Reflection Journals: An Instructor's Experience and Students' Opinions

Reflection Journals: An Instructor's Experience and Students' Opinions

Devon Arthurson

Rikkyo University

This annotated slideshow presentation will be about my initial experience using reflection journals in EFL online lessons and the students' opinions about the activity. Reflection journals are an activity that can enable students to develop various skills through habitual writing practice as well as aid instructors to better meet their students’ needs. Ways to utilize the activity to aid in the instructor's assessment of their learners’ abilities, the achievement of the lesson objectives, and determining the learners’ needs will be presented. The results from a study using data from 55 first-year university students in four online EFL classes will be explored. The benefits of reflection journals, such as the development of learners' skills, a better understanding of the lesson’s contents, and more motivation for students to achieve their learning goals will also be discussed. As a result of the initial implementation as well as my own development and reflection, I will also share about changes made to the activity in the following semester. Based on the results, possible adaptations of the activity for learners of various ages and learning levels will be given.