Introduction: Five strategies from the '2022 Reflective Learning' Series
We think that most learning happens with experience; we do, and we learn. Yet there is a crucial third step to that process: reflection. John Dewey asserts, “We do not learn from experience...we learn from reflecting on experience”. In their introductory post on ‘Reflective Learning’, Professor Simon Riley and Dr Gavin McCabe encourage converting experience into experiential learning, an essential skill set to be learned in order to navigate our complex and uncertain world. They explain reflective practice as a complex series of skills that permeates all behaviours across our academic, professional and personal lives. Looking into the practical tensions in reflective practice, they share:
“There is no one way to ‘do’ reflection. This is true for us as individuals as much as it is true when thinking about embedding reflection in our curricula….Too often it is assumed that this is too difficult, ‘not for my discipline’, or not robust”.
The Nov-Dec Reflective Learning series at Teaching Matters presented eight posts that showcase how reflective practice is already being implemented in and beyond our classrooms and can be supported further.
In this newsletter, you will find five strategies that prompt us to learn from and be inspired by others as well as to reflect on and enhance our own practice. These are followed by our regular features: Collegiate Commentary, In Case You Missed It (ICYMI), and Coming Soon at Teaching Matters! If you'd like to keep up with Teaching Matters, make sure to sign up to our Monthly Newsletter Mailing List.
Five strategies from the ‘2022 Reflective Learning’ series
Strategy #1: Integrating reflective practice at programme level
In their post ‘Reflective design: Programme-level reflection and its assessment’, Andy Cross and Sabine Rolle at the Edinburgh Futures Institute discuss how they have embedded reflection at the programme level within their new EFI undergraduate programme (MA(Hons) Interdisciplinary Futures). With reflection central to their thinking, they discuss how and why they designed this mandatory core course called ‘Reflections on Interdisciplinary Practice’ and integrated this within their programme. They explain how throughout the course, the students:
“…bring together, synthesise, and make sense of their learning from across the whole programme (and indeed also any related and suitable learning experience from beyond the classroom)”
Their students produced short reflective pieces allowing them to capture and process their experiences from all their courses utilising the University’s Reflection Toolkit. Expanding further on this invaluable resource for reflective practice, Gavin McCabe from the Careers services shares this post: The Reflection Toolkit: Supporting effective reflection. Gavin encourages staff and students across the University and beyond who are looking to harness the power of reflective learning to engage with this open educational resource that provides robust starting points and examples to accommodate different interests and needs.
Rayya Ghul at the Institute for Academic Development in her blog post: Using an ‘orientation to reflection’ framework, revisits an article by Wellington and Austin, (1996), and explains how she used their framework to teach her students critical reflection on practice. She explains:
"I developed a series of questions corresponding to each orientation that students could use to write about an incident, moving from one orientation to another…By the end of the course, they had updated their reflection ten times. Rather than hand in the updated reflection, they were required to write an essay reflecting on the updating process and what that had taught them"
With positive feedback from the undergraduate and Masters occupational therapy students on the usefulness of the tool, Rayya and her colleague developed an entire final-year module for the BSc Occupational Therapy called ‘The Reflective Practitioner’.
Strategy #2: Weaving reflective learning into academic practice.
In her blog post, Teaching activities that bring out the best in students - shouldn’t we all strive for that?, Veronique Schutjens from Utrecht University shares interesting practical insights on the various ways in which reflective learning can be applied in course assignments, around (full) courses, and in interaction. Veronique explains:
“By actively observing and reflecting on the adventures and challenges in unfamiliar learning zones, abstract thinking is developed, which can be used in new and broader real-world situations...I frequently use peer-assessment and ask students to reflect in the moment on the quality and accuracy of each other’s feedback”.
Good reflection relies on good recall - yet memory can be fallible, as Anna Wood points out in her blog post: A data-led approach to reflection on teaching. To facilitate and support reflections on teaching, Anna Wood co-developed a classroom observation tool called ‘Framework for Interactive Learning in Lectures’ (FILL+) at the School of Mathematics. This tool helped to code their teaching activity based on the level of interactivity into three categories a) interactive, b) non-interactive and c) vicarious interactive. Anna explains the utility of this tool:
Strategy #3: Extending reflective learning beyond the classroom
Highlighting the need for reflective pedagogy beyond the bounds of our classrooms into field work, Dan Swanton shares his blog post: ‘From field experiences to experiential learning: The importance of reflection’. Taking up their own course at the School of GeoSciences, Dan talks about how the rhythm of the field course is organised around activities that emphasised co-creation. Their students create artifacts such as podcasts, short films, and comic strips, and share their work frequently. Dan says:
“… in our responses, feedback, and discussion about their work, we wanted to model and develop reflective practice. We nudge and we question. We seek clarification. We make connections. We solicit alternative perspectives. We tease out assumptions”.
He spotlights the importance of conversations with students about their learning journey, and the reflection they engender, which can help shift field experience into experiential learning.
Strategy #4: Supporting individual reflective capacity
In their post, ‘Reflection and metacognition for veterinary students’, Susan Rhind, Nina Tomlin, Jenna Richardson, Jessie Paterson, and Paul Wood from the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, acknowledge that:
They explain how reflective practices are taught and honed from year 1 at the vet school. They encourage reflective activities in students’ personal portfolios, providing a comfortable reflective space using real life exemplars modelled by clinical staff, and supporting students with a professional development course that enables students to reflect and identify their own strengths and weaknesses. They are looking forward to adapting a sequential approach that will help them identify students most in need of guidance at an earlier point.
