Student learning journals

Personal Journal: Students will write freely about their experience. This is usually done weekly. These personal journals may be submitted periodically to the instructor, or kept as a reference to use at the end of the experience when putting together an academic essay reflecting their experience.

(Hatcher 1996)

Dialogue Journal: Students submit loose-leaf pages from a dialogue journal bi-weekly (or otherwise at appropriate intervals) for the instructor to read and comment on. While labor intensive for the instructor, this can provide continual feedback to students and prompt new questions for students to consider during the semester.

(Goldsmith, 1995)

Doodle Journal: A type of learning journal that is similar to ‘I wonder…’ in its disarming form. Here, students merely doodle about their learning/learning experience, with no requirement other than being able to explain why they drew what they drew. This can be useful for hesitant writers who also believe they ‘can’t draw.’

(TeachThought Staff, 2017)

Change Journal: All learning should result in personal and social change. Similar to the ‘change in thinking’ topic in the Metacognitive Journal listened above, a ‘Change Journal’ frames the writing for learning in terms of, well, change.

(TeachThought Staff, 2017)