Reflective journals are used increasingly in Higher Education. Examples from an unstructured journal kept by the author in her role as a new Mechanical Engineering student raise issue of what 'ought' to be in journals, how emotional effects should be dealt with and how the subjective nature of reflection may cause problems for assessment

Sinclair, C.M.

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Keeping a reflective journal: reflections of a mature student

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Strathprints Institutional RepositorySinclair, C.M. (2001) Keeping a reflective journal: reflections of a mature student. University ofPaisley.Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde.Copyright c© and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authorsand/or other copyright owners. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for anyprofitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/) and the content of this paper for research or study, educational, ornot-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge.Any correspondence concerning this service should be sent to Strathprints administrator:mailto:strathprints@strath.ac.ukhttp://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/   Sinclair, C.M. (2001) Keeping a reflective journal: reflections of a mature student. University of Paisley.   http://eprints.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/3759/  Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in Strathprints to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the url (http://eprints.cdlr.strath.ac.uk) of the Strathprints website.  Any correspondence concerning this service should be sent to The Strathprints Administrator: eprints@cis.strath.ac.uk  20KEEPING A REFLECTIVE JOURNAL:REFLECTIONS OF A MATURE STUDENTChristine SinclairUniversity of PaisleySummaryReflective journals are used increasingly in Higher Education.Examples from an unstructured journal kept by the authorin her role as a new Mechanical Engineering student raiseissues of what ìoughtî to be in journals, how emotional effectsshould be dealt with and how the subjective nature ofreflection may cause problems for assessment.• learning outcomes• process skills development• subject-specific skills• professional skills development• reflective practice• feedback loop• formative assessment• summative assessment• credit bearingChristine is a lecturer in Educational Development at theCentre for Learning and Teaching at the University of Paisley.She is interested in students’ experience of learning and isresearching students’ acquisition of academic discourse.  Sherecently undertook an HNC in Mechanical Engineering at aFurther Education College, followed by a second levelengineering module at Paisley - quite a challenge for aPhilosophy graduate.Contact:  sinc-ed@wpmail.paisley.ac.ukContextMany educational institutions are promoting the use of learning journals as a support forpersonal or professional development (see for example Moon, 1999; Brockbank and McGill,1998).  I was originally encouraged to keep a learning journal by the Open University as part ofa Masters in Education programme, though the nature of this was not constrained in any way.Because I found journal-keeping beneficial, I decided to use it in a PhD study of how studentsacquire academic discourse, acting as my own guinea pig as a new student.  The process was apragmatic one not based on any theoretical perspective, but my study coincided with an increasein the literature about reflection and I also became aware of its role as an academic discourse inits own right. Reflective writing has an additional benefit in that it encourages student (or staff)writing and is akin to the freewriting (Elbow 1981) that is useful for unlocking the creativeprocess.DescriptionAfter completing an HNC in Mechanical Engineering at a Further Education college, I have alearning journal of around 50,000 words.  It contains a mixture of facts and information, ‘to do’lists and reflections on what I did.  Unpacking some examples of the reflections now that I havecompleted the course may help to underpin the benefits and potential problems of journalwriting.  In the examples below, I provide the reflections as they actually appeared in the journaland then an analysis of these reflections.  The analysis includes observations of other peopleísuse of reflective writing as a process of personal development planning.Example 1:  First Reflection9/9/97Immediate observationsProblems with transposition, when 2-stage.  Had to think about what was happening.  Wasgoing to substitute real numbers to check but felt under pressure to come up with answer.Other students also struggled with this and were happy to say so.Solution - to provide answers that could be used in substitution - one student commented thatthis didn’t help understand transposition...To my surprise, would like some visual models to help understanding - want to see what’sgoing on.When struggling, everything suddenly becomes a mass of letters & numbers and the onlything to do is write down for later.  However, I didn’t really find this session too difficult (despitearriving an hour late because of misinformation)Some dangers:  go for easy strategies to get by;  number crunching without thinking.The main impression is that I am no different from the majority of students entering a newsubject who are obsessed with the question:  “will I be able to cope with the workload?”  Theissue that interests me in looking back, though, is what I chose to notice.  