Reflections

 “We don’t learn from experiences, we learn from reflecting on the experience.” John Dewey

I am the type of teacher that goes from bell to bell.  I like to maximize class time, and that usually centers around labs and activities.  The problem with being go go go all the time is that it doesn't necessarily give ample time for students to process what they have done (and hopefully) learned.

Whether it's stopping class with 5 minutes to spare to have students summarize what we did that day, taking time to fully debrief a lab at the end, reflecting on a test and mistakes that were made, or giving students time to discuss or write what they have learned in a given activity, there are so many ways for students to reflect on what they've learned.  Some would argue, and I think the science shows this, that the more we give students time to reflect on their learning, the more likely they are to understand their content as well as identify gaps in their learning. This is part of the learning process. See my recent post Performance, Feedback, Revision where I discuss this cycle.  Reflection, is part of the low stakes "performance" I discuss. It's integral to learning.

My Evolution

Yet, in my early years as a teacher I often neglected these opportunities for reflection.  Part of this was poor class time management, part of this was not placing a value on it.  Mostly, I just like to fill time up with as many labs and activities that would engage students and get them excited about science.  I was too focused on experiences John Dewey references in the quote above.  My students were not getting the best of me or my class.

In recent years I began implementing reflections in various forms in my class. I did this mostly through unit reflections via student maintained blogs, and it had a transformative impact on my student's learning, and how I taught.  By doing unit reflections, students honed their ability of distilling down all the content of the unit into a summary that made sense to them.  Rather than me telling them what was most essential, by processing through their notes and writing a summary, THEY outlined what was most essential.  What's more, each unit reflection they also evaluated their growth as a student.  I'd always ask "are you a better student today than the start of the unit?"  They'd have to justify their answer and describe things that worked in class, and what didn't work, including ideas for improvement.

While the unit reflection was done the day before a test and was designed to help students consolidate learning before the test, it was actually a strong artifact of their understanding.  Students who put in the time and wrote thoughtfully on their reflections often did very well on tests. In reality, the reflection could have been a summative assessment.

If you are going to do only 1 form of reflection, I'd advocate for a unit reflection. This could be on a blog, a Google Doc, or written by hand in a journal.  

Get students to summarize what they've learned, and reflect on their own personal growth as a student, and you'll have students SHOWING and DESCRIBING their learning.

Reflection Strategies

There are many types of reflections.  I've created a Padlet of different approaches these could be used as a formative approach, but also part of summative assessment approach too.  I'll continue to add to this in the future.

The bottom line: Reflection is a powerful tool because students

• recollect what they've learned
• consolidate the information
• construct meaning of it all in terms they can understand and remember
• make connections/relate to what they've learned or experienced prior
• reflect on what's working and what's not
• make plans or strategies for next steps
• demonstrates in a way that no test could, what they understand

What are your go-to reflection strategies?  Share your thoughts or strategies in the comments below. Thanks for reading.