Strategy #5: Reflecting on reflective practice
In their post, ‘Reflections on reflecting: A student’s mirror', Nia Obed-Arthur, an undergraduate student at the Law School, offers an overview of her experiences creating and fulfilling a Student-Led, Individually-Created Course (SLICC) in her first year. Nia reflects:
“insights as to what I liked about studying, what I didn’t like, what I needed more of, what I could go without, and how best I functioned (the latter question I’m not sure we ever finish answering) were not just commonplace but mandatory to my completion of the SLICC”.
Nia talks about how she has scaffolded her reflective practice from her original experiences, how she has used it elsewhere in her learning journey, and how it will continue to be important in her continued professional practice.
Collegiate Commentary
with Mark Peace, Professor of Innovation in Education at Manchester Metropolitan University
While Teaching Matters primarily showcases University of Edinburgh teaching and learning practice, our core values of collegiality and support extend beyond our institution, inviting a wider, international community to engage in Teaching Matters. In this feature, we ask colleagues from other Universities to provide a short commentary on ‘Five things...’, and share their own learning and teaching resource or output, which we can learn from.
Mark's Commentary on "Five strategies from the '2022 Reflective Learning’ series"
“Oh Bloody hell, Mark, not another reflective diary.”
It was an exasperated cry of a first-year undergraduate which was … unanticipated, as I revealed to them my ever-so-clever approach to disrupting the stranglehold of sedimented University assessment practices. It was, of course, a well-intentioned attempt, but also one for which every other module leader had reached. This was a moment of prompt, for me, to think more deeply about the atomised, almost fetishised status of reflective practices – and the disservice we do to them when they are relegated to an easy and inauthentic response to assessment variety.
This should not, of course, be read as a critical response to the reflective project (that would be a terribly rude response to the kind invitation to contribute to this digest!). Rather, it is a call to think of reflection not as an assessment practice, but as a fundamentally critical and transformative learning process. It is a platform to break away from a knowledge-transfer metaphor, and to enable more participative approaches. It pushes us to give agency to the student in how they manage their own development, in the concepts and connections that have the most utility in solving the problems they encounter. It erodes boundaries which delegitimise certain knowledges in certain fields. In doing so it enables a more inclusive space, but also one more amenable to the emergence of deep interlinkage, powerful synthesis and novel thinking. Reflective learning isn’t a counterpoint to ‘proper academic practice’. It is proper academic practice, cut free of the habitus and institutional baggage that get in the way – and in doing so, made more available and more impactful on a greater diversity of students.
That these articles pushed against atomisation and ‘assessmentisation’ (it’s a word) of reflective processes therefore made my heart sing. They talk to its value in making learning participative and integrative, enabling connections between disparate aspects of courses, to knowledge beyond their classroom, and through personal priorities, passions and interests. They talked about adventures in unfamiliar places, and the importance of building competence and confidence to take advantage of opportunities and experiences – and they also provoke us to think of embodied reflection, and the value of making and doing.
These are dynamics we’re also exploring at Manchester Met – as part of our ongoing embedding of an institutional view of educational gain based on student agency and authentic experience. We’re leveraging work we’ve previously embedded to move extra-curricular learning into a co-curricular space and embedding reflective cycles and action planning into the core of our approach to personal tutoring. Ultimately, the value of this is a far more holistically connected university experience, one which empowers the learner both to engage more genuinely in academic practice, and to develop the agency and efficacy to tailor it to meet whatever their goals might be.
About Mark: Mark Peace is a Professor of Innovation in Education at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he leads in the initiatives and innovation that delivery its education strategy. His practice has explored generative and co-constructive pedagogies, embodied and experiential learning. His work has included the Man Met Rise co-curricular programme, which has engaged more than 27,000 students over three years with measurable impacts across satisfaction, community, achievement and graduate outcomes.
In case you missed it (ICYMI)
At the beginning of this year, our Learning and Teaching Enhancement Series - 20 Years of Enhancement - showcased Enhancement Themes: a way for students and staff in universities across Scotland to work together on a theme to improve the student experience. They outline the background to 20 Years of Enhancement Themes, look back to past Enhancement Themes activity, and reflect on work to come. Check out the most popular post from this series: Student Transitions: Continuous improvement to the student journey, by Nichola Kett.
Don't forget to read our recent extra posts:
- Learn how 'Mattering' can support the mental health and wellbeing of students.
- Know the challenges faced by Widening Participation students and discover ways to support them.
- Discover non-traditional learning and the diverse journey of learners within the University community and beyond.
- Read how digital poverty can affect the international doctoral applicants and find ways to support them.
Coming soon at Teaching Matters
Upcoming blog themes
March & April's Hot Topic features a range of thought pieces centered around ChatGPT, while the L&T Enhancement Theme showcases current Student Voice good practice across the University. May & June's Hot topic will be featuring academic development approaches in the Edinburgh Futures Institute, while the L&T Enhancement Theme will be showcasing Teaching Awards 2023.
Please get in touch if you would like to contribute to one of these series: teachingmatters@ed.ac.uk.
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Credits:
Created with images by alpegor - "Historic Buildings on the Old Leith Harbour at Dusk. Edinburgh, Scotland" • Wesley Aston - "Grand Teton Landscape at Oxbow Bend with mirror reflection" • Chris - "Media City Manchester at Salford Quays england united kingdom, Aerial view looking over the quay on a sunny day" With thanks to Melanie Grandidge for her icon artwork design.