The memory of thediscomfort at arriving an hour late is now very strong; I am surprised that I have not mademore mention of this, nor of my fellow students.  What a student notices at the time of reflectionwill depend on a number of factors: what made the strongest impression at the time, even ifthat changed in retrospect; what they feel they ‘ought’ to be noticing.  I have been asked by astudent on a professional course what she ought to be writing in her journal and I replied byasking whose “ought” this was.  The answer to this question will be determined by therequirements of the course.  If the reflective journal is to be assessed, then what goes into itneeds to meet the criteria for assessment and these should be made very clear by the coursedocumentation.  If it is purely a personal document, then the student may need to be helped todefine her own ‘ought’.  Many first reflections are then likely to be rather self-conscious -reflection will itself be characterised by the question:  “will I be able to do this?”Example 2:  Reflection and Emotional IssuesMy aunt had just had a stroke and my HNC class took me away from my worries for a time.  Iwrote this on the train immediately after the class, however, and the underlying emotionalstate re-emerged.17/2/98Time went quickly again and I got absorbed in the work - forgetting that was worried (aboutJanet) and this returned to me very strongly afterwards.Possibly related (but not entirely sure) is a general feeling of inadequacy both about the HNC& the PhD.  I found I’d forgotten much of the basic method for the assignment though it cameback partly through looking for examples of the method and partly through reasoning (thoughthat’s still rather fuzzy).  I began to feel that I may be rather stupid/slow on the uptake and thatI’ve been able to get away with a lot because of having the right attitude, background, familyconnections etc.  (Something I’ve often thought before.)These worries about the ‘halo effect’ occur occasionally in the journal and are again very typicalof a student coming to grips with a new subject.  The journal clearly shows that concerns aboutmy own abilities arise at times when I am tired, overloaded with other work or worried aboutsomething.  In the case above, I rapidly recovered my natural optimism as my aunt made a fullrecovery and as I began to relax a little.I did not really recognise the effects of a negative state of mind until it was pointed out to me bymembers of staff at the University of Glasgow to whom I made a presentation.  They suggestedthat I sounded quite negative about my experiences and that a discourse analysis of my journalmight be quite revealing.  The observation was useful because it alerted me to the dangers ofnegative thinking.  It did not prevent negative reflections arising - nor should it have - but itdid provide an increased awareness of the emotional side of learning.  This highlights one ofthe potential concerns about reflection, however.  As Boud and Walker (1998) point out, reflectioncannot really be constrained and its encouragement many bring out a number of negativeemotions in students which their teachers may be ill-equipped to deal with.21Several years ago, when I worked at another university, I piloted a document that was designedto encourage reflection and personal development planning in 2nd year undergraduates.  Onequestion which was intended to stimulate thoughts about working practices that had beenunsuccessful and possible changes to make for the next academic year, elicited the response:“I’ll not allow myself to be used for sex next year.”  This response was unexpected, one I wasnot trained to deal with, and the circumstances of the pilot made it difficult to react to it anyway.Yet I felt some support should be available to this student.  The example highlights the difficultiesof the boundaries between personal planning and the evidence required or requested by theinstitution.Example 3:  Reflection-in-action14/10/98  5.30 amWill now spend at least an hour going over Mechanics, considering the question: where are thegaps in my knowledge?...Questions1. What does second moment of area actually mean?2. Is d both distance (perpendicular) from NA and diameter, depending on circumstances?7.30 amhave spent a lot of time on question 1 opposite and am not very far on.  I think I’ve/we’ve beenhappy just to manipulate the figures - basically transposition and substitution - without followingwhat’s happening.  To a certain extent perhaps this is necessary as we don’t have the necessarycalculus to really follow the concepts.  I’ve also had to remind myself that these forces - directstress and shear stress - have been described before.  Looking it up in other books is dangerousbecause of the letters used.The questions helped me to focus my learning, the results of which are not really recorded inthe journal.  The reflection at the end considers why I have a problem and also provides mewith advice that I can look back over earlier notes.  In this case, when I looked over earlier notesI discovered that I had been happily using the notion of ‘second moment of area’ the previousyear without any concern about what it meant.Sometimes the process of reflection-in-action was not immediately useful.  I spent some timeagonising over the meanings of enthalpy, heat and temperature which proved good groundingfor a much longer reflection on entropy I worked through a year later.  The benefits of reflectionmay not therefore be immediately apparent.  