February 2012: Reflective Learning

February 2012: Reflective Learning

Reflection is an essential component of Kolb’s experiential learning cycle.  Critical reflection leads to transformative adult learning resulting in changes in frames of reference (Mezirow 1998).  Through Mezirow’s article I learnt about King and Kitchener’s (King and Kitchener 1994) seven stages of reflective judgement. According to them the Stages 6 and 7 are reflective where “knowledge is understood not as a “given” but actively constructed-knowledge claims are understood in relation to the context in which they are generated.” Active construction of knowledge is critical reflection.  Thus, in reflective learning the students not just take the knowledge as “given”, instead they construct new knowledge structures/meaning schemes through critical thinking, reasoning and analysis.  A cumulative change in meaning schemes results in changes in  meaning perspectives leading to transformative learning.

What then is the object of reflection for a student? Experience (both within and outside a classroom setting) is the starting point for any reflective process. It may be possible to know more about the relationship R3 in January post by systematically documenting students’ critical reflections. Statistical evidence for enhanced learning through reflective journal writing has been presented by Burrows et al (2001).  Learning journals have been used to encourage students to actively reflect in Engineering Design Courses by Seepersad et al (2006). Reflective journals have also been used by Broadway et al (2005) and by Palmer (2004) in an on-line format.

These readings form the starting point for my SoTL project.

References