Valuing Reflection

To get students to be reflective and value the process of thinking about their learning, teachers need to practice and value reflection themselves. When teachers value their own and their students' reflections, the processes of learning become as important as its products, and the focus of evaluation moves from something that is done at the end of a project or a marking period to something that occurs throughout the school year.

Teachers need to help all students reflect, but some students will need more help than others. For example, many students, particularly young children or students categorized as “at risk,” need to know that teacher approval or grades are not the only or best source of evaluation of their work.

Teaching students to be reflective is an ongoing process, not an event. It requires access to models, practice, and time. The following conditions increase the meaningfulness of reflection for students:

• Students need to feel safe about sharing what they think.
• Reflective activities should be comprehensive, purposeful, and meaningful.
• Reflective questions, prompts, and responses should be specific.
• Reflection needs to be modeled and standards-based.
• Reflective activities should be targeted toward an audience.
• Reflective activities should be ongoing and should be practiced.

Not all students respond equally well to any given reflective activity. To increase the meaningfulness of reflective prompts and strategies for responding to them, teachers could ask students to generate their own reflective questions or to choose those that are relevant to them from among several options. Prompts for reflection will vary from activity to activity. The prompts for a math activity may not necessarily be the same as those for an art or social studies or integrated project.

Reflective questions, prompts, and responses should be specific. The questions “How have you grown as a writer?” and “How have you grown in your ability to write a thesis statement?” are very different in terms of specificity. For students who are very young or who have not had much practice with reflection, it is important that teachers use specific questions rather than general ones. Specificity also concerns the extent to which students are encouraged to refer to particular sections or parts of their work to support their responses to reflective prompts.

As students contribute work to their digital portfolio, they have the opportunity to reflect on any of their work samples, noticing their strengths and areas of growth. They may reflect on how they have demonstrated the learner profile attributes, attitudes and transdisciplinary skills through the selected work samples and their actions at school. Students may reflect on how they have developed throughout the year, as well as between years.

Age ­appropriate reflection strategies are key to developing successful reflections. Younger students may wish to reflect through audio, videos, photographs and limited written text, whereas older students may focus on written reflection more. By allowing for choice in how reflections are documented, individual needs shine through with student reflections.