Reflection In Higher Education Research Articles

Teaching of reflection in higher education: a narrative review.

Healthcare professional students (HCPs) are encouraged to utilise reflection during and after their study programmes as a part of their life-long learning skill and professional competencies. However, the way in which the concept of reflection is taught and its' influence students' capacity to reflect have not been fully explored. This narrative review aimed to explore how the concept of reflection is taught in higher education and how the teaching of reflection influences HCP students' capacity to reflect. Articles that were published during 2014-2024 within three databases, PubMed, CINAHL and ERIC were searched. 1929 articles were eligible for screening. 93 articles were further assessed for eligibility. 18 articles were included. The included articles were geographically well-distributed in both the Global North and Global South countries, indicating universal interest in the topic. Eight articles had qualitative study designs; six had quantitative designs and four had mixed-method designs.Conceptually, the teaching of reflection could be categorised as a spectrum, ranging from: i) structured format (reflective templates or debriefing); ii) semi-structured format (physical/virtual small group discussions, video recordings, AI generative arts, in-verse reflection and concept mapping) and iii) flexible and creative (art-based pedagogy or narratives).All included articles indicated students actual and perceived better understanding of reflection. This claim is supported both quantitatively and qualitatively via either validated instruments or narratives and themes based on students' textual outputs. This review identified several teaching methods that help facilitating students' capacity to reflect. Findings are unable to recommend the most efficient way to teach reflection since it depends on students' progress in their programmes. However, a more relational approach to teaching of reflection is recommended. Students might begin their reflective journey with a structured format of teaching of reflection then gradually move to less-rigid format of the teaching to empower students' autonomy.

Triggers and conducive factors for reflection in university students: a focus group study

ABSTRACT Although previous research highlights the importance of reflection in higher education, little is known about the type of triggers and contexts that promote authentic reflection in university students who are in academic classroom environments. This qualitative study addresses this question based on content analysis done on eight focus groups consisting of a total of 45 university students. Results revealed that authentic reflection was triggered by adverse and positive situations, challenging interpersonal interactions, emotional responses to events, performance data and proactive enquiry. Furthermore, findings highlighted the relevance of Self-Determination Theory as a guiding framework for describing contextual factors conducive to reflection: student reflection benefited from a positive interactive context, autonomy for reflection, a variety of opportunities to reflect and guidance in the form of mentors or workshops. Conversely, exam pressure and effortful periods reduced the likelihood of student reflection. Finally, results indicated that students engaged in reflection to raise personal awareness, improve academic and personal performance, and change their beliefs, attitudes, feelings, and behaviours. Implications for practice are given.

Reflection: an assessment and critique of a pervasive trend in higher education

ABSTRACT The idea of reflection has become more and more pervasive in higher education in recent decades, particularly – but not only – in teaching and learning and in the professional disciplines. But what does it mean, how has it been applied and what does it add? This article explores the history and development of the idea and assesses its place in contemporary higher education. The critiques of its increasingly prominent place are reviewed, and it is concluded that it may be time to re-assess the use of reflection in higher education.

Using semantic gravity profiling to develop critical reflection

ABSTRACTWhether novices can be guided to produce valued critical reflections is a subject widely-discussed in fields of practice where placement is essential. This research enters into this conversation. However, the question is considered with a new framework by deconstructing evidence of successful critical reflection using an increasingly significant social realist framework, Legitimation Code Theory (LCT). Students and teachers involved in fields where critical reflection writing is important can be guided to notice how semantic gravity from Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) makes more visible what is valued by experts evaluating novice critical reflections. The findings discussed in this paper stem from an interdisciplinary collaboration between academic literacy and nursing experts. Over ten months from 2018 to 2019, analyses of 200 first year student nurse critical reflection assignments were conducted. General patterns distinguishing high and low scoring critical reflection assignments were observed. A high and a low scoring paper reflecting these general patterns are discussed in detail in the results. The research seeks to contribute to both research on improving the practice of critical reflection in higher education, and approaches exploring Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) in educational research to better understand knowledge practices in applied disciplines.

