Appendix A
Reflective Learning Journal and Rubric
Reflection is a purposeful activity in which you analyze experiences, or your own practice/skills/responses, in order to learn and improve.
We reflect quite naturally in our day to day lives, thinking about things that have happened, why they happened, whether we handled them well. In academia, you may be asked to formalize your reflections to show that learning is taking place.
This may involve:
Reflecting on your own professional or academic practice
Scrutinizing an experience and the way you dealt with it
Evaluating a project or experiment and considering how to do it better next time
Reflecting on things you have read and linking theory with practice/reality
Reflective writing for an assignment Writing reflectively for the purposes of an assignment should not involve merely describing something that happened. Nor does it mean pouring out everything you think and feel in
a totally unstructured way. Reflective writing requires a clear line of thought, use of evidence or examples to illustrate your reflections, and an analytical approach.
You are aiming to strike a balance between your personal perspective, and the requirements of good academic practice and rigorous thinking. This means:
developing a perspective, or line of reasoning
demonstrating that you are well informed, have read relevant literature and reflected on its relevance to your own development
showing that you recognize that situations are rarely simple and clear-cut
writing about the link between your experiences/practice and your reading writing in an appropriate style.
Questions to Answer:
- Describe the learning activities (articles, videos, etc.) and your experience – What did you do/hear/see?
- Interpret and evaluate the events from your perspective – What do I think about it now? How does it relate to other things that I know?
- Explain your experience; reveal your new insights, connections with other learning, your hypotheses, and your conclusions.
- Reflect on how this information will be useful to you – What questions do I have? Have I changed how I think about the situation? Where do I go from here?
- What did you particularly value and why?
- Is there anything you would do in the next unit? What have you learned? What will you do with these lessons?
Rubric for Student Reflections
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Above Expectations |
Meets Expectations |
Approaching Expectations |
Below Expectations |
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4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
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Reflective Thinking |
The reflection explains the student’s own thinking and learning processes, as well as implications for future learning. |
The reflection explains the student’s thinking about his/her own learning processes. |
The reflection attempts to demonstrate thinking about learning but is vague and/or unclear about the personal learning process. |
The reflection does not address the student’s thinking and/or learning. |
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Analysis |
The reflection is an in-depth analysis of the learning experience, the value of the derived learning to self or others, and the enhancement of the student’s appreciation for the discipline. |
The reflection is an analysis of the learning experience and the value of the derived learning to self or others. |
The reflection attempts to analyze the learning experience but the value of the learning to the student or others is vague and/or unclear. |
The reflection does not move beyond a description of the learning experience. |
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Making Connections |
The reflection articulates multiple Connections between this learning experience and content from other courses, past learning, life experiences and/or future goals. |
The reflection articulates Connections between this Learning experience and content from other courses, past learning experiences, and/or future goals |
The reflection attempts to articulate Connections between this learning experience and content from other courses, past learning experiences, or personal goals, but the connection is vague and/or unclear. |
The reflection does not articulate any connection to other learning or experiences. |
