Currently reading Ross et al. (2024) on “Reflective writing as summative assessment in higher education: A systematic Review”

Reflective writing comes up a lot as The Solution to fix all kinds of problems related to students possibly not engaging and using GenAI to write their assignments etc.. If they had to write a reflection on their learning, they would surely have to engage, right? Wrong. Of course GenAI can write nice reflections if you prompt with enough context, and also even if students did reflect and share, there would still be problems around them feeling that they have to share personal potentially sensitive content (that might end up being a public document if used as assessment!), and power dynamics with teachers also make that problematic. Also there is of course the temptation of performative reflections if (you think) you know what the teacher would like to hear…

So what does the literature say? Ross et al. (2024) investigate “Reflective writing as summative assessment in higher education” in a systematic review of 22 articles.

They find three main reasons why teachers use reflective writing assessments:

1. To foster employability (deepen knowledge and link it to professional practice, gain awareness of marketable skills) and enable reflection on professional practice (gather evidence of learning, and “it is also used to encourage emerging and developing teachers to see themselves as change agents with social responsibility and to engage in life-long learning“. The latter is how I might want to use it, but reading it like this it seems questionable whether a reflection assignment can actually accomplish this, same for the other aspirations like “meant to prevent an overestimation of one’s performance“, “to create reflective practitioners who possess appropriate self-awareness of their own capabilities and associated responsibilities“). This is often done in portfolios that span several years of a program, which I find quite intriguing. I guess that is what I have a blog for…
2. To facilitate self-assessment and self-directed learning — “It seems that reflective writing is essential in encouraging and enabling students to give meaning to their learning journey and support them to become reflective and competent practitioners who can engage with their own experiences in a constructive way“
3. To allow integration of academic theories into the analysis of personal experience. They don’t elaborate on this, but this one I buy, especially if there is a framework provided that explicitly prompts this. This aspect works out really well in our Introduction to Teaching and Learning course where participants write reflections and a grounding in theory is required.

Students get different types of support: Reflective writing frameworks with prompts (for example DIEP: Description, Interpretation, Evaluation, Plan), guidelines, assessment/marking criteria, exemplars, or real support systems, like regular workshops, embedded in courses. Maybe Wenger et al. (2011)’s prompts for value creation stories would also work? And here are two other reflection frameworks that I test on a MOOC that I had taken just then, see for yourself how well they work out!

The student perception of reflective writing assessments is, according to Ross et al. (2024), often positive, especially when the assignment is clearly scaffolded. Then it can contribute to conceptualising the discipline and building confidence by understanding past experiences and what can be learnt from them for the future. However, it is also sometimes perceived as problematic to write in first person about potentially troublesome personal experiences, and to make themselves vulnerable by reliving and/or disclosing problems. Students who are more skilled in disclosing and discussing their emotions, or are more willing to take risks, might have an advantage. And of course, there are ethical concerns regarding “forcing” students to make themselves vulnerable in a power relationship.

From a teacher perspective, and according to Ross et al. (2024), there are concerns regarding reliability and validity because teachers are of course also aware of the pressure on students to perform. Also reflections might be more meaningful if there is no framework provided, yet a lot easier for students to write (and for teachers to evaluate) if there are clear criteria. And then, again, there is the ethical issue of power imbalance and forcing people to disclose personal issues for a grade…

From their systematic review, Ross et al. (2024) come up with recommendations for practice.

1. The process of writing reflective pieces for summative assessment needs to be transparent and scaffolded (only not prescribed too closely)
2. Teachers need support, because reflective writing is a different genre than essays (or lab reports!) and needs to be assessed differently
3. They don’t have a third one, but I think it looks weird with only two points, so I would add that teachers need to be very aware of, and careful with how they enact, the power imbalance…

So in a nutshell, nothing really surprising here. But a good reminder of the different reflection frameworks that I have tried (and I think my preferred one is the Servant-Miklos (2024) one).

Ross, M., Bohlmann, J., & Marren, A. (2024). Reflective writing as summative assessment in higher education: A systematic Review. Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice, 12(1).

Today’s wave watching is actually from yesterday’s dip. I am catching up!

Like most days, I like to take a picture of this spot. I don’t sit there very often because I am usually on my way to go dip when I walk here (or on my way back, but then I don’t notice this spot in the same way), but when I do, it is always nice!

Today I also got to see lots and lots of little kiddies on their lunch break, and their Optis waiting for them to come back. This gives me flashbacks…

But now: Dip time! Caustics on the sandy seafloor, always feels like vacations!

And fascinated by the different scales of structures, as always…

Turning torso on the horizon!

Love the colors!

How can water be this blue? I guess it helps if the sky is this blue, too…

So fascinating how it is really blue a little bit further back, yet so green right here on the sandbank!

And walking back home…