Blogging as an aid to reflection in learning – what’s my own approach?

(Activity 2.4 for H808)

Even this early in this study course, I have been forced to take a much more honest look at my approach to my own learning. This is timely, since I am working on a whole PD programme at my school about the importance of understanding how people learn!

I realise that the desire to be challenged and look for something new is what I always profess but that when it happens I feel slightly panicked. A very simple example of this happened in July of this year when the Dance teacher at my school (some 30 years my junior and a dance expert as opposed to someone who flicked her hair about to Status Quo) tried to teach my some moves so that I could be one of the staff who joined in her flash mob experiment in the school canteen. I suddenly understood those people who look at a Maths question and say, “I just can’t do it”. The OU module H808 is another example.

Crème, P. (2005) ‘Should student learning journals be assessed?’, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, vol. 30, no. 3, pp. 287–96. Available from: http://www.informaworld.com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/smpp/section?content=a713605501&fulltext=713240928 (accessed 3 August 2009).
Moon, J. (2001) ‘PDP working paper 4: reflection in higher education learning’ (online), The Higher Education Academy. Available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase/id72_Reflection_in_Higher_Education_Learning.rtf (accessed 29 June 2007).
Moon, J. (2005) ‘Guide for busy academics no. 4: learning through reflection’ (online), The Higher Education Academy. Available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase/id69_guide_for_busy_academics_no4.doc (accessed 2 July 2008).

Crème’s paper reminded me of a project that I tried last year with Maths GCSE students (aged 15/16). I routinely ask students to keep a learning journal. Most of them still prefer paper based journals although some of them made good use of the wiki that I set up for them. (This year, the school has introduced a managed learning environment with online access, hand in points, portfolios for tracking, and collaborative document writing. I have two classes who are just starting to use these tools.) I set one project which was to do an extended learning journal on their wiki page (effectively a blog) with pre-advertised assessment criteria for reflection – based on Perry, Moon and Allan (see refs below).

When guiding students to become independent learners, it is necessary to aim particularly for ‘deep learning’ and ‘target setting’, although, this is very difficult, especially with young learners. Deep learning entails personal evaluation of learning achieved and reflection on development as a learner. I tried to encourage full written accounts of this. Target setting entails identifying areas for improvement, linked to learning needs. Students who do well in this area make written notes of help needed and are proactive in seeking specific assistance. This is actually quite an advanced capacity for students aged 13-16 since they tend to simply request ‘help’ without being able to analyse what is required. There is likely to be some link with both current and potential cognitive ability but nonetheless, I believe that all ability groupings are able to improve with guidance.

This is what I wrote for them to try to explain what we were doing and why:
"Being a reflective learner means taking something that you already know really well such as how to read, or doing basic Maths, or something about how cars work, or your favourite music or artist. You then use that existing knowledge and apply it in new situations, usually to solve a problem. In so doing, you actually develop new knowledge and it is better than just being told or taught something by someone else because you will remember it so much better. Of course, at school, college or university, and even when training for a new job, you usually have to have someone to guide you. If you take the time to sit and reflect afterwards, write it down in a Learning Journal or mind map, or whatever suits you, you will find that you do something called internalising the knowledge - remember when I talked about metacognitive skills?"

Taking that a step further to look at my own learning, blogging and micro-blogging have been the ways in which I have taken something I already knew about (learning journals) and tried to apply it in new situations.

Parker and Chao (2007) provide an excellent explanation of what wikis can do, particularly as an aid to collaborative learning. I believe that it is this collaborative aspect which is so important in the development of lifelong learners. As Parker and Chao (ibid:58) put it:

"Cooperative learning leads to positive interdependence of group members, individual accountability, face-to-face interaction, and appropriate use of collaborative skills (Schaffert, Bischof, et al., 2006). Cooperative teams achieve higher levels of thought and retain information longer than students who do their work individually (Johnson and Johnson, 1986). The collaborative features of wikis make them particularly well suited for cooperative learning environments (Schaffert, Bischof, et al., 2006)."

Langley (2002: 9) points out the change that has taken place in perceptions of what it is to be a good teacher – based on views of how people learn. This has been reflected by successive Ofsted framework reviews so that nowadays lesson observations tend to look for ‘what learning has taken place’ rather than ‘what the teacher did’. Although Langley is considering teaching in Higher Education, I believe that there are many similarities with school teaching. For example, she writes:
"Transmission is not the only role, or even the primary role, of the HE teacher. The teacher’s role is to encourage active participation, dialogue and interaction by students with course materials and with each other."

Elizabeth Holmes (2/10/08:1), writing for CPD Week, uses an analogy from children’s literature to begin her explanation of professional learning journals:-
"Any Harry Potter fans out there may remember a conversation between Harry and Dumbledore about the 'pensieve'. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, by JK Rowling, Dumbledore explains to the young Harry that the stone basin he calls the pensieve is used to hold excess thoughts from one's mind so that they can be examined at leisure. "It becomes easier to spot patterns and links, you understand, when they are in this form", says Dumbledore."

I believe that this would also make a good explanation of why student learning journals should be encouraged. Teachers strive to help their classes with pattern spotting and link making and it is my contention that by assisting them in making links across and between subject areas we are helping them to become independent learners for the future. Northedge and Lane (1997) describe a spiral of learning which begins at the point where we realise that we need some extra information in order to enhance our learning, moving on through study and lessons, using some old knowledge, to internalise new ideas and begin the spiral again. The issue which I believe exists even more markedly with young students is that they need considerable guidance to move sensibly along this spiral.

I asked students “What do you think of using the LJ idea in Maths?”
· Good, helps me remember
· It’s very useful for going back when a question comes up
· again later on
· Don’t like it
· Very good idea as it cuts down revision and gives you all the
· information you need.
· OK
· Very good, much easier to revise from
· It is useful for revision
· It makes it much easier to revise for exams or to look up
· how to do things you don’t understand
· Helpful to refer back to, I’ve got better at it

Allan, H. J. (2008) ‘Assessment tool for reflective practice’, for the Royal College of Surgeons
(unpublished)
Holmes, E. (2/10/08:1) “Professional learning journals – making learning come alive”, CPD
Week (teachingexpertise.com)
Langley, A. (ed) (2002) Supporting Open Learning Theoretical Reader (2002) Milton Keynes,
The Open University
Northedge, A. and Lane, A. (1997) ‘What is learning?’ in Northedge, A. et al. The Science
Good Study Guide Milton Keynes, the Open University pp. 20-2
Parker, K. R. and Chao, J. T., (2007) Wiki as a Teaching Tool in Interdisciplinary Journal of
Knowledge and Learning Objects (3: 57-72), California, USA
Perry W G (1970) Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years, New
York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston.