An Examination of Reflective Thinking,Learning Approaches,and Self‐Efficacy Beliefs at the University of the South Pacific: A path analysis approach

This study examined the causal and mediating relations between students’ learning approaches, self‐efficacy beliefs, stages of reflective thinking, and academic performance. Second‐year undergraduate students (n = 241; 118 females, 123 males) in the South Pacific were administered the revised version of Biggs’ Study Process Questionnaire, the Reflective Thinking Questionnaire, and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. Latent variables analysis indicated that a surface learning approach contributed to the prediction of habitual action, and a deep learning approach predicted understanding and self‐efficacy. Self‐efficacy directly predicted the stages of reflective thinking, with the exception of critical thinking, and understanding negatively predicted academic performance. Finally, with the exception of critical thinking, the stages of reflective thinking were found to relate causally in a unidimensional manner.     

新媒体、新技术体验学习的设计与实践

新媒体、新技术正以各种方式广泛而深刻地影响社会的方方面面,但是其在教育中的应用情况究竟如何?在新理念构建下的体验式学习环境中开展新媒体、新技术的学习是一个全新的课题。目前教师和学生对教学中引入新媒体与新技术并未给予足够的重视,一个很重要的原因是缺乏相应的学习体验。体验学习在促进学习者知识理解、激发学习者主动性、培养批判性思维等方面有积极影响。基于新媒体、新技术进行体验学习时,一方面要使物理环境遵循未来课堂、体验学习、场馆学习环境设计基本理念,以人为本,重视多角度、多方式地对事物进行呈现,尽可能地促进学习者直接经验的获取和反思;另一方面在体验学习活动设计时要将具体体验、反思观察、抽象概括、行动应用四个学习阶段贯穿其中,充分利用物理环境所提供的空间和技术支持,把获取经验(感知经验和领悟经验)与转换经验结合起来,实现体验学习过程的螺旋上升。     

Lifelong learning from natural disasters: transformative group-based learning at Philippine universities

This study explores reflective experience during transformative, group-based learning among university leaders following a natural disaster such as a typhoon in two Philippine universities. Natural disasters are recurrent phenomena in many parts of the world, but the literature largely ignores their impact on lifelong human learning, for instance regarding preparing the university setting for future natural disasters. The study used interviews and document analysis, drawing on a body of interrelated works in transformative learning theory, critical educational theory and conceptions about group processes and reflective practice to understand university leaders’ lifelong learning from natural disasters as experiential, transformative, reflective and group oriented. The findings document that university leaders’ reflective, transformative learning depends on individuals’ experience of natural disasters as disorienting dilemmas, and that reflection is facilitated by decisive group dynamics rather than only personal reflection. Facilitating a learning space for transformative, reflective learning in university settings might assist university leaders to enhance disaster risk preparedness, for instance through local policy change.     

A Teacher Who Left His Mark

Abstract

Discussion of the nature of critical thinking and the ways in which it can be enhanced has increased in recent years among social work educators, and yet little is known about the impact of MSW education on the critical thinking of students. This paper examines the nature of critical thinking, presents an adult cognitive developmental model, the Reflective Judgment Model (King &; Kitchener, 1994), which holds promise for enlarging social work's understanding of critical thinking and examines approaches to teaching which enhance critical thinking. The Reflective Judgment Model focuses on the development of assumptions about knowledge and the process of knowing as development occurs through adulthood. Specific implications for creating classroom and field learning environments are detailed, including characteristics of effective teachers and of effective assignments.     

A reflective learning taxonomy for an educational tour

This study is to investigate the reflective learning in a group of secondary school students who participated in an educational tour to Liannan, which is located in a rural area in Guangdong Province, Mainland China. The specific aim is to develop a framework to describe the learning in an educational tour. For this purpose, data were collected through students?? reflective writing in daily journals and end-of-trip sharing passages, triangulated with participant observation and interviews. The data analysis involved the use of grounded theory??s constant-comparative technique??an inductive method for generating hypotheses that are grounded in data. During the analysis of the data, the types of student learning which emerged were categorized in a Reflective Learning Taxonomy for an educational tour, comprising seven levels which are developmental in nature. The interpretative framework based on such a taxonomy of reflective learning reveals the rich context of learning in an educational tour and so makes a contribution to research on learning outside the classroom.     

反思学习研究及其面临的时代课题

反思学习的研究重点在于其概念、类型、模式和实施策略。反思学习实现对反思性学习神秘性的"祛魅",注重经验及其转变的过程性和技术性,趋向社会性和实践性。其集中表现在:反思形式从沉思走向实践反思;从个体反思学习走向社会化反思学习;从过去的"反思性"走向外显的、实证的"反思";从对抗、竞争式批判走向理解、诠释;从以往的经验反思...     

