What is Reflection?
Why assign reflections?
Reflection as Assessment
It is important to recognize that reflection can be a very personal and vulnerable experience for students. Please be patient and constructive when working with students that are early in exercising reflective thinking.
Well-crafted reflection assignments are aligned to one or more intended learning outcomes within your course. This way, the learning outcomes, the experience, and the reflection assignment will be constructively aligned, and students will not feel as though the reflection assignment is an unrelated task. Reflection assignments that are designed around clearly stated learning outcomes lead to assessment. Formal reflection assignments are an effective way to measure if students meet the course’s intended learning outcomes. “The learning objectives thus become both the road map that guides the design of the reflection activities and the basis for determining whether the intended destination has been reached and adequately expressed in the products of reflection” (Ash and Clayton, 2009). By aligning the reflection with the course learning outcomes, students will not feel as though the assignment is separate or in addition to their already heavy Engineering course load. We suggest that reflections be part of the formal assessment strategy and integrated into the course curriculum. In the case of students that are new to reflection, we suggest the first assignments be small in weighting such that students can receive feedback on their submissions and recognize what is expected of them. As students become more experienced in effective reflection, they will be better equipped for assignments that are heavier in weight.
Through critical reflection, students examine and articulate their learning through an experience. Critical reflections are not a simple retelling of what happened, a summary of events, or an update on their project. The ability to reflect upon an experience to discover what was learned is often a new skill that must be developed and scaffolded. Students need substantial feedback and scaffolding to be successful when they are new to this kind of expression. Share with students that you are not looking for the “right” answer here but, rather, for what the learning means to them. Through timely feedback, instructors can address student misconceptions about both the reflection assignment and their analysis of the experience and let students know when they are on the right track. To best focus student attention on their learning and provide timely and constructive feedback, rubrics are strongly recommended.
Source:
Ash, S. L., & Clayton, P. H. (2009). Generating, deepening, and documenting learning: The power of critical reflection in applied learning. Journal of Applied Learning in Higher Education, 1(1), 25-48.
Thomas, L. D., Orand, M., Shroyer, K. E., Turns, J. A., Atman, C. Tips & Tricks for Successful Implementation of Reflective Activities in Engineering Education. [Paper Presentation]. 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans. https://www.asee.org/public/conferences/64/papers/17117/view
Assessing Reflections
For more information on how to write well-defined learning outcomes, please reach out to the MacPherson Institute (mi@mcmaster.ca) or visit some of the following websites.
Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario: https://heqco.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/heqco.LOAhandbook_Eng_2015.pdf
University of Waterloo Centre for Teaching Excellence: https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/planning-courses/course-design/writing-learning-outcomes
University of Toronto Centre for Teaching Excellence and Innovation: https://teaching.utoronto.ca/teaching-support/course-design/developing-learning-outcomes/characteristics-of-good-learning-outcomes/
If you are planning to assign reflection in your course, the chances are that you are looking to assess these reflections and give them a grade. Reflection activities are not always graded, but when they are, it can be helpful to use a rubric. Before you choose a rubric, it is important to think about what type of reflection activity you have asked your students to do and what you want them to get out of the activity.
Rubrics
Below you will find examples of rubrics that may help you when assessing student reflections. Remember that you can always modify a rubric to fit your specific class context.
The following rubric is from Brock University’s Experiential Education Guidebook.
The University of Edinburgh also provides two useful rubrics referred to as Analytical Rubrics.
Example 1 – Standard Rubric:
Example 2 – Different Criteria Rubric
Assessing reflection without a rubric:
Not everyone wants to use a rubric when grading reflection activities. For examples of how to grade reflections holistically, check out the University of Edinburgh’s website on assessing reflections. The University of Edinburgh’s table comes from Jennifer A. Moon’s book A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning. This is a highly recommended source, and you can access the book through the McMaster website.
Models & Frameworks
In this section, we introduce a few reflection frameworks that you can draw upon. These frameworks align with our aim to promote reflection in our Engineering Capstone courses and the courses within the Pivot Curriculum. We also provide our own framework (The PIVOT Reflection Model) that has been used in the Engineering Capstone courses and the courses within the PIVOT curriculum.
