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Subject: My response to Colin's review questions

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John Hamer
Posts: 2
31/05/2007 07:03  
What was the impetus for the introduction of reflective essays?

Making an easy path for students to get used to writing. I want
writing to become a routine activity for my students, given its
central importance in communication and in organising thoughts and
ideas. The reflective essay format removes any anxiety about "not
doing it right", as all it asks for is a report on what they
actually did during the lab. The reflection aspect was initially a
secondary consideration, but my students tell me they have found
this to be of real value.


Where is the primary benefit of the second round of reflection (group
reflection): is it designed specifically to help those students
directly involved, or is it designed to provide an output for the
individual labs to sit alongside the other student contributed
content?

The second round is largely to provide evidence that the student has
at least looked at some other essays. I want students to share
their experiences in the labs, to foster a community of learning and
to let them know how they are performing with respect to the rest of
the class.


Would an entirely paper based approach, or even one mediated by email
have been practical?

No! With this fairly small class we have 10 x 35 reports and at
least twice that many reviews. It would be completely unwieldy
without the wiki.


Would the reflective essay approach would work so well if the class
were not already following a `contributing student’ approach?

I'd love to find out. Is anyone taking a traditional science lab
willing to give reflective essays a go?


Is there any evidence of an appetite from the students for this type
of intervention in other courses? (Is the contributing student
approach used elsewhere within this degree course?)

Various colleagues have adopted elements of the CSA in parts of
their courses, but mine is the only one to use it throughout. Their
experiences are mixed. One of my reasons for immersing my course is
to eliminate any hope that "normal transmission will resume" if only
the student holds out long enough.


Has there been any longitudinal study which follows students through
later years to see if they continue to adopt a reflective attitude to
their study in subsequent years?

Not with reflective essays. However, this is my third year of using
CSA, so we now have students at all levels of the programme who have
been exposed to it. There are clear signs of "echoes" of the CSA
appearing spontaneously in other courses. Student-generated wiki
pages have appeared for all sorts of courses. The final year
"capstone" project students are using the wiki to record minutes of
meetings, timetables, work in progress, reading lists, etc. etc.


Is there any evidence of the reflective skill being used out with the
course (i.e. do other tutors also complain that they get reflective
essays when they wanted more formal technical reports?).

No. I think students are mostly very good at "compartmentalising"
courses, and are well versed in "game playing" to determine the
likes and dislikes of different lecturers. On the other hand, I
have had students voice frustration at not being allowed to write
reflective essays in other courses. The degree to which they took
to them was a great surprise.


What other interventions are planned for this course?

I'm gradually refining the formula for the course. I may
expose next year's class to the hypertext^2book the class produced
this year and get them to critique and improve it. I'd like to add
more structure to the review activities. I'd like to get some
interaction between students in different parts of the programme,
and eventually build the community of practice beyond the course and
into industry.
Colin Milligan
Posts: 2
31/05/2007 11:14  
Hello John
Thanks for taking the time to reply to the questions posted in my review.

I was really impressed by the role of reflective essays in this course, and I think my questions reflect an underlying interest in teasing out whether this was easier to implement because of the overall 'contributing student approach' I have an ongoing interest in the development of these self-regulation skills - and wonder whether they develop earlier in students of particular disciplines, or whether their development is in response to specific teaching approaches such as yours.

I have often thought that even a cover page for each assessment submission, where a student reflected on their work (maybe anticipate a mark, or highlighted which parts they felt were weak) would work well. But your experience with reflective essays should definitely encourage others.

Good luck with your future interventions.

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