Reflective Essay Research Articles

Engagement and Incidental L2 Vocabulary Acquisition in Digital Gaming: A Qualitative Perspective of an “In‐Denial Gaming Addict” From Hong Kong

ABSTRACTAn increasing amount of language learning is occurring outside the traditional classroom settings, with digital gaming emerging as a prominent arena. This study presents a case analysis of an individual, Choi, who is a gaming enthusiast or even an “in‐denial gaming addict” (in his own words) and demonstrates a paradoxical academic profile: academically underperforming yet possessing an advanced level of English proficiency. Through reflective essays and five rounds of interviews, the study explored Choi's engagement with digital games in relation to vocabulary acquisition. The paper provides a deep insight into the critical events that shape the cognitive, behavioral, and affective dimensions of Choi's language learning engagement in gaming. The paper ends with practical suggestions for those who are interested in leveraging the potential of games in incidental vocabulary acquisition.

Digital lecturers in the making: Identity construction in Indonesia’s online English language teaching

The change in Indonesia's educational paradigm has substantially affected the training of aspiring lecturers teaching English as a second language. These lecturers must now instruct using a blended approach, incorporating online teaching sessions where they must produce their instructional strategies. This study examines how English Language Lecturers develop their identity while engaging in online teaching. This qualitative case study research offers a comprehensive examination of the development of professional identities among four lecturers based on interviews conducted with them. The data were gathered via semi-structured interviews and reflective writings. The interview questions were formulated according to Kelchtermans [1] framework of Lecturer Professional Identity. The data analysis utilized thematic analysis. The coding commenced with preliminary data analysis to discern repeating patterns and topics. The results indicate that the shift to online teaching has transformed these lecturers into 'digital lecturers.' Their identities are affected by several elements, including task beliefs, personality traits, job motivation, self-image, and future aspirations. In addition, factors such as teaching experience, feedback, and competency in technology are crucial in shaping this process of identity formation. The study provides guidelines for improving the identity development of English Language Lecturers in digital educational contexts.

개신교 정신재활 공동체의 마음챙김 경험 연구

This study examines the experiences of members in a Protestant mental rehabilitation community during a group mindfulness-based program, focusing on the meaning and impact of their experiences, as well as the changes they underwent. Participants included six individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depressive disorder and one family member. A six-session Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) program was conducted. Data were collected from video recordings, transcripts, final reflection essays, and an observation journal. Using Giorgi's phenomenological qualitative research method, 59 meaning units, 16 central meanings, and five themes emerged. The core theme, "Life Changes Through Mindfulness Meditation," includes five key aspects: "Changes in Psychiatric Symptoms," "Improved Physical Condition," "Emotional Changes," "Behavioral and Attitudinal Shifts," and "Cognitive Changes." This study highlights mindfulness`s potential for individuals with mental illness and their families, particularly in Protestant faith communities, and suggests its integration into pastoral care within church settings.

Uniformed Medical Student Perspectives About Mental Health: Thematic Analysis of Written Reflections.

Medical students, including uniformed medical students, are at greater risk of depression, anxiety, and burnout compared to their age-matched peers, yet relatively few medical students choose to seek help from mental health professionals. This study aimed to evaluate medical students' reflective writings to identify common themes and attitudes around mental health-for both the medical students themselves and how they view their future patients. Written reflections on the topic of mental health were completed during a required pre-clerkship reflective practice course. Third- and fourth-year medical students were asked whether the reflections they had completed could be used for analysis. Qualitative analyses were conducted to identify themes. The study was deemed exempt by the USU Institutional Review Board. Written reflections from 50 uniformed medical students were reviewed. Four themes were identified: Mental health is health, caring for the caregiver, defining bias, and mental health and the mission. Written reflection created an opportunity for medical students to discover their own perspectives on mental health and potential barriers to accessing mental health care. Medical schools should seek opportunities to incorporate reflective writing into the curriculum.

Building Bridges Between Arnett’s and Havighurst’s Theories: New Developmental Tasks in Emerging Adulthood Across Six Countries

According to Arnett’s theory, emerging adulthood is a distinct developmental period. As Havighurst’s developmental theory suggests, specific tasks are assigned to different human life stages. The purpose of this study is to discover the developmental tasks of emerging adulthood. A sample of 129 students from diverse cultural backgrounds, including Spain, Portugal, Japan, Korea, Poland, and the USA, submitted reflective essays detailing their personal perceptions and the meaning of adulthood. Employing both directed and inductive analytical approaches, the study uncovered new developmental tasks such as social solidarity and openness to diversity, lifelong learning, development of thinking and knowledge, and building mental resilience. According to Havighurst, tasks were as follows: socially responsible behavior, emotional independence, getting started in an occupation, and managing a home. Comparative analysis revealed a predominance of tasks characteristic of adolescence compared to those indicative of adulthood and emerging adulthood.

