Reflective Journals:
Update: 10/29/2020
Weekly Reflection Journals:
After reviewing the content of the course and taking multiple criteria into consideration, I have changed the minimum required length for the Weekly Reflection Journals to a minimum of one full page. Your full name and Reflection Number should be single spaced at the top of the page. As long as the remainder of your reflection each week at minimum fills the rest of the page, that will be considered full credit.
Candidates will be expected to have a reflection journal in which they will be writing their reflections throughout the 8 week session. At the end of each class you will need to reflect on the learning from class as well as your readings. Think about what you are learning, what impact/change it has on your practice and what you are thinking about as a learner.
As part of your learning experience in this course you are being asked to keep a reflective journal in which you will reflect upon each topic/module of this course for the next eight weeks. This journal also constitutes a percentage of your grade for the course. Reflective journals consist of students writing about and reflecting on their own thoughts regarding the topic/content that was discussed in each module. This reflection on thoughts, ideas, feeling and ones own learning encourages the development of metacognitive skills by helping individuals self-evaluate and sort what they know from what they dont know. The process of examining ones own thoughts and feelings is particularly helpful for individuals who are learning new concepts or beginning to grapple with complex issues that go beyond right and wrong answers. As part of the last class, you will share out your learning with your peers in small group settings within the classroom.
The following set of guidelines is provided to help you with this experience:
Select an experience or incident that relates to the assigned course topics. You may choose an experience that you would like to understand better (e.g., there was something about it that you so not totally understand, that intrigues you, that made you realize that you lack certain skills, or that was problematic or significant for you). You can choose the experience/incident from any aspect or setting of your life as long as it is related to the content/topic of the module for the week and it is acceptable.
Entries in a reflective journal can include:
- Points that you found especially interesting in your reading and classroom discussion, and would like to follow up in more detail.
- Questions that came up in your mind, because of points made in material you read or in the class on this topic.
Possible questions to ask yourself that might help in writing a reflective journal:
- What was the most interesting thing I read for this topic/content why was that?
- What were three main things I learned from this topic/module?
- What did I previously think was true, but now know to be wrong?
- What did we not cover that I expected we should?
- What was new or surprising to me?
- What have I changed my mind about, as a result of this topic/content?
- One thing I learned about this topic/content that I may be able to use in future is
- I am still unsure about
- Issues that interested me a lot, and that I would like to study in more detail
- Ideas for action, based on this topic/content
- What I most liked about this topic/content was
- What I most disliked about this topic/content was
- Miscellaneous interesting facts I learned about this topic/content
A reflective journal is not:
- Simply a summary of the course material. Focus more on your reactions to what youve read, and what youve been reading.
- A learning log. On a learning log you might write down the times and days when you read something. A log is a record of events, but a journal is a record of your reflections and thoughts.
