Visible Learning

It is taken for granted that students learn from their experiences during education from staff. However, at Washington State University staff learn from their students.

Staff learned that students are:

INNOVATIVE in their use of technology, doing much to help us understand the power and potential of new tools.

RESOURCEFUL in their strategies to use academic work to understand their communities and the world.

RIGOROUS in tracking their own learning progress.

SAVVY at recognizing great learning opportunities beyond the classroom.

PERCEPTIVE in their use of peer feedback as a critical resource for deepening their learning.

CREATIVE in selecting strong data and evidence in unexpected areas to understand and explain their own academic growth.

Read more about it here: https://my.wsu.edu/portal/page?_pageid=177,298566&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

This clearly shows that students are more than capable of reflective learning, and producing some very positive output.

Posted by Ray Tolley on the eportfolios-and-plts group

Reflective Writing

Reflective Writing - Guidance Notes for Students
Pete Watton; Jane Collings; Jenny Moon
April 2001

This pack looks mainly at reflective writing for work-based/experience modules but can be applied across the board. Essentially it is an informative paper with some background theory on reflection and a few exercises with case studies. Overall the pack seems quite useful and manages to provide a good overview of reflection in a way that most students are able to understand. It makes use of material that students may relate to, such as a reference to reflection in Harry Potter:

‘Harry stared at the stone basin. The contents had returned to their original, silvery white state, swirling and rippling beneath his gaze.

“ What is it?” Harry asked shakily.

“This? It is called a Pensieve,” said Dumbledore. “ I sometimes find, and I am sure you know the feeling, that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind.”

“Err,” said Harry who couldn’t truthfully say that he had ever felt anything of the sort.

“At these times” said Dumbledore, indicating the stone basin, “ I use the Penseive. One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one’s mind, pours them into a basin, and examines them at one’s leisure. It becomes easier to spot patterns and links, you understand, when they are in this form.’ ( Rowling 2000)

Guidance on reflection

A great informative guidance sheet for students at Hull University (Chris Pinder) on reflection. Although it's geared towards a paper based portfolio the underlying principles are still the same. This may prove useful when developing our own guidance. It's simple and concise:

http://www.hull.ac.uk/studyadvice/LearningResources/StudyGuidesPDFs/reflectlr.pdf