Controversies and scandals as an RRI teaching and learning tool: beyond inspiring

ABSTRACT The transition from undergraduate to PhD student in STEM disciplines is a key point for introducing RRI, as we see a natural increase in responsibility and a shift to active research. In this study, one lecturer and eleven STEM PhD students reflect on our experiences of learning about RRI and explore how controversies and scandals can be used for teaching, through reflective essays and discussions of nine controversies and scandals. Thematic analysis was used to highlight key challenges in learning about RRI in our context, map the case studies against an RRI framework, and identify four ways to view RRI when learning as a PhD student in STEM: (1) starting point, (2) developing research identity, (3) communities of research and innovation, and (4) bigger picture. We suggest there are rich learning opportunities within studying such cases that go beyond the obvious ‘inspiring and eliciting interest’.

Self-regulated learning and students’ writing after Covid: A correlational study

The shift to independent, home-based learning during the COVID-19 pandemic created isolated educational environments that likely fostered self-regulated learning (SRL) practices among students. Building on this context, this study investigates the relationship between self-regulated learning and students’ writing skills in the post-pandemic era, while also identifying the specific SRL strategies employed during writing tasks. Adopting a quantitative correlational design, the research involved 33 tenth-grade senior high school students. Data were gathered through an adapted self-regulated learning questionnaire and a reflective essay writing test, with Spearman’s rho correlation used for analysis. The results revealed a statistically significant, moderate positive correlation between self-regulated learning and writing skills (r = 0.439, p = 0.011, p < 0.05). Additionally, the most frequently utilized SRL strategies in writing included self-consequences (e.g., self-reward for progress), self-evaluation (e.g., post-writing proofreading), and transformation (e.g., conceptualizing ideas in Indonesian before drafting in English). These findings underscore the significant association between self-regulated learning and post-pandemic writing proficiency, offering valuable insights for future research on SRL’s role in enhancing English language competencies.

Utilizing natural language processing to analyze student narrative reflections for medical curriculum improvement

Motivation Medical curricula improvement is an ongoing process to keep material relevant and improve the student’s learning experience to better prepare them for patient care. Many programs utilize end-of-year evaluations, but these frequently have low response rates and lack actionable feedback. We hypothesized that student reflections written during a fourth year Sub-Internship could be used retrospectively to mine additional information as feedback for future curriculum adjustments. However, reflections contain a large amount of narrative content that would require a cumbersome and essentially infeasible manual review process for busy medical education faculty. Methods We developed a Natural Language Processing (NLP) pipeline to automatically identify common themes and topics present in the set of reflective writings that could be used to improve the curriculum. The dataset contains required responses to a faculty issued question submitted between August 2016 and July 2018 about challenges experienced during the medical students fourth year Sub-Internship. Results Eleven distinct topics were identified, with several being subsequently addressed in future iterations of the curriculum. Conclusion Utilizing NLP on reflective writings was able to identify areas of curriculum improvement, and the NLP results provided a quick and easy way to explore the main themes and challenges expressed by students.

Play and passion: framing children’s rich moments of responding and making meaning

PurposeThis short article takes the play and passion of children’s literacy as its focal point. Rather than orienting reading and writing around what should be taught or how children should respond and understand written text, in this short reflective essay we aim to explore the play and passion inherent in children’s literacy practices. We do not aim to precisely conceptualise or delineate the nature of play or passion but, instead, to trace the path of these ideas through seminal research studies within the field of New Literacy Studies as well as drawing on the authors’ fieldwork.Design/methodology/approachThis paper begins with an exploration of foundational research in the field of new literacy studies, drawing attention to the abundant presence of children’s play and passion. Then, it visits two moments of play and passion from the authors’ fieldwork that suggest ways of thinking anew about children’s literacy practices beyond responding to text. The first, by Kenneth Pettersen, considers childhood collecting across home/pre-school settings in Norway; the second, by Stefan Kucharczyk, looks at children’s curatorship in Minecraft at an afterschool videogame club in the UK. This paper concludes with a proposed reimagining of literacy education, outlining implications for researchers, policymakers and practitioners.FindingsThese observed moments of collecting and gaming are analysed in the context of children’s play and passion. In both cases, we highlight how observing children following their passions and interests can challenge how we, as adult researchers, view their play and how we think about literacy. Rather than being in opposition to one another, our analysis of children’s collecting and worldbuilding account for the felt experience in children’s literacy practices.Originality/valueMoving inside of two separate research studies, we give a bird’s eye view of what can be gained by observing and drawing out play and passion while children respond and make meaning through varied texts and objects in two different contexts. The article therefore is an invitation to think otherwise about reading and writing by embracing play and passion as children’s pathway into rich literacy moments.

