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Reflection is a very important part of student learning.
In a way I perceive reflection to be a time-out,
where students detach themselves from the
whole obsession.
Understandably they're concerned about marks,
getting a high distinction or a distinction or something of that sort,
but in my view,
reflection is really a tool to detach oneself
from that thinking pattern
and really think about what did we really learn.
So, put it all in perspective,
think about this particular assignment in context to the overall unit,
the actual course and maybe also in context of the overall degree
that they are doing.
So it's really a tool to detach themselves from the whole
grades and marks and so on world
and really think about the learning itself.
How do we actually incorporate reflection in the course,
I'm doing so at the undergraduate level
and also at the post-graduate level.
I'm doing so at Macquarie University, of course where I teach,
but I also teach as a visiting professor in Denmark
and also in reflection
exercises in Europe,
I also teach in Hong Kong for Macquarie
and I do the same and possibly I'll teach in South Korea
in the Asian region as well.
Reflection seems to be
relevant to
different cultures,
people in Australia, Australian students so to speak,
seem to be getting benefits from reflection,
but also students that are international,
often Asian background, North American background, European background
seem to be equally benefiting from reflection.
So how do we provide guidance?
I collaborate with Dr Marina Harvey in the Teaching and Learning Centre and we,
together, have designed a fairly
structured form
where students can,
that students can use when they do their reflection.
So, I'll talk about this in a moment but we have a very clear structure
and check-items, if you will, that students can really use as
a guiding principle,
which items to reflect on.
In addition Marina Harvey comes to my class
and talks a tiny bit about the theoretical background of reflection
to all my undergraduate and postgraduate students.
I, myself also introduce my own experience a tiny bit,
but time is always the issue.
I talk about my own experience on reflection to my students and that seems
to also have a bit of a
motivational effect.
So, the model that Marina Harvey and I have designed
requires students to reflect on
four areas of learning.
The first one would be marketing itself, so my courses are always on
marketing and branding,
so the questions for students specifically would be -
What have I learned about Marketing and Branding?
So it's a reflection on the actual factual learning if you will.
The second component, the second point that we ask students to reflect on
is research,
because my courses are research driven, undergraduate and
postgraduate levels, so we want students to reflect on
the learning in terms of research.
For a lot of the undergraduates research is still a bit of a novelty,
it's a learning experience and that also is what we find when we look at
their reflections,
so it's a learning experience and so it should be.
It's not always easy and we can read that when we look at their comments in those
feedback forms, let's put it this way.
We also ask them to reflect on teamwork,
so they have to work in teams, very common at any Western university,
probably teams of four, five, six students, because the class size is relatively big, so we're facing
big teams as well, and students do comment on that issue, positively
or negatively,
but in any case we ask students to reflect on teamwork as well, so it's not just
about marketing or branding it's really about the bigger picture of the
whole experience, let's put it this way. And last but not least we ask
students to reflect on improvement,
so based on the experience.
What should or could be done better next time.
That seems to be a very interesting thought for students that they
haven't usually really
thought through in such great detail.