Using Reflective Journals to Enhance Impoverished Practicum Placements: A case in teacher education in Ethiopia

This article investigates the value of writing reflective journals for student teachers during practicum placement. The author invited 10 pre‐service education degree teachers to write a weekly reflective journal throughout their four weeks practicum teaching. Each student teacher was given the opportunity to revisit the issues in his journals through a subsequent reflective dialogue. At the end of the practicum, the student teachers were asked to complete one additional reflective journal to provide their views about how useful and challenging they found the task of writing reflective journals on their teaching experiences. The author also kept observation notes to reflect on his own experiences of involving student teachers in reflective journal writing. It was concluded that the student teachers benefited immensely from their experiences of writing reflective journals for the purpose of reflecting on their practical experiences. They reported that the activity helped them improve their teaching experiences and deepen their understanding of the complexities involved in learning to teach. The study has implications on the role of reflective journals as a means of engaging teacher candidates in reflective thinking, a recently emerging notion in the education of teachers in Ethiopia.     

Assessing the psychometric properties of Kember and Leung’s Reflection Questionnaire

Reflective thinking is often stated as a learning outcome of baccalaureate nursing education, and as a characteristic of a competent professional; however, no consistent method exists to assess the extent to which students engage in reflective thinking. To address this need, Kember and Leung developed and tested a self-report questionnaire based on Mezirow’s conceptualisation of levels of reflective thinking. The purpose of this study was to test the psychometric properties of the Reflection Questionnaire, developed by Kember and Leung. A convenience sample (n?=?538) of third-year baccalaureate nursing students from four collaborative nursing programmes in Ontario was used. Ethical approval was secured from 10 sites. Second-order confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were used to test the factor structure of the Reflection Questionnaire. This research was part of a larger study on reflective thinking and is a first step in validating a four-level measure of reflective thinking, in educational environments, with baccalaureate nursing students. The results of the second-order CFA provide support for the construct validity of reflective thinking. Results of this study contribute to the evidence supporting the reliability and validity of the questionnaire. Nurse educators can use this information when implementing the questionnaire, and learning the extent to which students are engaging in the reflective thinking process.     

The interplay between reflective thinking,critical thinking,self-monitoring,and academic achievement in higher education

The present study assessed the associations among higher-order thinking skills (reflective thinking, critical thinking) and self-monitoring that contribute to academic achievement among university students. The sample consisted of 196 Iranian university students (mean age = 22.05, SD = 3.06; 112 females; 75 males) who were administered three questionnaires. To gauge reflective thinking, the “Reflective Thinking Questionnaire” designed by Kember et al. (Assess Eval High Educ 25(4):380–395, 2000) was utilized. It includes 16 items measuring four types of reflective thinking (habitual action, understanding, reflection, and critical reflection). To assess critical thinking, the “Watson–Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal”(2002) was utilized. It comprises 80 items and consists of 5 subtests (inference, recognizing unstated assumptions, deduction, interpretation, and evaluation). Self-monitoring was measured via 8 items of the self-regulation trait questionnaire designed by O’Neil and Herl (Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA, 1998). The results demonstrated that critical thinking and all components of reflective thinking positively and significantly predicted achievement with habitual action having the lowest impact and reflection exhibiting the highest influence. Self-monitoring indirectly exerted a positive influence on achievement via understanding and reflection. It was also found that among the four subscales of reflective thinking, reflection and critical reflection predicted critical thinking positively and significantly. Self-monitoring had a positive and significant impact on critical thinking. It also significantly and positively influenced understanding as well as reflection.     

The contribution of reflective learning to experiential learning in business education

Abstract

Experiential learning theory states that reflection is just as important to learning as action. However, business educators often overlook reflection in their experiential learning activities, especially when it’s understood as a dialogue process. Drawing on reflective learning theory, we explored the case of an undergraduate business programme that has been combining experiential learning with three different reflective learning mechanisms for the past ten years. Results show that: (1) reflective dialogue is central for ensuring that impressions from experience translate into better-defined learning outcomes, (2) this dialogue process greatly benefits from a closely guided process, and (3) different reflection mechanisms contribute differently to the learning process. Considering how fast experiential learning has popularised in business schools, this study alerts educators to the importance of combining their experiential learning activities with a guided process of reflection. Otherwise, educators risk students extracting meagre, wrong or misleading impressions from their experience.     

