WRITING A REFLECTIVE ESSAY

Why reflective essay?

Writing a reflection paper gives you the opportunity to look back at an experience or a situation and offer you perspectives on it. Reflection offers you the opportunity to consider how your personal experiences and observations shape your thinking and your acceptance of new ideas. When you write a reflective essay, you are exploring your own ideas about a text you read, a lecture you attended, a discussion, or any activities whether you are directly or indirectly involved. In writing, you are to express your opinion rather than summarize the opinions of others.  

Reflective writing can help you to improve your analytical skills because it requires you to express what you think, and more significantly, how and why you think that way.  In addition, reflective analysis asks you to acknowledge that your thoughts are shaped by your assumptions and preconceived ideas; in doing so, you can appreciate the ideas of others, notice how their assumptions and preconceived ideas may have shaped their thoughts, and perhaps recognize how your ideas support or oppose what you read. 

What kind of reflective essay?

        An experiential reflective essay is usually done in education for the purpose of making connections between theory and practice.  When you are asked to reflect upon experience listening or participating to a class discussion, you do not only describe your experience, but you evaluate it based on ideas from class.  You can assess a theory or approach based on your observations and practice and evaluate your own knowledge and skills within your course or field.  This opportunity to take the time to think about your choices, your actions, your successes and your failures is best done within a specific framework, like course themes or work placement objectives.  Abstract concepts can become concrete and real to you when considered within your own experiences, and reflection on your experiences allows you to make plans for improvement.

What are your readers expectations?

You may wonder how your essay will be assessed.  What do your readers expect? Wat are they looking for? How can your experiences or ideas be right or wrong?  Your instructors expect you to critically engage with concepts from your course by making connections between your observations, experiences, and opinions.  They expect you to explain and analyze these concepts from your own point of view, eliciting original ideas and encouraging active interest in the course material.

How to write your reflective essay?

It is true that it is not easy to write a reflective essay.  First, know that – like any other academic piece of writing – a reflection requires a narrow focus and strong analysis.  That is why your professor provides you with guide questions.  These questions should  not be addressed individually but it should be your bases in coming up with a unified essay. For reflective writing, it is important to balance reporting or descriptive writing with critical reflection and analysis.

Consider these questions:

1. Contextualize your reflection:  What are your learning goals? What are the objectives of the organization?  How do these goals fit with the themes or concepts from the course
2. Provide important information: What is the name of the host organization? What is their mission? Who do they serve? What was your role? What did you d
3. Analytical Reflection: What did you learn from this experience? About yourself? About working in the field? About society
4. Lessons from reflection: Did your experience fit with the goals or concepts of the course or organization?  Why or why not? What are your lessons for the future? What was successful? Why? What would you do differently? Why? How will you prepare for a future experience in the field?

It is important to actively and directly connect concepts from class to your personal or experiential reflection.  The following example shows how a student’s observations from a classroom can be analyzed using a theoretical concept and how the experience can help a student to evaluate this concept.

Example 1: Writing questions on the cognitive domain applying the Bloom’s Taxonomy is challenging. Based on my observation, the students often combined activities on applying and synthesizing;  or analyzing and evaluating to build their knowledge and comprehension of unfamiliar concepts.  This challenges my understanding of traditional teaching methods where knowledge is the basis for inquiry.  Perhaps higher-order learning strategies like inquiry and evaluation can also be the basis for knowledge and comprehension, which are classified as lower-order skills in Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Example 2: Our class brought Vygotsky’s concepts of scaffolding and the ‘knowledgeable other’ into sharp focus for me. I remember one time that when I was solving a puzzle, I did it by watching youtube showing a boy solving a puzzle. Without instruction, the video’ was able to scaffold my solving of the Puzzle without directing me or supplying me with the answer – the video acted as a ‘knowledgeable other’. I realized that I do not always have to directly be involved in students’ learning, and that students have learning and knowledge they bring to the classroom context. 

