Online Reflective Journals Research Articles

Capturing virtual voices: using online reflective journals to explore the lived experiences of part-time adult learners

The opportunities for discovering students' lived experiences and perspectives on online learning are often limited. Embarking upon an undergraduate programme marks a period of transition which, for some adults, can be disorientating and challenging especially as an individual' s lifeworld becomes increasingly entangled with the decision to participate in learning. Educational interactions take place within prescribed and structured virtual fora, each with a clear delineated purpose set out by the university, whether that be social or academic, task-based or informative. Further insights may be gleaned from end-ofmodule questionnaires, internal surveys or the National Student Survey (NSS), but there is little opportunity for informal engagements, insights or snapshots without it being captured in a discussion forum or recorded in the learner management system. This study set out to employ a cocreated online reflective journal as a space through which to better understand the experiences of adult learners as they begin online study in order to explore how they forge their identities, progress emotionally and socially between the stages of their learning, and navigate the complex interrelationship between the personal, circumstantial and emotional domains.

Reflecting on Reflective Journals of Indonesian EFL Pre-Service Teachers to Examine Their Quality of Reflective Practice

Reflective practice is essential for teachers’ professional development. It leads teacher to shape and reshape their knowledge, and so forth a wide range of benefits can be achieved. However, to gain such benefits, teachers must have good quality of reflective practice. This qualitative case study aimed at investigating quality of reflective practice of four female EFL pre-service teachers in Indonesia. Framed with qualitative case study, this study employed online reflective journals as the main instrument to collect the data. The data were analysed deductively using content analysis. The results revealed that participants’ reflection tended to remain in the level of D1 and D2 which meant that they had tendency to merely retell and describe their teaching practice with limited evaluation. Only few of them were captured to reflect on the level of R1 and R2. In sum, although Indonesian EFL pre-service teachers had tendency to reflect in low level, it was interesting to find the fact that they sometimes reflected more critically in the level of R1 and R2. The result could be used as indicator that Indonesian EFL pre-service teachers had ability to reflect in a good way. Thus, following actions by related parties should be established in order to develop their abilities.

EFL Learners’ Attitudes Towards Online Reflective Journals’ Impact on Creative Writing: An Analytical Study

This study aimed at investigating EFL learners’ attitudes toward the impact of online reflective journals on creative writing. The study has adopted a descriptive-analytical design, through which both quantitative and qualitative research methods were utilized. 30 EFL students enrolled in an intensive B1/unlock course were trained to write online reflective journals regularly and post them on a messenger group where all students could read and reflect on them. The study lasted for eight weeks during the second semester of 2020/2021. An attitudinal questionnaire was distributed to all the participants at the end of the intervention, and appropriate statistical analyses were used to figure out the participants’ attitudes. In addition, all participants were asked to share their reflections by writing online reflective journals via the messenger group. Participants’ reflections and responses were deliberately analyzed qualitatively to extract and read their attitudes deeply. Both the questionnaire’s responses and the personal reflections have shown positive attitudes towards the impact of online reflective journals on improving EFL learners’ creative writing. Hence, some recommendations were suggested.

Beginning, becoming and belonging: using liminal spaces to explore how part-time adult learners negotiate emergent identities when embarking on undergraduate online study

Using the concept of liminal spaces, this paper discusses findings from a study exploring the experiences of fifteen adults as they negotiate their identity as online learners during the first module on a part-time undergraduate degree programme. Online programmes enable adult learners with diverse backgrounds and responsibilities to choose when and how they study and therefore make decisions of how their aspirations are best met. The convenience and flexibility of these hybrid spaces enables them to take control of their learning. However, such benefits are reliant upon negotiating new ideas, technologies, constructs of learning and emergent identities which may sit at the counterpoint of existing roles, responsibilities and experiences. For some, this period of transition can consequently be characterised by disorientation and liminality. The findings presented here provide new insights into the experiences of adults who choose to study online, highlighting the extent of the entanglement between their emergent identities and personal lifeworld. I explore the interplay of the factors which shape these early encounters and, using a narrative approach, examine how identities are forged, how the opportunities and challenges presented by online spaces are negotiated, and the importance of a sense of belonging. This approach contributes to the growing field of online research methods through an innovative use of online reflective journals and Skype interviews and further extends the writing on liminality into online spaces. Although the data for this study was collected and analysed before the COVID-19 pandemic, I examine what we, as educatorresearchers, can learn from these narratives and how this might inform our professional practice in the COVID-19 context.

