Reflection

Research in the learning sciences underscores the significant benefits of reflective writing. When students are presented with precise and meaningful prompts and are repeatedly encouraged to contemplate their coursework, along with their educational, professional, or clinical experiences, they can enhance their ability to retain information and apply their knowledge to new situations. Reflective writing fulfills various purposes at once. It helps students improve their specific skills and deepen their understanding within their fields of study while also fostering a greater awareness of their own learning behaviors and practices. Essentially, while reflection is a process of looking back, it simultaneously prepares the mind for future application and practice.

Reflective writing, as detailed by Brown, Roediger III, and McDaniel in "Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning" (2014), involves:

• retrieval,
• elaboration, and
• generation of information,

which can significantly strengthen the durability of learning.

Simple prompts like:

• What went well?
• What could have gone better?
• What does this remind you of?
• What strategies might you use next time for better results?

This helps students actively engage with and monitor their learning processes. This active engagement not only encourages students to evaluate and adjust their learning strategies but also prompts them to consider their conceptual understanding:

• What do I already know?
• What am I curious about?
• What do I want to learn?
• How does this new information connect with what I previously understood?
• How does this change what I think I know?"

As Ambrose and others highlight in their 2010 study, this process of becoming "consciously competent"—developing skills, gaining fluency, and applying them appropriately—fosters a deeper mastery of concepts.

Beyond benefiting students, reflective writing offers instructors valuable insights into how to refine their teaching strategies, course designs, and assignments based on the challenges identified by students.

Reflective writing is a versatile tool in education, ranging from short, informal assignments like one-minute papers to formal reflections in capstone projects. It is also a key component in e-portfolios, enriching learning across the curriculum. This writing practice is most beneficial when deliberately integrated into a course's design to support specific learning goals and clearly explained to students to enhance its relevance and purpose.

To prevent reflective writing from being misconstrued as merely a course evaluation, it's essential to incorporate it regularly and purposefully throughout the semester. For instance, Dr. Mary Pat Wenderoth utilizes weekly learning paragraphs in her physiology class to help students challenge preconceptions, build conceptual frameworks, and practice metacognition.

Here are several strategies to foster meaningful reflective writing:

1. Goal Setting: Encourage students to anticipate challenges and plan strategies before tasks like exams or essays, enhancing problem-solving skills.
2. Pre-Revision Reflection: Have students write a memo or insert comments on drafts to process feedback constructively and assert their agency in revisions.
3. Continuous Reflection: Integrate reflective tasks throughout a project or term, such as using cognitive wrappers to help students regulate their learning, suggested by Jose Bowen (2012).
4. Learning Logs: Simple end-of-class prompts can boost engagement and help instructors tailor their teaching.
5. End-of-Term Reflections: Asking students to reflect on their growth as writers at the term's end can motivate further development and transfer of writing skills.
6. Post-Milestone Reflections: Following major learning events, detailed reflections can help students synthesize and articulate their experiences, guided by structured prompts.
7. Legacy Reflections: James Lang (2014) reports on a practice where students share effective strategies with future cohorts, emphasizing reflective writing's value and celebrating student achievements.