Reflecting on Reflections

While reading Suzie Boss’ article "High Tech Reflection Strategies Make Learning Stick", I felt a wave of empathy for the groaning students she described. In my own experience as a student, I have often felt like the reflections I've been asked to engage in more accurately measured how fast I could produce two pages of text tangentially related to the topic of study as opposed to actually reflecting my learning. I've taken several courses in which I've been asked in very vague terms to produce a reflection week after week, and I've become adept at doing so with a minimum of thought and effort. This was due to both the format of the assignment and to boredom with the requirements.

I do believe in the importance of reflection, both to solidify learning and to promote metacognition. That's why Boss' point about providing opportunities to reflect in a variety of different formats really hit home for me. For some students (like me), writing a formulaic essay about what I learned in class every single week is a meaningless exercise, whereas an interview or conversation with a classmate--or the opportunity to read others' thoughts and respond to them on a forum like this blog--promotes much deeper thinking and sincere reflection.

This is yet another example of why it is important for teachers to differentiate their expectations based on their students' learning needs and styles. The actual goal of reflecting should not be that students write something for the sake of writing each week. The goal should be to help students process more deeply what they've learned and to reflect on their experience with the learning process. If teachers were to keep that end goal in mind rather than becoming stuck on the process, I think we would have an easier time modifying our ideas about what a reflection should be and tailoring our expectations to fit our students' needs.

-Molly Betty