Ohlone eCampus TLC. Teaching and learning chats. Spring 2022 with green plant sprout in background.

Reflective thinking is a dynamic process that needs to be taught.

According to Succeeding in Postgraduate Study,

reflective thinking is an awareness of one's own knowledge, assumptions, and past experiences. Your past learning and experience provide the context for your the context for your thoughts, and are therefore unique to you, but reflective thinking is a dynamic process that continues to develop and evolve as you learn and respond to new experiences, situations, events or information.

Watch TLC: Reflective Thinking video. If the play button is not active, select the video title at the top of the video card to view the video and comments within MS Stream. You will also find other videos in the TLC series in this Stream channel. You need to be logged into your Ohlone.edu account to be able to view and comment.

Benefits of Reflective Thinking

Learners go much deeper, farther, and faster when they reflect. The benefits of reflective thinking last a lifetime. Learners who use reflective thinking

take control of their learning
engage in higher order thinking skills
1. recognize biases and assumptions
improve future learning and performance

Process of Reflective Thinking

There is a progression and cycle in reflective thinking in which the instructor sets the ball rolling, and then just encourages progression through a couple of steps.

First learners carefully observe, analyze and evaluate what happened.
After that, they will synthesize their prior knowledge with this new understanding.
Finally, they will create something new as they apply their new understanding to new tasks.

Then they repeat the cycle, creating new understanding and carrying it forward to the next learning scenario, over and over again.

Teaching Reflective Thinking

Students do not intuitively reflect nor do they understand the reflective thinking process when prompted. Instructors need to be explicit in modeling and explaining reflective thinking. You need to create an environment where reflection is the norm.

Teach learners about reflective thinking. Griffin University provides the video How to Think Reflectively that is a useful tool to introduce reflective thinking to students.
Connect reflective activities to learning goals.
Constantly encourage reflection
1. increase wait time during in-class inquiry sessions
2. ensure an emotionally supportive environment
3. model reflective thinking
4. use collaborative learning opportunities
5. ask higher-order questions during instruction
6. encourage consideration of alternative viewpoints

Curated Examples and Resources

Martha has explored reflective thinking research and resources and has shared those she finds most useful for teaching at Ohlone.

15 ways to spark student reflection in your college classroom posted by Tricia Whenham contains activities that you can use today in your classes.
How students learn: Metacognition from College of Dupage.
University of Tennessee at Knoxville shares its extensive list of Reflection Activities.*
Center for Teaching and Learning at Brown University include prompts and set-up strategies on their Promoting Metacognition webpage.
For definition, examples, and strategies, check out University of the People's Reflective thinking: Revealing what really matters webpage.

"...an unexamined life is not worth living." " I know that I know nothing."

~Socrates

*Please let us know if you need this page in an alternative format.

References

Kehl, M. (2022). Living list of resources for shared resources used for TLC slide presentation. https://docs.google.com/document/d/14_kVxiOtKDWQ_eJ-ME8B6hQfGcz1PNnh8sW5y3-BN8Y/edit?usp=sharing

OpenLearn. Succeeding in postgraduate study: Reflective thinking. (Open Education Course.) https://www.open.edu/openlearn/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=51386%C2%A7ion=2

University of Hawaii. Reflective Thinking: RT (Libguide.) How Do I Promote Student Reflection and Critical Thinking. http://www.hawaii.edu/intlrel/pols382/Reflective%20Thinking%20-%20UH/reflection.html