Reflection: Understanding, Enabling, and Appreciating
University of Washington, USA, jturns@uw.edu
Abstract
In order to improve engineering education, educators in engineering are adopting teaching methods such as problem-based learning, active learning, and experiential learning. To realize the potential of such approaches, educators must implement features that make them effective. In this talk, I will focus one such feature: student reflection.
Reflection is a form of thinking in which one explores the meaning of experiences and the consequences of the meaning for future action. Engaging in reflection can benefit students in many ways, including improved learning, motivation, and persistence. Despite the importance of reflection as a component of learning by doing, Susan Ambrose[1], an internationally recognized expert in teaching and learning, has noted, “…students learn by doing, but only when they have time to reflect—the two go hand in hand. Why, then, don’t engineering curricula provide constant structured opportunities and time to ensure that continual reflection takes place.”
Limited emphasis on reflection may arise because reflection can be hard to understand, difficult to enable, and subsequently challenging to appreciate. In this talk, I will describe research and practice efforts that speak to these three issues—understanding, enabling, and appreciating. I will talk about two research-through-design activities and address the question: what lessons related to understanding, enabling, and appreciating student reflection arose through efforts to support reflective essay writing and professional portfolio creation? I will also talk about how these lessons informed a current project: The Consortium to Promote Reflection in Engineering Education. In this part of the talk, I will address the question: What is entailed in (and being learned from) creating a large-scale, multi-campus sustained focus on reflection?
[1] Ambrose, S. A. (2013). Undergraduate engineering curriculum: The ultimate design challenge. The Bridge: Linking Engineering and Society, 43(2).