Thinking About Learning:student self-reflection for goal-setting, monitoring, and evaluating learning Petra McDougall, Department of Biological Sciences, SAGES Teaching Scholar 2017

Self-reflection is well established as an effective method to improve one’s teaching practice (Brookfield, 1995). Interestingly, despite the prevalence of reflection as a tool for improving how teachers teach, it has not been readily employed as a method of improving how learners learn (Desautel, 2009).

Additionally, students are more motivated to learn when the tasks are applicable to the ‘bigger picture’ (e.g. deep learning), and are transferable to situations outside of the immediate assignment (McAlpine, 2004; ). Self-reflective exercises that address these ‘big picture’ questions of relevance and tranferability may provide the benefits of both increased engagement and increased monitoring & evaluating of learning in order to improve learning outcomes.

MethodsFive reflections were administered (for participation marks) to a class of 53 students in a senior level capstone project course in the sciences. Reflections typically consisted of 3-4 questions, and answers were suggested to be brief (e.g. max 50-75 words), but not limited if students wished to provide more.

Using guidance from Tanner (2012), questions were created that encouraged students to reflect on three aspects of their learning: 1) planning & goal-setting 2) monitoring learning, and 3) evaluating learning.

Students completed the reflections outside of class time using an online platform (D2L).

View the reflection questions here

Why am I taking this course?What do I want to get out of it?

Findings• Overall participation rates were high (80%), but

declined as the semester proceeded (figure 1).

• Student reflections revealed common areas of confusion or struggle, as well as aspects of the course that students were enjoying. Accordingly, the reflections are also useful for course instruction/design.

• Students felt that the majority of their goals were adequately (but not fully) met by the end of the semester (figure 2).

• 67% of students had positive perceptions of the reflections and their subsequent effect on learning. 14% had neutral or mixed feelings, and 22% had negative perceptions of the reflections.

Discussion• Goal-setting at the start of the course appears to help students identify how the

course relates to other aspects of their lives, as many goals were not content-specific (e.g. meet 2 new people, participate in group discussions daily)

• Improving goal specificity may increase goal achievement.• Reflections 3 & 4 appeared valuable in creating clear strategies/plans for

success• Providing class time to complete reflections may improve 1) the overall

participation rate, 2) the time and effort student’s put into their reflections, and 3) student appreciation of the self-reflection outcomes.

AcknowledgementsThe SAGES program has been a wonderful (and valuable) addition to my PhD at the UofC. I would like to thank Isabelle Barrette-Ng for all her amazing work with the SAGES program. Thank you also to Ralph Cartar for being an awesome mentor for my practicum, and to all of my fellow SAGES colleagues who I went on this journey of growth in teaching & learning with.

ReferencesBrookfield, S. D. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. Jossey Bass Higher and Adult Education Series. San FranciscoDesautel, D. (2009). Becoming a thinking thinker: Metacognition, self-reflection, and classroom practice. Teachers College Record, 111(8), 1997-2020.Mcalpine, L. (2004). Designing learning as well as teaching: A research-based model for instruction that emphasizes learner practice. Active learning in higher education, 5(2), 119-134.Tanner, K. D. (2012). Promoting student metacognition. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 11(2), 113-120.Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by design. Alexandria, US: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development (ASCD).

“I believe that not expecting things to be perfect right now will help me the best. I feel like we put to much pressure on ourself to have all the answers so early in the course.”

“I need to be more effective in using my agenda as well as asking questions prior to deadlines so I don't get so confused.”

“Surprisingly I have been enjoying the group aspect of this course. I don't usually enjoy group projects too much.”

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Figure 1. Percentage of students completing each of the five reflections over the course of the semester

Figure 2. Extent to which students felt that they achieved the three goals created at the start of the semester. While goals were asked to be specific (e.g. yes/no), most were not, thereby requiring a likert scale for evaluation.