Using focus groups, as a peer researcher, to investigate lived experience of bereavement in a university setting

In this paper, I reflect upon my experience as a peer researcher as part of a research team in my second year of undergraduate study. The research project aimed to develop an understanding of the lived experiences of bereaved students and staff in a university setting, through focus groups and online reflective journals. This project culminated in the co-creation of peer support workshops that could be facilitated by the support services within the university. This paper focuses on the methodology and ethics of my role as a peer researcher, and the continual negotiation of power dynamics that took place throughout this research. This paper concludes with a reflective discussion of the findings and my experience as an undergraduate peer researcher.

Students' Reflective Journals and Creative Writing in EFL

This study aimed at investigating the effectiveness of online reflective journals on Birzeit University students' creative writing. The participants of the study were sixty first-year university students. They were chosen randomly from Birzeit University in the second semester of the academic year 2019/2020. The study followed the quasi-experimental design. The participants were divided into two groups: an experimental group (n=30) and a control group (n=30). To carry out the study, the researcher taught her students how to write reflective journals, and she established a closed group on Messenger for her students to write their online reflective journals and share them on the group frequently each time on a different topic. The data about the students' creative writing skills were collected using a creative writing pre/post-test designed by the researcher. The data were analyzed using appropriate quantitative analyses. The results of the study showed that the proposed instructional strategy was effective in improving students' creative writing skills. The results proved that the strategy of online reflective journals has positively affected the components of creative writing (originality, flexibility, fluency, and elaboration).

Enabling well-being and epistemological access through an authentic assessment intervention: A case study of a higher education programme

The South African higher education context presents with multiple challenges. One such challenge is the ability of institutions to effectively respond to the academic needs of the students that enter university. While there are several instances of programme development that attempt to address the academic well-being of students, the pedagogic strategies of many programmes are often not well grounded in sound educational theory. In this paper, we report on a study that examined student experiences of an academic programme that is informed by the concepts ‘authentic assessment’ and ‘epistemological access. The methodological approach was guided by the tenets of Interactive Qualitative Analysis (IQA), (Northcutt and McCoy, 2004). A purposive sample of Hospitality Financial Management students at a university of technology was drawn. Key data generation instruments included individual and focus group interviews, online chats and online reflective journals. One compelling finding which we take up in this paper is the power of student collaboration as a powerful enabling mechanism for epistemic access.

Practice journeys: using online reflective journals in social work fieldwork education

This paper explores the use of online reflective journals in practicum fieldwork units in a Bachelor of Social Work degree. It explains how the fieldwork co-ordinator and I as team leader moved our undergraduate programme’s reflective journal from a paper-based activity which was reviewed on a twice yearly basis to a more regular and integrated feature of the fieldwork practicum experience. We instructed students who were in their third and fourth year fieldwork placements, that they were required to post in their e-journal monthly using a model of critical reflection I had used successfully in previous online reflective journals with students who were completing their practicums. I found Schon’s concepts of reflection on action central to the ideas behind the journal as it encouraged students to reflect on their actions and further on their reflections about their actions. When students were able to identify complexity and conflicts in the workplace which they could express openly within the journals, we found greater insight into the student’s experience of the fieldwork learning. Dialogue with us as educators in the online context through comments about their journal entries built confidence in the students’ practice in the fieldwork placement over the course of the year of study. The implications for using reflective online journals for building professional practice confidence through reflection are explored.