Exploring evidence of reflective thinking in student artifacts of blogging-mapping tool: a design-based research approach

Reflective learning can assist a learner’s purposeful and conscious manipulation of ideas toward meaningful learning and knowledge integration. Blogs have been used to support reflection, but Blogs usually do not provide overt mechanisms for students to make connections between different parts of an experience, which is integral to reflective activity. A blogging-mapping tool was designed to support the reflective learning process. The tool allowed students to write blog posts, attach up to five keywords to each post, and link the keywords on a concept map. This study aimed to seek patterns of participants’ use of the tool, including evidence of reflective learning, identified as integration between concept maps and blogs. Nine graduate students participated in the study for a semester. Data analysis included examining concept maps for knowledge integration over time. Participants’ various mapping activities implied different levels of thinking. Some participants’ final concept maps showed signs that they tried to integrate knowledge around the content area. Yet, the inconsistent and inconclusive patterns of participants’ concept mapping activities signaled that more strategies were needed to sustain their commitment.     

Reflecting on Practice: using learning journals in higher and continuing education

The purpose of this study is to report on the use of learning journals as vehicles for encouraging critical reflection among non-traditional students and to compare variances with studies among traditional students. An objective of the study was to understand how adult students in a 'technical' computer class responded to the requirement for learning journals. Qualitative research focused on whether learning journals prove to be an effective teaching tool in science-based, adult learning. The study was conducted at Columbia University's Computer Technology programme in Continuing Education. Results suggest that non-traditional students are more skeptical than traditional students about using learning journals and more likely to use them as study tools. An implication of this study is that student perception and skepticism of the assignment can affect the objective of developing reflective thinking. This implication stresses the need to account for student perception in studies on learning journals and critical reflection.     

体验式学习中的情感参与:SVVR支持写作学习的实证研究

写作学习中普遍存在学生因缺少对真实情境的体验而难以唤起写作兴趣的问题,如何改善学生的情境体验和情感参与成为改善写作学习效果的关键。在基于球面视频虚拟现实(SVVR)技术构建的体验式写作学习环境中,通过融入体验式学习理念与引导策略,设计了包含具体化经验、反思性观察、抽象化概念、评价与修正四阶段的写作学习活动,并将其运用于教学实践。实证分析结果表明:除思维创新性外,基于SVVR的体验式写作学习环境对学生写作的主题契合性、结构完整性和语言表达具有促进作用,并能够提升学生的情感参与水平;在SVVR的支持下,高情感参与水平的学生有更佳的写作表现,特别是在作品的结构完整性、语言表达与思维创新性上;相较于传统写作学习环境,在基于SVVR的体验式写作学习环境中,学生的阅读习惯与写作成绩间呈现出更强的相关性。可见,SVVR支持下的体验式学习有助于促进学生的情感参与和阅读积累向写作能力的迁移,实现对写作学习效果的提升。同时,有必要强化基于SVVR的智能交互和多感官体验,并将其与教学过程有机整合。     

Engaging students in reflective writing: an action research project

ABSTRACT

Due to limited exposure to the reflective genre, students experience cognitive, psychological and linguistic issues that prevent them from producing proficient reflective pieces. This study investigated how these issues could be addressed through modelling, the 6 + 1 traits writing rubric and blended learning. The study reports on the experiences of 37 participants in the fourth year of secondary schooling at an all male school in Trinidad and Tobago. Change in a regional examination syllabus which introduced a focus on the reflective mode and reflective writing had implications for teaching and learning. Through one cycle of a practical action research project using an embedded quasi-experimental design, an intervention to address cognitive, psychological and linguistic issues was implemented. Quantitative data were collected using a pre- and post-test and a Writing Attitude Survey (WAS). Qualitative data were gathered through student journals and students’ formative writing assessment artefacts. The intervention succeeded in positively changing students’ dispositions towards reflective writing, developing students’ reflective writing and addressing text organization issues. This research is significant for teachers and students where intentional reflection and reflective writing are competencies that can enhance critical thinking and metacognition and potentially lead to personal, intellectual and professional development.     

A critical evaluation of the usefulness of a coding scheme to categorise levels of reflective thinking

The use of reflective learning journals to encourage higher order learning outcomes is a growing area in higher education research and practice. However, without a unified and clear definition of reflection, identifying and assessing reflection is problematic for educators. In an attempt to address this issue, in 1999 Kember and colleagues devised a coding scheme based on the work of Mezirow, to identify and assess levels of reflective thinking in students' written journals. We evaluated the usefulness of this coding scheme in a business education context. Findings revealed that the scheme was useful in identifying categories of reflective thinking. Inter‐coder agreement was 0.802 which is satisfactory. On average, 65% of the journal content was coded as non‐reflection and 35% as reflection. A further outcome of the research was to refine the coding scheme and to provide suggestions for its application in teaching practice.     

