Students’ Reflective Learning Within a Community Service‐Learning Dental Module

Abstract

This article aims to illustrate the effect of reflections upon students' learning in a newly developed dental module at the University of British Columbia. Students reflected individually before, during, and after the development of their community service-learning (CSL) projects. One hundred twenty-one students provided reflections through e-mail, a password-protected intranet site (WebCT), or handwriting. Reflections were not graded, and students were encouraged to favor thinking over description in a total of at least 150 words. Eighty-two students were from two first-year classes, and thirty-nine were from one second-year class. Reflections were analyzed thematically using framework analysis. Students appreciated the community experience and also pondered their own learning as health care providers. Reflections before the CSL projects emphasized "expectations" and "feelings of belonging," whereas reflections during and after the projects promoted discussions on "challenges and struggles" and "ongoing engagement," respectively. A circular and bidirectional illustration portrays students' activities in reflecting, rethinking, reconsidering, reanalyzing, reconstructing, and reacting on their CSL experience. Reflective activity helped students to better appreciate the CSL experience within a newly developed dental course. It allowed them to gain additional value from community-based education and had a positive impact on their attitudes about service, themselves, and the community members enrolled within their projects.