Instructional Tips

  1. Start small. Choose one or two reflective activities you think will work best to promote the level of reflective thought you are seeking in one semester. Determine how, when, and where in your course you think the new activities will best fit, remembering the outcomes you want reflection to support.

  2. State your reflection prompts clearly.

      • Before: "What did you learn from your team project?"

      • After: "How has your experience participating on a team project prepared you for collaboration on future projects?"

  3. Break down complex reflection questions into smaller parts. For example, the above question may be too difficult for students to address without breaking the question into parts.

      • What challenges did you face on your team (resources, time, group dynamics, differences in expectations, etc.)?

      • What effect did these challenges have on the outcomes?

      • What did you learn from this experience that will apply to your next team project?

      • What specifically will you do next time to capitalize on the benefits of teamwork, address the challenges, and minimize the difficulties of unproductive team efforts?

  4. Provide regular feedback by way of interim assessments, remember that not everything has to be graded or must be a "high stakes" assignment. See Designing and Adapting Reflection Activities.

  5. Communicate what is "good" reflection and what is not. Engage your students in a conversation about what meaningful reflections look like (reflections that are linked to evidence) in contrast to reflective responses that may indicate empty or shallow thought processes, often attributed to these "taboo" phrases and cliches [1]:

      • "This project put my creativity to the test"

      • "This was a great project"

      • "I learned so much"

      • "I learned how to think outside the box"

      • "Everyone had an equal voice"

      • "I feel our group did a good job"

      • "Two heads are better than one"

  6. Encourage students to recognize the contexts in which reflective writing has played a role in determining an important outcome (such as their admission to a university or their qualification for a leadership position). For example, see "Where are students likely to encounter reflection opportunities?'

  7. Encourage students to consider where reflective writing will play a role in their future careers. For example, university faculty are required in their performance reviews to write reflective essays on their accomplishments over the past year and their vision for improving research, teaching, and other professional pursuits the upcoming year.

  8. Don't over structure; give guidelines, but not a full model. Ideally, you don’t want to predetermine the reflection.

[1] Light, Penny, Helen Chen, and John Ittelson. Documenting Learning with ePortfolios. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Print. (pp. 81-84).