Quick Guide to Creating Reflective Practice Assignments

STEP 1

Identify Your Purpose

There are ate least four reasons you might want your students to practice reflection:

  • to help them learn the content of the course,
  • to help them understand their own learning process,
  • to help them evaluate thier performance,
  • to help them see or imagine how their learning has or could transform them.

So, the first step in creating a reflective assignment is to decide what you want your students to gain from reflecting. Do you want to solidify their understanding of a difficult concept? Examine how they prepare for exams? Evaluate their lab work or research paper? Or consider who they are becoming as a scholar, scientist, artist, teacher, researcher, etc.?

STEP 2

Choose a Format

Reflection doesn’t always have to be a formal, individual, or written assignment. In fact, students are more likely to develop a reflective disposition when reflection is baked into the everday rhythm of your course. This means regularly using a variety of reflective activities—formal and informal, individual and collaborative—at multiple points in the learning process. For example you might:

  • Pause during a lecture or discussion and invite students to reflect with a partner.

Prompts for reflecting during class:

  • Reflecting about Course Conent “What have we just learned? Why is it important for an economist/scientist/artist/historian/etc. to understand this principle?”
  • Reflecting about the Learning Process “What surprised you most about what we’ve just learned? Why do you find this new knowledge surprising?”
  • Reflecting about Performance “What did you just learn that would have helped you in a previous assignment? What would you do differently on a project/paper/lab experiment/problem set know that you have this knowledge?”
  • Reflecting about Transformation “Where might you use this new knowledge? What kinds of questions will this new knowledge allow you to answer?”
  • Ask students to write an “exit ticket” as they leave class to reflect on their learning that day.

Prompts for on an exit ticket:

  • Reflecting about Course Conent “How would you teach a concept we learned today to someone who is not in this class? How could you make this concept meaningful for that person?”
  • Reflecting about the Learning Process “What one idea from today’s lesson do you feel you understand best? Why do you think this idea makes so much sense to you?”
  • Reflecting about Performance “What connections did you see between the reading you did before class and our discussion today? How did your reading prepare you to understand today’s lesson?”
  • Reflecting about Transformation “What excites you most about what you learned today? Why does this particular knowledge excite you?”
  • Create a class Google doc where students practice reflection by responding anonymously to prompts.

Prompts for reflecting on a Google doc:

  • Reflecting about Course Conent “What concept/theory/idea is still muddy for you? Why do you think it is important for you to better understand this concept/theory/idea?”
  • Reflecting about the Learning Process “What assignments and class activities are contributing most/least to your learning? Why do you think these assignments and activities are/are not helpful?”
  • Reflecting about Performance “How did solving problems together in class today change your attitude about your ability to solve problems on your own?”
  • Reflecting about Transformation “The concept we learned in this unit is a ‘threshold’ concept in our discipline. That means once learners understand this concept, a whole new way of thinking and seeing opens up for them. How has understanding this concept helped you see our field differently?”
  • Assign progress memos for students to reflect on work-in-progress. This sometimes called “reflection-in-action” because learners reflect while they are completing a task or project.

Prompts for reflecting during class:

  • Reflecting about Course Conent “How does something you’ve researched for your final paper relate to you personally? How does it connect to your life?”
  • Reflecting about the Learning Process “What strategies are you using to complete the assigned problem sets/research project/case study? Which strategies are most useful and why?”
  • Reflecting about Performance “What is writing this paper teaching you about your strengths as a writer? Your weaknesses?”
  • Reflecting about Transformation “How do you see yourself changing as a student/researcher/scholar as you complete the major assignments for this course?”
  • Assign a formal written reflection that invites students to evaluate their cumulative learning. This is sometimes called “reflection-on-action” because learners reflect on the outcome of something they have already accomplished.

    Prompts for formal written reflection:

    • Reflecting about Course Conent “What course content do you feel you have mastered? How and where might you use that knowledge in the future?”
    • Reflecting about the Learning Process “What research method influenced the way you approached your final paper/project? How was that method different from other research methods you’ve used in the past?”
    • Reflecting about Performance “What are the strengths of your completed project? What do those strengths tell you about your development as a writer/scholar/scientist/etc.?”
    • Reflecting about Transformation “Based on your own self-assessment, what does your project reveal about both what you know and about who you’ve become over the course of the semester?”

    STEP 3

    Scaffold and Support

    Reflection is a skill that is developed through systematic practice. Students need instruction in reflection and continued encouragement as they reflect. Here are som best practices for supporting reflection:

    Frame Reflection as a Process and a Disposition—Not Just a Product: Teach students the theory and research behind reflection so they understand what reflection is and are motivated to develop a habit of reflecting.

    Teach a Systematic Method for Refleccting: We use the What? So what? Now what? model of reflection (first introduced by Terry Borton), but there are other models too.

    • Shelly Reid’s framework uses the questions What? Why? How? So?
    • Whitney et al. teach students to Remember, Describe, and Act
    • Duerden & Rowan’s model inludes Integration, Pattern Recognition, and Storytelling
    • Bain et al.’s framework calls for Reporting, Responding, Relating, Reasoning, and Reconstructing
    • Graham Gibb’s seven-part model consists of Description, Feelings, Evaluation, Analysis, Conclussions, and Action

    In every framework, reflection is an iterative process; learners describe, evaluate, and plan in a continuous cycle. In this way, the process of reflecting becomes the habit of lifelong learners.

    Make Reflective Practice Visible: Use the word reflection often so that students see reflection as a normal part of the learning process. Help them see that both learners and experts use reflection for planning, predicting, and problem-solving.

    Provide Feedback: Students are more likely to continue reflecting when they receive feedback. Depending on the reflective assignment, that feedback can be written or oral, formal or informal. Just as reflection should become a normal part of the classroom, feedback too should be part of the expected rhythm of the class.

    If students reflect by talking to peers, you could invite a few to share their conversation. If students complete reflective exit tickets, you could begin the next class by summarizing what they said or noting patterns in the responses. Our “How to Grade” page offers tips for giving feedback adn grading formal reflection.

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