A Note on Mechanics 

To guide your writing, your professor will provide few questions as your focus in writing your reflection. These questions must not be addressed  individually in your paper. They are just provide to guide you to come up with a unified essay with the following parts:

    Introduction

Your introduction should specify what you’re reflecting upon. Make sure that your thesis informs your reader about your general position, or opinion, toward your subject.

·       State what you are analyzing: a passage, a lecture, an academic article, an experience, classroom discussion, etc...)

·       Briefly summarize the work/ session.

·       Write a thesis statement stating how your subject has affected you.

One way you can start your thesis is to write:

Example:
“After reading/experiencing (your chosen topic), I realized that…”

      Body Paragraphs

The body paragraphs should examine the ideas and experiences you’ve had in context to your topic. Make sure each new body paragraph starts with a topic sentence.

Example:
“I heard many of my classmates participating in our discussion. I felt so nervous yet inspiring. I was amazed by the…..”

      Conclusion

Summarize what you’ve learned from the experience. Tell the reader how your newfound knowledge has affected your understanding of the subject in general. Describe the feeling and overall lesson you had as a result of the reading or experience.

There are a few good ways to conclude a reflection paper:

• Tie all the ideas from your body paragraphs together, and generalize the major insights you’ve experienced.
• Restate your thesis and summarize the content from your paper.

 

Reminders:

• Clear Focus. As with all written assignments or reports, it is important to have a clear focus for your writing.  You do not need to discuss every experience or element of your placement.  Pick a few that you can explore within the context of your learning.  For reflective responses, identify the main arguments or important elements of the text to develop a stronger analysis which integrates relevant ideas from course materials.

• Organization and Coherence. Introduce your topic and the point you plan to make about your experience and learning.  Develop your point through body paragraph(s), and conclude your paper by exploring the meaning you derive from your reflection. You may find the questions listed above can help you to develop an outline before you write your paper.

• Formal Tone and Confidentiality. Maintain a formal tone, but it is acceptable to write in the first person and to use personal pronouns. It is important that you maintain confidentiality and anonymity of clients, patients or students from work or volunteer placements by using pseudonyms and masking identifying factors. 

 

Works cited:

·       Brookfield, S. (1995). Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. Oxford: Jossey-Bass Publishers. 

·       Gillet, A., Hammond, A., & Martala-Lockett, M (2009). Successful academic writing. London: Pearson Education. 

·       Hillkirk, K., Tome., J, & Wandress, W. (1989). Integrating reflection into staff development programs. Journal of Staff Development.10:54–8. 

Standardization of Test

Learning was long thought to be an accumulation of atomized bits of knowledge that are sequenced, hierarchical, and need to be explicitly taught and reinforced. Learning is now viewed as a process of constructing understanding, during which individuals attempt to connect new information to what they already know, so that ideas have some personal coherence. Individuals construct this understanding in many different ways, depending on their interests, experience, and context.

Educators have traditionally relied on assessment that compares students with more successful peers as a means to motivate students to learn, but recent research suggests students will likely be motivated and confident learners when they experience progress and achievement, rather than the failure and defeat associated with being compared to more successful peers (Stiggins, 2001). 

Stadardized Tests

According to The Glossary of Education Reform, "A standardized test is any form of test that (1) requires all test takers to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions from common bank of questions, in the same way, and that (2) is scored in a “standard” or consistent manner, which makes it possible to compare the relative performance of individual students or groups of students. While different types of tests and assessments may be “standardized” in this way, the term is primarily associated with large-scale tests administered to large populations of students, such as a multiple-choice test given to all the eighth-grade public-school students in a particular state, for example."

John Dewey and Constructivism

Constructivism is a philosophy that began with John Dewey but has become more popular as brain research has developed and theorists such as Howard Garner and his learning styles work have been popularized. The constructivist teacher:

• Uses a wide variety of materials and technologies to present material to appeal to each learner. 
• Guides the learning environment; becomes a shadow leader. 
• Takes the role of "guide on the side." 
• Asks students to take control of their own learning. ÿ Stresses the "process of learning" over mastery of content. 
• Uses rubrics to have students participate in the assessment of both process and content mastery.