There is a cumulative effect, which is why reflectionis useful as a personal development tool but this does make it difficult to assess.Resource ImplicationsAt first glance, there are few resource requirements for keeping a personal reflective journal.The student needs a book and a pen - or whatever method of recording that suits them.  (Forsome students, for instance, a dictaphone might suit their learning preferences.)  The analysisabove suggests that there may be a hidden resource issue in the need to support students withwhat emerges in their reflections.  I do not have support formally built into my reflectivepractices, but I use colleagues, supervisors and reading to help me to make sense of what hasemerged.  A seventeen year old student without such a support structure might end up usingthe journal to reinforce negative beliefs.The principal resource requirement, then, should be staff time allocated to explaining, monitoringand supporting the reflective process in students.  In professional courses such as nursing orteacher education there may be a protocol to follow for reflections on practice and there will beassociated printing costs.Student Assessment/Feedback IssuesIf I had thought my learning journal was definitely going to be assessed, then I would haveundoubtedly written it in a different way.  I would probably have tried to select incidents andreflections that showed me in the best possible light.  While accepting that this could have hada positive effect, avoiding some of the dangers of reinforcing negative impressions, my mainconcern about assessing journals is that some of the benefits of reflection might be lost becauseof self-censorship or window-dressing.  There are other concerns.  There are major difficultiesin ensuring validity and reliability in assessment of learning journals.  While acknowledgingthis, Moon (1999: 92-93) says this is actually a reason for developing appropriate means ofassessment.  She claims that a system of assessment is needed because: it shows that reflectionis thought to be worthwhile by staff; criteria will help teachers to help students;  students willnot undertake tasks that are not assessed; and if development of the reflective practitioner iswhat is wanted, then criteria for assessing that development should be explicitly stated.Moon’s arguments are powerful if reflective practice is to be taken seriously in whateveroutcomes and processes are being used (and she makes a point of distinguishing between thetwo in relation to assessment).  Perhaps my concerns about the effects of assessment can beovercome by empathetic feedback and assessment as exemplified by John Cowan (1998: 135).He records his difficulties in understanding one journal and his response to the student’scomment:   “I don’t expect the first page meant anything to you -but it means a lot to me.”  Thisexample encapsulates the difficulties of assessment, but Cowan’s integrity in dealing with thisdifficulty and in finding other ways to authenticate the student’s claims shows an understandingthat we might not be able to guarantee in all teachers, especially those starting out with thismethod.  Cowan has kept his own reflective learning journal and subjected it to both self andpeer assessment;  I believe that a teacher who has not had experience of doing this will find theprocesses of assessment and feedback very difficult.EvaluationIt is difficult for me to evaluate my own process of writing a journal because of its intenselysubjective nature.  However, in a sense, I am constantly evaluating the reflections as I try to usethem. Cowan (1998:41) makes the distinction between analytical and evaluative reflection.Analytical reflection is looking at “how should I do it?” and evaluative at “how well do I doit?”  The same questions can be asked of the reflective process itself.2223Key AdviceThe analysis above raises the following questions.  My advice to staff is not to proceed until theanswers can be provided.•Is there anything that the student’s journal ‘ought’ to contain?•Is there anything it ought not to contain?•Should the journal have a specific structure and if so will this be provided for thestudent?•Are you going to assess  either the journal or a separate document based on thejournal?•How will you address the emotional aspects of writing a journal?•Would it be appropriate to offer reassurances about confidentiality with respect tothe journal?•Have you made all the above clear to the students?•Have you completed a journal - or the equivalent reflective document - yourself?ConclusionSome students might benefit from keeping an unstructured reflective journal, as I have. Bygetting into a regular habit of writing for few minutes without stopping, I have both a usefulrecord of my own reflections and a way in to the more formal writing I am expected to do as astudent and an academic.  The process must, however, be set up properly for students whohave never done it before.ReferencesBoud, D and Walker, D (1998) Promoting Reflection in Professional Courses:  the challenge ofcontext, in Studies in Higher Education 23;2 pp191-206Brockbank, A and McGill, I (1998) Facilitating Reflective Learning in Higher Education Buckingham:SRHE and Open University PressCowan, J (1998) On Becoming an Innovative University Teacher  Buckingham:  SRHE and OpenUniversity PressElbow, P (1981) Writing with Power:  Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process New York: OxfordUniversity PressMoon, J (1999)  Learning Journals London: Kogan Page

Keeping a reflective journal : reflections of a mature student

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Keeping a reflective journal : reflections of a mature student

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