without the weekly or biweekly reflection, and instructor does not get the same type of feedback. But it is too easy for the reflection activity to become meaningless and just something to be done if the students do not see the value in it.

• It is not suggested that a student do a reflection in every course. One course per term having a reflection activity is probably sufficient; as long as there is some communication between the instructors.
• At the beginning of a planned reflection process in a course, the majority of students will likely be cautious, sceptical, and see little value in the activity. Hopefully over a 12 to 13 week cycle, value can be realized, and the students motivated to continue the activity. If the instructor does a reach out to approximately 10% of the students each week, and occasionally adjust the course execution and delivery based on the reflections, this will help.
• The first reflections will likely to be mechanical and talk about how they learned X in course Y, focusing on knowledge and facts. The class as a whole will need feedback on this and weekly encouragement about what other types of things to include. But the advice cannot be seen as a fixed, unbending, template or rubric to follow.
• During the term, on a frequent basis, the reflection should be talked about in general and what the instructor is reading from the and sharing that with the class. And if adjustments are made because of the reflections, the students need to be told that. Not only should the instructor use the reflections wisely, they need to be seen to use them wisely.
• One type of assessment that we have used is a very rough one. Approximately 10% of the course grade was for engaging in the reflection exercise. The students would start off with 10% and at the end of the term they would lose marks for not doing them regularly or taking it seriously. A simple scoresheet was used to track the reflections each week. It is quite easy to look at a reflection and know if it was being done seriously or not. During the term this would be discussed in general with the class about how some of the reflections would look as if the student only spent 2 to 3 minutes on it versus the expected 10 to 15 minutes. The students are not stupid. They know who you are talking about. It does not take 10 to 15 minutes to write three lines.
• Part way through the term, we suggest asking the students to reflect upon the reflections and what has happened in the previous month or two months.
• At the end of the term we asked them to do this as well. We also ask them to do a reflection on reflecting. This is often where they start to consciously realize the benefits associated with reflecting.
• For fun, we also ask them to think back at the beginning of term and what advice they would have given themselves at that time if they had known what the term was going to be like in advance.

Further reading

• https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/resources/reflection-framework-and-prompts