Expandable List
The McMaster Engineering Reflection Model represents the framework used for Engineering Pivot course reflections and capstone courses, is adapted to integrate elements of the What? So What? Now What? Framework with Ryan’s and Ash & Clayton’s models. From Ryan’s model, we refined the What? component to direct student focus to a critical incident of the experience to center their thinking on one important incident rather than on considering the entire experience. From Ash and Clayton’s model, we focus attention on the importance of aligning reflection assignments to learning outcomes by identifying the appropriate domain. Through this alignment, we can best assess students’ achievement of the intended outcomes.
Each model of reflection closely follows the cycle of Experiential Learning as conceptualized by David Kolb (1984). Through thoughtfully crafted prompts, structured reflection assignments walk students through each component of the cycle. Reflection assignments are intended to support students to think through and articulate the process of applying theory to practice and generating meaning from what they learned from this experience. In this way, students have the experience AND don’t miss the meaning.
A straightforward framework, and the basis for reflection assignments in Engineering PIVOT courses (see PIVOT Reflection Model). First developed by Borton (1970) and built upon by Driscoll (1994) and Rolfe (2001), this framework is easy to use and adapt to your own course.
What? (What Happened?)
Students describe what happened and how they felt during this part of the experience.
So What? (Why is this important? Why does it matter?)
Students delve deeper into finding the meaning of the experience by examining why this experience matters. Students grapple with what may have been unexpected, unpleasant or misunderstood. As well, students may explore the importance of applying theory to practice successfully and what this means for their understanding of the situation.
Now What? (How will students apply their learning to a future experience?)
Students create a plan for experimenting or applying this new knowledge in the future.
Gibbs (1988) outlines six steps in the reflective cycle, encouraging students to work through the process (whether it was a good or challenging experience) from describing an event to developing a plan for applying their learning to future experiences.
Gibb’s Reflective Cycle. (2020, November 11). The University of Edinburgh. Retrieved April 20, 2021, from https://www.ed.ac.uk/reflection/reflectors-toolkit/reflecting-on-experience/gibbs-reflective-cycle
- Description of the experience
- Feelings and thoughts about the experience
- Evaluation of the experience, both good and bad
- Analysis to make sense of the situation
- Conclusion about what students learned and what they could have done differently
- Action plan for how students would deal with similar situations in the future, or general changes they might find appropriate
This information was adapted from The University of Edinburgh – Reflection Toolkit website. For more information, please see the following link: https://www.ed.ac.uk/reflection/reflectors-toolkit/reflecting-on-experience/gibbs-reflective-cycle
Ash and Clayton’s DEAL Model (2009) provides three steps that help align the experience with learning outcomes for the course. Like most reflection models, it encourages students to look ahead at how they may apply what they have learned to similar experiences in the future.
- Description of the experience in an objective and detailed manner
- Examination of the experience in light of learning goals/objectives
- Articulation of Learning, including goals for future action
The DEAL model suggests identifying the domain(s) that best support the learning objective of the course or component upon which to focus reflection assignments.
Ryan’s 4 Rs Model (2013) (adapted from Bain et.al. 2002) provides a reflection model that supports students as they learn how to reflect through well formulated prompts designed to guide students’ thinking through each step. The focus of each level is on leading students toward a deeper understanding of their experience and applying their learning in the future.
- Reporting and Responding: Report what happened by identifying one impactful/critical incident. Students form personal opinions around their experience in an emotional response.
- Relating: Relate incident to skills, professional experience or discipline knowledge. Students make connections between prior knowledge/skill and the new experience.
- Reasoning: Reflection moves towards an intellectually rigorous analysis using literature. Students connect relevant scholarly work/theories to practice.
- Reconstructing: Plan for moving forward for future practice.
Aligned with Bloom’s Taxonomy and built upon work of others such as Dewey (1966) and Kolb (1984), this model was developed at McMaster with the goal to guide, assess, and evaluate students’ higher order learning through experiential education in McMaster’s Sustainable Future Program.
Instructional resources, including a handout of the RLF rubric, a guide to using the RLF, and a reflection-writing workshop video can be found below:
Reflection Assignment Templates
Reflection – Resources
This site contains additional resources on using reflection in post-secondary education. There is a vast amount of information available, and the resources on this site should be seen as a start to getting involved with reflection but not a complete list.
Reflection – Contact Us
Contact information for those who have questions. You may also submit a comment or contribute through our Comment Box!