Constructivist teachers include students in the formulation of projects or quests. They assist students by creating quality questions to be solved or "engaging problems" inviting investigation. They may vary activities and strategies as the "quest" progresses and take into consideration the feedback received from students. They risk students not being able to master facts, trusting that students who know how to learn will perform satisfactorily on tests and in the long run will be powerful learners. Constructivist teachers take into consideration the variety of learning styles in their classrooms and create learning activities that appeal to all those styles. They are more concerned with the depth of learning than its breadth.

Vygotsky and Scaffolding

Understanding Scaffolding

The term scaffolding was introduced by Wood, Bruner and Ross (1976) in an attempt to operationalize the concept of teaching in the zone of proximal development. The term scaffolding was never used by Vygotsky. 

The Zone of Proximal Development, defined as the distance between what a student can do with and without help (Vygotsky 1978), is used to explain the social and participatory nature of teaching and learning. Supporting children's active position in their learning and assisting them in becoming self-regulated learners is at the heart of Vygotsky's concept of the ZPD. 

Instructional Scaffolding

Instructional scaffolding is a strategy for supporting learners which begins with Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and his learning concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). According to Vygotsky's socioculutral theory, cognition is developed through social interaction.

Learning as a Social Process. Vygotsky introduced a definition of instructional scaffolding that focused on teacher practices. He defined this as  the role of teachers and others in supporting the learner’s development and providing support structures to get to that next stage or level. Vygotsky believed that learning does not occur in isolation. Rather, learning is a social process, guided by interactions with classmates and others involved in the lesson.

Zone of Proximal Development. A second layer to instructional scaffolding exists with Vygotsky’s conceptual thoughts about supporting independency. This support mechanism – ZPD – is the difference between what a learner can do independently and what a learner can complete with adult support or scaffolding practices.

Vygotsky committed to his belief that instructional scaffolding and application of these scaffolds at the ZPD allowed for any child to successfully learn in any area. The activation process of the ZPD is initiated when content is taught just outside of the student’s current skill and knowledge level. This ignites a student’s motivation to know more about the content and, as a result, pushes forward the learner’s effort to work beyond their current skill level.

References:

Jacobs, G. (2001). Providing the Scaffold: A Model for Early Childhood/Primary Teacher Preparation. Early Childhood Education Journal, 29 (20), pp 125-130.

Raymond, E. (2000). Cognitive Characteristics. Learners with Mild Disabilities (pp. 169-201). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, A Pearson Education Company

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Vygotsky, L. (1997) Educational Psychology. Florida: St. Lucie Press 

Vygotsky, L. S. (1962) Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 

Wood, D., Bruner, J. & Ross, G. (1976). The Role of Tutoring in Problem Solving. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17, pp 89-100. 

Vygotsky and Zone of Proximal Development

 

Zone of Proximal Development

Zone of Proximal development is an important concept that relates to the difference between what a child can achieve independently and what a child can achieve with guidance and encouragement from a skilled partner.

For example, the child could not solve a mathematics problem by himself and would have taken a long time to do so (if at all), but will be able to solve it following interaction with the teacher, and has developed competence at this skill that will be applied to future mathematics problem.

Vygotsky (1978) sees the Zone of Proximal Development as the area where the most sensitive instruction or guidance should be given - allowing the child to develop skills they will then use on their own - developing higher mental functions.

Vygotsky also views interaction with peers as an effective way of developing skills and strategies.  He suggests that teachers use cooperative learning exercises where less competent children develop with help from more skillful peers - within the zone of proximal development.

Evidence for Vygotsky and the ZPD

Freund (1990) conducted a study in which children had to decide which items of furniture should be placed in particular areas of a dolls house.