A faculty member learning with and from an undergraduate teaching assistant: Critical reflection in higher education

This case study describes a student-faculty partnership between an undergraduate teacher education student and a faculty member of teacher education. This faculty-centric partnership aimed to enhance the faculty member’s critical reflection on his pedagogy in an introduction to teacher education course. In this jointly-written article, we offer student and faculty insights about the process we employed, the outcomes of our teaching and learning together, and the complexities of student-faculty working relationships stemming from power dynamics. We also provide recommendations for faculty and students looking to engage in collaborations. These recommendations center on defining partner roles, using video recordings, and addressing power dynamics between students and faculty within higher education. Drawing from our experience, we suggest that student-faculty partnerships are one fruitful avenuefor improving the quality of instruction in higher education. They require minimum financial resources and can enhance faculty pedagogy, which will benefit current and future students.

Reflection in design education

In this article we evaluate the manner in which we at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at the Delft University of Technology encourage the development of the capacity of reflection among our undergraduate students. First we explore the concept of reflection in relation to respectively experiential/reflective learning, reflection in/on action, reflection in higher education and reflection in design education. Next we describe our research object, our Bachelor course in Academic Design Reflection. Two research questions are at hand: (1) does the level of reflection increase during our course and (2) Can the operationalisation in our questionnaire of the definitions of reflection derived from theory statistically be confirmed? We measured and processed statistically the level of reflection of 100 students in 3 of their papers on their design. Results show there is a significant slight increase of this level among the three papers. Results also show that our model of classification is not statistically confirmed in the data. We conclude with a discussion on the implications for further research and for design education.

STUDENT EXPERIENCES OF USING WEBLOGS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

Recently, attempts have been made to use Weblogs and other personal webpublishing technologies to support individual and social reflection in higher education. Weblogs can be highly individual and reflective in nature, and students’ experiences and perceptions of the technology and practice are of primary importance in furthering educational use. In this phenomenological study 8 participants who maintained Weblogs in a graduate course were interviewed. Initial data analysis indicates that participants found Weblogs helpful for learning, reflecting, and building a sense of community. However, participants expressed concerns over the lack of structure for Weblog usage and the public nature of the reflective process. Implications for future practical and research applications of Weblogs are presented.

Validating the Narrative Reflection Assessment Rubric (NARRA) for reflective narratives in higher education

This article focuses on the validity of the new Narrative Reflection Assessment Rubric (NARRA) used to assess students’ reflective narratives in higher education. We evaluate its formulation and usefulness from an instructional point of view. To those ends, we engage in both a quantitative and a qualitative analysis, using data from 100+ preservice teachers before and after they attend a Reflective Practice Seminar. We find that there are statistically significant differences in student scores between the pre-seminar test and the post-seminar test, suggesting both that students learned to reflect in the framework of the seminar and that the rubric is a valid and reliable instrument to measure this learning. We also establish five categories about the usefulness of the rubric: description, intrapersonal inquiry, interpersonal inquiry, argumentation and improvement. We conclude that the NARRA is a useful tool for identifying students’ current level of reflection in higher education.

Reflecting on the process of teaching reflection in higher education

ABSTRACTHigher education plays an important role in nurturing life-long learning and critical citizenry. One way to foster these is through developing a reflective practice. Given the importance of reflection, this article discusses the process of teaching reflection in my course, and students’ responses to these lessons, with a focus on their understanding of what it means to reflect and on its benefits and challenges. The findings reveal that, while most students are able to adequately articulate what reflection is, they are not able to translate this understanding into practice, and reflection is not viewed as a learning strategy. Students find reflecting on personal issues easier than reflecting on discipline-related ones, and language proficiency could play a role. A reflective practice can be inculcated in students and can lead to the development of criticality; however, the methods used to facilitate this process are crucial. While some of the above findings may be attributed to shortcomings in the course, the article concludes that, for greater effectiveness and for reflection to be viewed as an important practice in developing criticality, as well as a life-long learning practice, the teaching of reflection should be embedded in meaningful and productive ways throughout the curricula.

Higher education journals as didactic frameworks

ABSTRACTDuring the last 20 years, we have witnessed a growing interest in research in teaching, learning and educational development in higher education (HE). The result is that ‘Higher Education Didactics’ has established itself as a research field in its own right. This article explores Higher Education Didactics as a framework for academics’ professional reflection on teaching and learning, by mapping the didactic topics in all contributions in four journals in the period 2008–2015. Two of the journals are based in Scandinavia, where the European tradition of didactics (Didaktik) has been highly influential, while the others stem from the Anglo-Saxon curriculum tradition. The mapping shows that all journals are strongly occupied with teaching methods, especially methods grounded in theories of active and social learning. In contrast, didactic categories such as goal, content and assessment are rare topics. Students as participants and learners are a frequent topic in especially one journal, but receive little attention in the other journals. Also, educational technologies receive a varying degree of attention across the journals. Based on the mapping, this article discusses Higher Education Didactics as a framework for professional reflection in HE. It concludes that a broader range of research topics would be desirable and asks for future collaboration on the currently uncharted topics.