Across pedagogies of failure: teaching students how to fail and failing in the process

ABSTRACT In this reflective collaborative essay, we explore the possibilities of a pedagogy of failure specifically within the context of the creative writing workshop and courses that emphasise process-based writing. Based on the experiences of teaching an undergraduate-led creative writing workshop (‘How to Fail for Fun and/or Profit’), we consider how a pedagogy of failure might be theorised. Ultimately, we contend that failing can be a productive rather than limiting force and suggest that engaging with failure can be a rewarding experience for many writers.

Spaces of solidarity: How intergroup dialogues fostered resilience and connection during dual crises

Utilizing social support theory, a group interview with six facilitators, and reflection essays from 21 students and five facilitators, this study investigated the impacts of COVID-19 and racism on student and facilitator experiences in an IGD course. Additionally, it evaluated the course’s influence on participants’ experiences during the crises. Findings revealed the crises caused significant financial, social, and mental health struggles for participants. However, the IGD acted as a supportive space, fostering empathy, boosting social awareness, and providing a critical space for connection, expression, and emotional relief. These findings highlight the value of IGDs as vital tools for addressing educational inequity, which is particularly valuable as individuals seek strategies to reconstruct communities and institutions with equity and inclusion in mind.

Online Reflective Essays: A Guide for Qualitative Researchers

Conducting research online is becoming more popular among researchers, especially qualitative researchers. As qualitative methodology gains more credibility and popularity, it is important to continue expanding and improving the qualitative research toolkit. This article offers a guide for qualitative researchers on how to methodologically use online reflective essays to collect rich qualitative data to answer their research questions. When developing a study, qualitative researchers should consider a set of factors, including the research question, the sensitivity of the research question, the amount of reflectivity required to answer the research question, the length it takes to answer the research question, and the type of population that will be used to answer the research question. This article discusses these factors and provides practical design suggestions using examples from a previous study that collected data using online reflective essays.

Effectiveness of educational theater on nursing assistants' empathy in long-term care facility: A mixed methods study.

Effectiveness of educational theater on nursing assistants' empathy in long-term care facility: A mixed methods study.

Enhancing students’ digital literacy skills through their technology use in a course-based research project: a Hong Kong case study

Abstract Rapid technological developments in the digital era have led to substantial changes to higher education curricula. This paper reports on a qualitative study which examined students’ perceptions of digital literacy skills development through the completion of a course-based digital research project. Consisting of a digital skills training workshop and assessment tasks including the production of a website and a video, the research-oriented project was designed to be incorporated into a sociolinguistics course offered to undergraduate students at a university in Hong Kong. 57 Students participated in the group project as part of the coursework and wrote a reflective essay on their learning experiences upon the completion of the project. Reflexive thematic analysis was conducted to analyze students’ written responses in relation to their development of various digital literacy skills, including branching literacy, information literacy, reproduction literacy, photo-visual literacy, socio-emotional literacy, and technical literacy. The findings of the study showed that students considered their use of technology in the project facilitative of their development of digital literacy. While the nature and requirements of the assessment tasks may have limited students’ development of photo-visual literacy, positive experiences with regard to students’ development of the other literacy skills were reported. It is recommended that similar technologically mediated, discovery-enriched assessment tasks be implemented within the existing curricula in the higher education sector. To enhance students’ development of photo-visual literacy, teachers are also recommended to provide students with more opportunities for them to make use of visual graphics in their coursework.

The Role of Podcast Creation in Supporting Motivation and Self-Directed Learning Among EFL College Students: An Action Research Study

This study explores how learner-generated podcasts can support English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learning among college students in Taiwan. Using a mixed-methods approach, data were collected from 31 participants through surveys on podcasting attitudes, learning logs, and reflective essays. The findings reveal that EFL learners generally perceive podcast creation positively, viewing it as a valuable tool for self-directed learning. Key benefits reported include increased motivation, self-confidence, enjoyment, improved metacognitive strategies, enhanced language production skills, and greater technological competencies. Furthermore, the study suggests that using themes aligned with learners’ academic subjects and personal interests can deepen their engagement with language learning. These insights provide practical recommendations for educators aiming to integrate learner-generated podcasts to promote autonomous learning and foster positive attitudes and motivation in EFL college contexts.

