Readings - 100 DAYS OF... Reflection

Summary
This article presents the critically reflective teaching experience of three university professors at a private university in Bogotá, Colombia. It addresses two research questions: How to design a critically reflective process aimed at transformative teaching and learning? What do professors learn about their own practices and about their students’ learning when they jointly carry out critically reflective teaching? To answer the first question we drew on theories of reflective practice and transformative scholarship of teaching and learning to design a critical reflective teaching approach, which can be useful to other university faculty. We addressed the second question by presenting two experiences in which we enacted this approach to teaching. These experiences yielded three instructional principles for preparing self-directed, autonomous, and socially responsible students: (1) linking learning experiences promoted in class with students’ lives and contexts; (2) confronting both instructor’s and students’ frames of reference; and (3) recognizing the influence of broader curricular, disciplinary, institutional contexts in our instructional practices and students’ learning.

Ossa Parra, M., Gutiérrez, R., & Aldana, M. F. (2015). Engaging in critically reflective teaching: from theory to practice in pursuit of transformative learning. Reflective Practice, 16(1), 16-30. Download the full article here.

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Summary

Purpose. When initiating an educational innovation, successful implementation and meaningful, lasting change can be elusive. This elusiveness stems from the difficulty of introducing changes into complex ecosystems. Program evaluation models that focus on implementation fidelity examine the inner workings of an innovation in the real-world context. However, the methods by which fidelity is typically examined may inadvertently limit thinking about the trajectory of an innovation over time. Thus, a new approach is needed, one that focuses on whether the conditions observed during the implementation phase of an educational innovation represent a foundation for meaningful, long-lasting change. Method. Through a critical review, authors examined relevant models from implementation science and developed a comprehensive framework that shifts the focus of program evaluation from exploring snapshots in time to assessing the trajectory of an innovation beyond the implementation phase. Results. Durable and meaningful “normalization” of an innovation is rooted in how the local aspirations and practices of the institutional system and the people doing the work interact with the grand aspirations and features of the innovation. Borrowing from Normalization Process Theory, the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, and Reflexive Monitoring in Action, the authors developed a framework, called Eco-Normalization, that highlights 6 critical questions to be considered when evaluating the potential longevity of an innovation. Conclusions. When evaluating an educational innovation, the Eco-Normalization model focuses our attention on the ecosystem of change and the features of the ecosystem that may contribute to (or hinder) the longevity of innovations in context.

Hamza, D. M., & Regehr, G. (2021). Eco-normalization: Evaluating the longevity of an innovation in context. Academic Medicine, 96(11S), S48-S53. Download the full article here.

Abstract
This article discusses the seven contributions to the special issue Facilitation of self-regulated learning. We first introduce the cue-utilization framework to study self-regulated learning; the basic idea of this framework is that learners use whatever cues are available to monitor and control their learning processes. This framework is then used to position, discuss, and critically compare the seven contributions, which represent a wide variety of approaches to self-regulated learning. Based on our analysis, five main conclusions are presented: (1) there is a tendency to focus investigations on learners' monitoring and reflection whereas it might be more fruitful to take the full learning cycle into account, (2) there are strong indications that learners' use cues to regulate their learning but which cues they are actually using depends on many different factors including the type and level of learning, (3) there is a clear need for the provision of metacognitive prompts to learners that stimulate them to use more diagnostic cues and make better control decisions, (4) on the instructional-sequence level, facilitation of self-regulated learning might include ‘second-order’ scaffolding where the number of prompts decreases as learners acquire more self-regulated learning skills, and (5) affective states may serve as cues but how they interact with cognitive cues is still unknown. We conclude that a design approach to self-regulated learning might help to acknowledge its enormous complexity.

van Merrienboer, J. J., & de Bruin, A. B. (2019). Cue-based facilitation of self-regulated learning: A discussion of multidisciplinary innovations and technologies. Computers in Human Behavior, 100, 384-391. Download the full article here.