大学授業における教授のデザインとリフレクションのためのワークシートの開発(教育実践研究論文, 新時代の学習評価)

大学授業における教授のデザインとリフレクションのためのワークシートの開発(教育実践研究論文, 新時代の学習評価)

Critical reflection: scaffolding social responsiveness for first-year students

The teaching and assessment of socially responsive critical reflection in higher education is challenging, especially when learning does not take place in wider social or practice-based contexts. For many students, learning to reflect on others’ experiences in a socially responsive way requires scaffolding. This paper reports on discourses of self and other in the guided summative reflections of first-year non-clinical health students (n = 23) undertaking activities aimed at increasing social responsiveness. The reflections predominantly featured discourses of self, and the corresponding discourse of others as similar to self. Critical reflection, while infrequent, was usually associated with the less common discourse of others as unlike self. Social responsibility, an even less frequent discourse, was unrelated to self. The findings confirm the need for scaffolding of critical reflection, but also suggest that more course content involvement in others’ lived experiences is pivotal to socially responsive reflection. Further research on effective socially responsive learning and whether it influences later practice is needed.

Portfolios for adult learners. The Value of Reflection in Higher education. A Case Study Conducted at the University of Padua

This paper presents a study carried out at the University of Padova with the aim to promote an active process of recognition of competences that adults enrolled in university degrees have already acquired within non formal and informal contexts. During the research 44 working students completed a learning outcomes portfolio in order to make their competences gained within past experiences explicit and comparable with the expected learning outcomes and therefore to tailor their educational careers. The study, through a mix-method approach, investigated the educational and guidance dimensions of the portfolio construction within a guided process for the development of competences awareness obtained by the reflection during and after the action. Results from interviews to adult students, teachers evaluators and tutor/advisers, showed that the autobiographic reflective process has the transformative power to bring out moments or past aspects and create new connections between these aspects, generating new coherences and perspectives for the future professional and personal life

Digital Storytelling and Reflection in Higher Education: A Case of Pre-service Student Teachers and Their Lecturers at a University of Technology

Employers in South Africa are calling for students graduating from higher education institutions (HEIs) to exhibit the capacity for reflection. However, many tertiary institutions fall short in allowing opportunities for reflection. As a result, HEIs are grappling to find ways of fostering reflection amongst their students. This paper argues that digital storytelling if implemented properly is one of the ways which can be used to help HEIs in this accomplishment. It documents results of production of digital stories by 29 final-year pre-service student teachers at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), South Africa, as part of their assessment in their professional development course. The study was informed by structuration theory and levels of reflection and cognitive processing to help the researchers understand the potential of digital storytelling in enhancing reflection. Qualitative methods of collecting data were utilized. Focus group interviews were conducted with the students and their facilitators to elicit whether production of digital stories led to reflection. Findings showed that the production of digital stories promoted the three levels of reflection and thus deep learning and higher-order thinking skills.

Theorising a model for teaching and assessing reflective learning in higher education

The importance of reflection in higher education and across disciplinary fields is widely recognised and it is generally included in university graduate attributes, professional standards and programme objectives. Furthermore, reflection is commonly embedded into assessment requirements in higher education subjects, often without necessary scaffolding or clear expectations for students. Despite the rhetoric around the importance of reflection for ongoing learning, there is scant literature on any systematic, developmental approach to teaching reflective learning across higher education programmes/courses. Given that professional or academic reflection is not intuitive, and requires specific pedagogic intervention to do well, a programme/course-wide approach is essential. This paper draws on current literature to theorise a new, transferable and customisable model for teaching and assessing reflective learning across higher education, which foregrounds and explains the pedagogic field of higher education as a multi-dimensional space. We argue that explicit and strategic pedagogic intervention, supported by dynamic resources, is necessary for successful, broad-scale approaches to reflection in higher education.