Three dimensions of reflective thinking in solving design problems: a conceptual model

Design tasks are omnipresent in our everyday lives. Previous research shows that reflective thinking is one of the critical factors in solving design problems. Related research has attempted to capture designers’ reflective thinking process. Yet a close inspection of designers’ reflective thinking taking place during their design process demands further effort. To understand designer’s reflective practice and to find better ways to promote novices’ reflective thinking in solving real-world design problems, a comprehensive model was developed. This model identified three dimensions to guide the understanding of designers’ reflective thinking during a design process: (1) the timing of reflection, indicating the points in the process where reflective thinking occurs, (2) the objects of reflection, showing the different types of objects that designers may reflect upon, and (3) the levels of reflection, referring to the different levels of designers’ reflection. This model provides for meaningful aspects of reflective thinking to be situated in a design process, which can guide educators and instructional designers in developing appropriate learning environments for facilitating novice and practicing designers’ reflective thinking. Moreover, the model can serve as a stepping stone for further research.     

Reflection,realignment and refraction: Bernstein's evaluative rules and the summative assessment of reflective practice in a problem-based learning programme

ABSTRACT

Reflective practice is an essential component of experiential learning and is embedded within the curriculum at York Law School, where the undergraduate law programme is delivered using a problem-based learning model. Using qualitative data from a survey of the markers of one of the summative reflective tasks, and Bernstein's evaluative rules as a theoretical frame, this article explores the assessment traps exposed by this type of assessment. Thematic analysis of the markers’ statements introduces ‘reflection’, ‘realignment’ and ‘refraction’ as three of the potential effects of the summative assessment of reflective practice.     

Taking a risk to develop reflective skills in business practitioners

Critical reflection can support alternative decision-making in business practice. This paper examines the effectiveness of a risk-based pedagogy to engage practitioners in reflective thinking. Educators adopting a radical pedagogy in professionally accredited programmes face multiple challenges: learners often resist the process of self-reflection and stakeholders expect instrumental outcomes. A longitudinal study of human resource practitioners uses an interpretivist methodology to examine reflection through student-led learning and experiential activity. Findings show that a pedagogical method that overturns learner expectations stimulates dynamic discussion and reflection on experience. Implications are that effective risk-based teaching relies on establishing two conditions: (1) a scaffold structure which supports learner improvisation and (2) a lecturer willingness to continually orchestrate chance elements to maximise learning. This study contributes a practice-based understanding of the theoretical development of risk pedagogy, and adds new insights on the process of facilitating reflective skills to enable business practitioners to confront unpredictable work situations.     

Examining students’ reflective thinking from keywords tagged to blogs: using map analysis as a content analysis method

Reflective learning refers to a learner's purposeful and conscious manipulation of ideas toward meaningful learning. Blogs have been used to support reflective thinking, but the commonly seen blog software usually does not provide overt mechanisms for students' high-level reflections. A new tool was designed to support the reflective thinking process. Beyond writing blog posts, the tool allowed users to attach up to five keywords to each post and link the keywords on a concept map. This study aimed to seek evidence of reflective thinking in participants’ keyword-attaching activities. Data analysis included producing mental maps of the blog texts, calculating nodes of high centrality (most talked-about nodes and most connected nodes) with the help of software including AutoMap and Organizational Risk Analyzer, and comparing student-generated keywords against mental map nodes. Results of keyword analyses revealed that two-thirds of the student-attached keywords matched mental map nodes. Results also indicate that the map analysis method can produce reliable indexes of a given text, which in turn could serve as anchor points for further content analysis. Other findings also uncovered some differences between participant-selected keywords and mental map nodes, indicating different levels of reflective activities.     

阶段还原:论教学个性的生成路径

从人类教育发展的角度看,教学方法形成经历了个性化教学生活——经验性教学活动——普适性教学方法的抽象过程。教学方法的产生,实质上是教师自我逐渐被剥离的过程。因此,运用逆向思维,通过教学方法在教学过程中的阶段还原,在教师基于技能学习的教学方法选择——基于经验积淀的教学活动重建——基于生命实践的教学生活展开等三个层面上,构建教师认识自我——改造自我——展现自我的发展历程,从而让教师的教学形态完成从模仿性教学上升到反思性教学,再到生成性教学的蜕变与提升,以此实现教学个性的生成。