Some children were allowed to play with their mother in a similar situation before they attempted it alone (zone of proximal development) while others were allowed to work on this by themselves (Piaget's discovery learning). 

Freund found that those who had previously worked with their mother (ZPD) showed the greatest improvement compared with their first attempt at the task.  The conclusion being that guided learning within the ZPD led to greater understanding/performance than working alone.

References:

Jacobs, G. (2001). Providing the Scaffold: A Model for Early Childhood/Primary Teacher Preparation. Early Childhood Education Journal, 29 (20), pp 125-130.

Raymond, E. (2000). Cognitive Characteristics. Learners with Mild Disabilities (pp. 169-201). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, A Pearson Education Company

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.

Vygotsky, L. (1997) Educational Psychology. Florida: St. Lucie Press 

Vygotsky, L. S. (1962) Thought and Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 

Wood, D., Bruner, J. & Ross, G. (1976). The Role of Tutoring in Problem Solving. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17, pp 89-100. 

Vygotsky and Social Development Theory

Social Development Theory, a theory formulated by Lev Vygotsky, is a theory which emphasizes on the effect of culture and social factors in contributing to cognitive development. According to Vygotsky, his theory differs from Piaget's as he places more emphasis on culture affecting / shaping cognitive development and he sets more weight on the role of language in cognitive development. Vygotsky believes that community plays a central role in the process of learning. 

The work of Lev Vygotsky (1934) has become the foundation of much research and theory in cognitive development over the past several decades, particularly of what has become known as Social Development Theory.

Vygotsky's theories stress the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition (Vygotsky, 1978), as he believed strongly that community plays a central role in the process of "making meaning."

Unlike Piaget's notion that childrens' development must necessarily precede their learning, Vygotsky argued, "learning is a necessary and universal aspect of the process of developing culturally organized, specifically human psychological function" (1978, p. 90).  In other words, social learning tends to precede (i.e., come before) development.

Vygotsky has developed a sociocultural approach to cognitive development. He developed his theories at around the same time as Jean Piaget was starting to develop his ideas (1920's and 30's), but he died at the age of 38, and so his theories are incomplete - although some of his writings are still being translated from Russian.

 

Vygotsky places more emphasis on culture affecting cognitive development.

• This contradicts Piaget's view of universal stages and content of development (Vygotsky does not refer to stages in the way that Piaget does).
• Hence Vygotsky assumes cognitive development varies across cultures, whereas Piaget states cognitive development is mostly universal across cultures.

Vygotsky places considerably more emphasis on social factors contributing to cognitive development.

• Vygotsky states cognitive development stems from social interactions from guided learning within the zone of proximal development as children and their partner's co-construct knowledge. In contrast, Piaget maintains that cognitive development stems largely from independent explorations in which children construct knowledge of their own.
• For Vygotsky, the environment in which children grow up will influence how they think and what they think about.

Vygotsky places more and different emphasis on the role of language in cognitive development.

• According to Piaget, language depends on thought for its development (i.e., thought comes before language). For Vygotsky, thought and language are initially separate systems from the beginning of life, merging at around three years of age, producing verbal thought (inner speech).
• For Vygotsky, cognitive development results from an internalization of language.

According to Vygotsky adults are an important source of cognitive development.

• Adults transmit their culture's tools of intellectual adaptation that children internalize. In contrast, Piaget emphasizes the importance of peers as peer interaction promotes social perspective taking.

Piaget: Making Sense of the World

The Theory of Cognitive Development

Cognitive theories focus on how our mental processes or cognitions change over time. The theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence first developed by Jean Piaget. It is primarily known as a developmental stage theory, but in fact, it deals with the nature of knowledge itself and how humans come gradually to acquire it, construct it, and use it. Moreover, Piaget claims that cognitive development is at the center of the human organism and language is contingent on cognitive development. Let’s learn more about Piaget’s views about the nature of intelligence and then dive deeper into the stages that he identified as critical in the developmental process.

Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget (1896-1980) is one of the most influential cognitive theorists in development, inspired to explore children’s ability to think and reason by watching his own children’s development. He was one of the first to recognize and map out the ways in which children’s intelligence differs from that of adults. He became interested in this area when he was asked to test the IQ of children and began to notice that there was a pattern in their wrong answers. He believed that children’s intellectual skills change over time that that maturation rather than training brings about that change. Children of differing ages interpret the world differently.

Making sense of the world

Piaget believed that we are continuously trying to maintain cognitive equilibrium or a balance or cohesiveness in what we see and what we know. Children have much more of a challenge in maintaining this balance because they are constantly being confronted with new situations, new words, new objects, etc. When faced with something new, a child may either fit it into an existing framework (schema) and match it with something known (assimilation) such as calling all animals with four legs “doggies” because he or she knows the word doggie, or expand the framework of knowledge to accommodate the new situation (accommodation) by learning a new word to more accurately name the animal. This is the underlying dynamic in our own cognition. Even as adults we continue to try and make sense of new situations by determining whether they fit into our old way of thinking or whether we need to modify our thoughts.

Understanding Schema

A schema is a cognitive framework or concept that helps organize and interpret information. Schemas can be useful because they allow us to take shortcuts in interpreting the vast amount of information that is available in our environment.

However, these mental frameworks also cause us to exclude pertinent information to focus instead only on things that confirm our pre-existing beliefs and ideas. Schemas can contribute to stereotypes and make it difficult to retain new information that does not conform to our established ideas about the world.

Illustration: 

For example, a young girl may first develop a schema for a dog. She knows that a dog is small, has hair, four legs, and a tail. When the little girl encounters a cat for the first time, she might initially call it a dog.

After all, it fits in with her schema for the characteristics of a dog; it is a small animal that has hair, four legs, and a tail. Once she is told that this is a different animal called a cat, she will modify her existing schema for a dog and create a new schema for a cat

Assimilation and Accommodation

Assimilation of knowledge occurs when a learner encounters a new idea, and must ‘fit’ that idea into what they already know. This is the same as filling a container. On the other hand, accommodation of knowledge is more substantial, requiring the learner to reshape those containers.

Illustration

For example, John is a young boy whose family owns a typical native dog (asong pinoy) named Bantay. One day, John visits his grandmother, who has just adopted big bulldog. Even though this new dog looks quite different than John's familiar Bantay, John still recognizes that the bulldog is also a dog. John put the new object -- his grandmother's bulldog -- into an already established category -- 'dog.' The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget called this assimilation. Let's say John next visited his aunt, who has a cat. John points at the cat and says 'dog!' His concept of dog, which successfully included both Bantay and his grandmother's bulldog, is too broad; he calls anything that has four legs and fur a 'dog.' His father explains that this is a 'cat,' and John adjusts his concept of 'dog' accordingly. This is known as accommodation. Both are part of Piaget's idea of adaptation, or the ways in which children learn about and categorize the world.

Both assimilation and accommodation are related to the idea of schemas. Schemas are simply established patterns used to organize knowledge. Schemas underlie how we think in a lot of ways; for example, stereotyping involves accessing a schema about how one type of person usually acts and using it to predict their behavior. Assimilation and accommodation are the ways that children incorporate new information into their schemas. John filed 'bulldog' under the existing header 'dog,' adding it to his schema of 'dog.' But when John encountered a cat, he learned that his schema of 'dog' shouldn't include all four-legged furry animals, so he adjusted the schema to exclude cats.

References

Bruner, J. S. (1966). Toward a theory of instruction. Cambridge, Mass.: Belkapp Press.

Dasen, P. (1994). Culture and cognitive development from a Piagetian perspective. In W .J. Lonner & R.S. Malpass (Eds.), Psychology and culture (pp. 145–149). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Piaget, J. (1932). The moral judgment of the child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Piaget, J. (1936). Origins of intelligence in the child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.