The pedagogical balancing act: teaching reflection in higher education

Despite the common use of the term reflection in higher education assessment tasks, learners are not often taught how to communicate their disciplinary knowledge through reflection. This paper argues that students can and should be taught how to reflect in deep and transformative ways. It highlights the reflexive pedagogical balancing act of attending to different levels of reflection as a way to stimulate focused, thoughtful and reasoned reflections that show evidence of new ways of thinking and doing. The paper uses data from a current project to illustrate the effects of focusing on particular levels of reflection in the pedagogical strategies used, and argues that while the goal of academic or professional reflection is generally to move students to the highest level of reflection to transform their learning/practice, unless higher education teachers attend to every level of reflection, there are specific, observable gaps in the reflections that students produce.

Conceptualising and teaching discursive and performative reflection in higher education

The importance of reflection in higher education, and across disciplinary fields is widely recognised. It is generally embedded in university graduate attributes, professional standards and course objectives. Furthermore, reflection is commonly included in assessment requirements in higher education subjects, often without necessary scaffolding or clear expectations for students. It is essential that academic staff have substantive knowledge and clear expectations about the aims of reflective activities, the most effective mode of representation, and appropriate teaching strategies to support students in deep, critical reflection. The paper argues the case for reflection to be represented in different modes, using discursive (language) or performative (symbolic practice) forms of expression according to disciplinary context and individual communicative strengths. It introduces key discursive and expressive elements that constitute different modes of representation in reflective tasks. This functional analysis of textual elements provides explicit knowledge for teaching and assessing multiple modes of reflection in higher education.

Traces of self: online reflective practices and performances in higher education

This paper explores issues emerging from the question of how students and teachers negotiate issues of identity, authenticity, ownership, privacy and performativity in high-stakes online reflection in higher education. I examine in particular the notion of traces as both inscriptions and archives. Working online amplifies the destabilising and disturbing effects of compulsory reflection, and the combination greatly complicates the humanist notions that legitimise their use: that there is a ‘true self’ which can be revealed, understood, recorded, improved or liberated through the process of writing about thoughts and experiences. Online reflective practices are implemented without acknowledgement of the difference being online makes, and issues of power in high-stakes reflection are disguised or ignored. These practices normalise surveillance of students' emotional and developmental expression, and produce rituals of confession and compliance.

Work in Progress: Distance learners’ conceptions of reflection in higher education

With the increasing focus on reflective learning in the higher education course curriculum it seems germane to investigate what learners think of reflection in learning. Using a research design similar to Säljö’s (1979b) study on conceptions of learning, this study explores distance learners’ conceptions of reflection and of themselves as reflective learners. Initial findings from this study are presented in the work in progress paper. These ideas will be used as a springboard for a longitudinal study of Open University students’ conceptions of reflection and how these notions may change over their higher education experience.

Just what is being reflected in online reflection?

This paper argues that new literacies are required when reflective practices in higher education move online. Online reflective writing is profoundly influenced by wider cultural understandings of blogging and personal disclosure and risk online. We can see in current blogging practices a convergence of the rise of the concept of personal branding (Peters 1997, Lair et al 2005), and what Scott describes as the “cultural tendency to seek out confessional narratives of self-disclosure” (2004, 92). This convergence exposes a number of tensions: between self-promotion and authenticity, between accusations of narcissism and pressures to confess, and between moral panics around privacy and safety and a growing sense that online invisibility equates to personal and professional negligence, and that the more presence the better. As students negotiate the management of personal, academic and sometimes also professional voices in blogs and reflective e-portfolios, they bring in to play literacies which are new not in their substance but in their modality. The paper emerges from an ongoing research project exploring how students and teachers negotiate issues of identity, authenticity, ownership, privacy and performativity in high-stakes online reflection in higher education. It draws on data from 14 interviews with students and lecturers from three university programmes in the UK which have a high-stakes reflective component. These are a subset of the data generated as part of my project (31 interviews and 15 reflective artefacts from across 8 programmes covering face-to-face, online, undergraduate and postgraduate contexts, and subject areas including education, social work, built environment, health, and law). I propose a set of (often conflicting) norms and expectations widely associated with blogging. These cluster around themes of authenticity, risk, pretense, commodification, othering and narcissism. I explore how these are reflected in the assumptions and practices of students and teachers, and go on to argue for greater attention to be given to the nature of online reflective writing, and a more explicit and critical engagement with the tensions it embodies.