While reflecting on my own experiences at DePaul as both a student and a Chicago Quarter Mentor, it became clear to me that students often struggle with reflective writing within an academic context as a result of unfamiliarity with the genre. As this genre requires a balance of formal and informal language, it can be difficult for students to grasp (University of Salford). As a result of this observation and my own reflection, I decided to do research on this topic to find more information on how writers can feel more comfortable with it for assignments
I came across various articles, handouts and other Universities’ writing center websites. In addition, I interviewed one of my professors, Heather Smith, who teaches an experiential learning class in the Geography department at DePaul University, to gain a faculty member’s perspective on reflective writing. Experiential classes are common at DePaul and provide for unique experiences from which students learn reflection in addition to traditional classroom structured learning. Professor Smith emphasized the importance of creating connection to the class’s learning goals, readings, and most importantly, experience. Reflective writing is a genre that allows for one’s experience to guide responses and thus create meaningful connections with overarching course topics and key takeaways (Smith). Graham Gibbs, a professor from the University of Huddersfield, further emphasized the importance of experience, even alluding that without reflection, learning from experiences could be lost (Gibbs). Actively thinking about an experience allows for growth, often personal, social and emotional when outside an academic context. Gibbs argues the same growth happens in more traditional academic settings and argues for the use of reflective writing as a tool to further academic discussion and evaluation.
Both Gibbs and Smith’s insights on reflective writing and the synthesis of course content with personal experience resonated with me. The observation that without reflection on those experiences, much of the potential growth from synthesizing information may be lost. I believe that while intimidating at times, there are various approaches and opportunities for reflective writing within the academic context. Using the Universities of Brigham and Salford’s online handout guides on reflective writing, I identified some models to use for written and face to face feedback at the UCWbL.
While most of their approaches were visual learning cycles and flowcharts composed of questions to drive reflection, an additional underlying tone of evaluation and synthesis was ever present. This provides a good basis for understanding why reflective writing is important for student growth. Tutors can use these cycles, models and flow charts provided by various academics, such as Gibbs, to guide the questions they ask in appointments. They can even provide them as a visual guide for writers who struggle with the genre.
I believe that other tutors can look at writers’ reflective writing with a mindset of growth and question-directed encouragement. Reflective writing is a useful strategy for writers as its strengthens their understanding of course content (University of Birmingham). It is also a powerful genre that encourages a writer’s unique voice to show in the writing, something that is lacking in most academic genres. Tutors should recommend it to help students make connections between overarching topics and their personal experiences or experiences in their experiential learning courses. Some strategies a tutor might suggest is free writing, so writers are able to write about their experience without reference to the learning goals or any other requirement (University of Brigham). In doing so, writers have a basis to build on base assignment requirements. By drawing from the syllabus and learning goals, writers can further embellish their writing in a voice and style that is unique to themselves. Tutors can even also combine the use of the cycle charts and freewriting by using the questions posed in the cycles as prompts for freewriting. Tutors, in the nature of UCWbL’s work can also strengthen their skills in tutoring for this genre by keeping a reflective journal based on writing center experiences.
For a visual representation of what I discuss in this post, please see this handout I designed below:
reflective-writing
References
Smith, Heather. Personal Interview. November 2019.
Gibbs, Graham. Learning by doing: a guide to teaching and learning methods. Geography Discipline Network, 2001.
University of Birmingham, A Short Guide to Reflective Writing. University of Birmingham Library Services, 2015. Accessed online: https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/as/libraryservices/library/skills/asc/documents/public/Short-Guide-Reflective-Writing.pdf
University of Salford, Reflective writing, University of Salford Manchester Library, 2018. Accessed online: ://www.salford.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/1245591/STUDENT-GUIDE-TO-REFLECTIVE-WRITING.pdf