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Inleiding
Als het aan leerlingen en studenten ligt, komt er een stop op de eindeloze stroom reflectieverslagen, portfolio’s en ontwikkelplannen. Docenten hebben geen tijd om de epistels van feedback te voorzien. En uiteindelijk verzinnen jongeren maar wat bij elkaar... Read more.  

Poortvliet, J. (2021, November 25). Doorgeslagen reflectiecultuur: ook docenten willen het anders. AOb Nieuws. 
https://www.aob.nl/nieuws/doorgeslagen-reflectiecultuur-ook-docenten-willen-het-anders/

Abstract
This paper provides a theoretical framework for "reflection amplifiers" that are used in online courses. Such reflection amplifiers are intervention techniques that aim at provoking reflective practices in learning, in order to enhance the quality and effectiveness of learning and promote meta-cognition. A literature survey identified a sample of 35 different techniques, revealing a great variety of reflection amplifiers in today’s educational practice. For the support of research into this topic, the paper provides a theoretical classification framework structured along two relevant attributes of reflection amplifiers: (a) the type of interaction which enacts the reflection amplifiers, and (b) the educational objective of the reflective activities. The framework provides a concrete and ordered expression of pursued reflective or meta-learning approaches. It has been used to create a mapping of the 35 identified techniques, enabling their detailed positioning, qualification and comparison. The framework also helps guiding future research activities and to create awareness among online course developers about the different approaches available. The paper concludes with the identification of relevant research challenges associated with the topic.

Verpoorten, D., Westera, W., & Specht, M. (2011). Reflection amplifiers in online courses: a classification framework. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 22(2), 167-190. Download the full article here. 

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Abstract
Reflection is an ambiguous and profoundly complex human activity. We celebrate the developments in teaching and researching reflection in education, yet have identified flaws in the way reflection has been operationalized: medical education has translated the age-old concept into a teachable and measureable construct. We fear that in this process of operationalization, the philosophical underpinnings of reflection have been discarded. We illustrate this with a thought experiment about a ‘reflective zombie’: students who have been conditioned to follow prescribed thought steps rather than engaging in truly reflective behaviour. In research and assessment of reflection, measuring tools might be unable to distinguish reflective zombies from students who authentically reflect. We argue that the instrumental approach lies at the root of this problem as it limits the rich concept of reflection and illustrate our point by describing problems related to paradigm (we are looking at reflection in the wrong way), methods (we are using the wrong tools), and epistemics (can we even know what we want to know?). We offer three suggestions for implementing reflection into the curriculum and for research into reflection. First, acknowledge the diversity of reflection and let go of the ‘checklist approach’. Second, embrace the personal nature of reflection by stimulating awareness of one’s personal reflection styles as part of the reflective process. Third, shift the focus of research to the practice of reflection. We believe that a strong vision on reflection can lead to a balanced curriculum, setting students up for a lifelong learning as a reflective practitioner.

de la Croix, A., & Veen, M. (2018). The reflective zombie: problematizing the conceptual framework of reflection in medical education. Perspectives on Medical Education, 7(6), 394-400. Download the full article here. 

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Conclusion
"Our goal has been to provide resources for efforts to study and/or support reflection on experience in engineering education. We started by presenting a framework for talking about reflection on experience. We subsequently discussed various theoretical perspectives on reflection that  inspired the framework we presented. In order to illustrate scholarly efforts to support reflection, we provided examples of work across disciplines (such as teacher education, nursing, medicine, and higher education) as well as work in engineering education. Finally, we discussed how our reflection framework could be used to think about ways to study and support reflection".

Turns, J. A., & Sattler, B., & Yasuhara, K., & Borgford-Parnell, J. L., & Atman, C. J. (2014, June), Integrating Reflection into Engineering Education  Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana. 10.18260/1-2--20668. Download the full article here. 

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