Capturing Nonlinear Intercultural Development via Student Reflective Writing

This article reports on a qualitative assessment of intercultural competence (IC) in U.S. first-year writing (FYW) courses designed to increase intercultural exposure and interaction among domestic and international students. To measure students’ intercultural development via a series of reflective writings, we designed two innovative qualitative analysis tools: a grounded-theory coding scheme and a mapping procedure aligned to the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity. Our results show that qualitative assessment of reflective writing reveals dynamic, complex IC development trajectories, displaying nonlinearity, nondiscrete phases, and development within phases. Specifically, we noted that reflective writing helped students engage with and become attuned to aspects of cultural difference. Affordances of the FYW context indicated that students strongly engaged the cognitive domain of IC, and that this domain appears to be activated by reflective writing.

“Justice Served”: The Dual Impact of Academic Service-Learning Programs on Exoneree Reintegration and Transformative Experience for Students

In recent years, the rise in exonerations due to advancements in DNA analysis and advocacy efforts has shed light on the critical need for post-release support for wrongfully convicted individuals. This study examines the impact of an Academic Service-Learning (ASL) program in a Forensic Psychology course taught to Criminal Justice Majors, which paired students with exonerees to aid in their reintegration, providing real-world insights into the criminal justice system’s flaws. Using a qualitative analysis of reflective essays from 58 students and feedback from 12 exonerees, the study identifies themes of personal and professional transformation for students, such as enhanced empathy, shifted career aspirations, and strengthened commitment to justice reform. Exonerees reported emotional benefits, skill development in areas like technology, and a sense of validation from sharing their stories. Findings underscore the reciprocal benefits of ASL programs, which foster critical awareness among future professionals and support exonerees’ reintegration needs.

The Supervisor's Role in Facilitating the Doctoral Student's Identity Development

In this reflective essay I discuss possible avenues for how the supervisor(s) of a doctoral candidate can contribute to the candidate’s identity formation as a researcher, and their socialization into a larger academic context. I discuss the doctoral education as identity work, relational aspects of the supervision process, and finally argue that tenets from the self-determination theory can be used as a guiding framework to understand which factors and drivers are important in the doctoral student’s identity development process. I conclude by discussing how such a framework can be useful for a reflective practice in doctoral supervision.

<em>Jami Chadiba Nahin</em> (We Will Not Leave this Land): Materiality and Imagination in Indigenous Land Ethics

This is a reflective essay on materiality and imagination of Indigenous land ethics as expressed in global Indigenous writing. I explore Adivasi land ethics, particularly from the contexts of Odisha and Jharkhand, placing them alongside North American First Nations writings. The paper traces a range of resonances to inform queries on land ethics; in this, it begins from particular sites to global spaces to articulate broader questions for Environmental Studies. This is in the hope that the questions might enlighten and reify contemporary concerns in these respective geographical and intellectual locations, complicating the site and probing the intellectual divide between the Global North and the Global South in area studies, to see how Indigenous concerns globally are aligned in the face of a global climate crisis, as they are disproportionately affected due to historical injustices of empire, settler colonial enterprise, caste orders and religious nationalisms. While I draw from American Environmental Studies to situate the materiality of Indigenous philosophies, the essay affirms the enabling mindfulness of metaphors and how they can inform and strengthen material claims in the negotiation for Indigenous political rights in India, and elsewhere, by resisting co-options of Indigeneity that accompany pitfalls of literality. In this, the essay attempts to connect the generative iterations and expressions of ‘imagination’ as written by Indigenous writers who envision collective futures through Indigenous ‘humanisms’ that account the impact of colonial histories of dispossession, and affirm ethical responsibility towards the human and non-human world.

Celebrating The Art of Storytelling and Digital Stories: The Impressions from The 1st International Digital Storytelling Festival

This is a reflective essay about the 1st International Digital Storytelling Festival held on the Greek island of Zakynthos between 27-29 September 2024 as a result of an extensive international collaboration involving Hacettepe University and TED University from Turkey. Celebrating the unifying and transformative power of digital storytelling, the festival showcased digital stories around the world on themes of "Culture", "Education", "Environment", "Health", "Science and Research" and "Society". Through screenings, panel discussions and workshops, it promoted cultural exchange, social awareness and dialogue on global issues. This reflective essay aims to highlight the importance of the festival as a forum for interdisciplinary collaboration and how digital storytelling bridges divides, inspires action and contributes to collective understanding and change.