Students’ perceptions of Reflective Writing Vanessa McDonagh University of Glasgow vanessa.mcdonagh@glasgow.ac.uk

Outline Background to the study Reflective Writing Role of reflective writing within the course Student perceptions of reflective writing What I’ve learned How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Background to the study Course: in-sessional, optional course for PG students in the Business School “…advances spoken English language communication skills. Coursework is designed to develop fluency and autonomy for professionally – and academically – oriented international postgraduate students on their Masters courses, as well as looking ahead to future employment” Postgraduate Taught Graduate Award 2017-2018 How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Course Information 2 x5 weeks, 10 credit Structured in weekly cycles How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Course structure In-class (2 x 50 mins/week) + out-of-class (8 hours) The weekly cycle template Course structure Input Preparation Output Reflection

Select & read an academic text Course structure Fri Tues Fri Tues Teacher response Academic discussion skills Functional language Select & read an academic text Discussion around (an) academic text(s) Written reflection St response

Reflective Writing on the Course A chance for students to think through how well they were able to interact in the ‘practice’ lesson An opportunity to think about how to develop skills in this area Weekly tasks were not assessed How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Reflective Writing Done in isolation  negativity & critical judgement (Dadds, 1993) Not intuitive (Ryan, 2011; Wald et al, 2012) Can “correct distortions in our beliefs and errors in problem-solving“ (Mezirow, 1990: 1) Should be purposeful (Moon, 2006) Should “show evidence of learning” (Ryan, 2011: 101) and “transform practice” (ibid: 103) How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Reflective Writing Done in isolation  negativity & critical judgement (Dadds, 1993) dialogue between student & tutor Not intuitive (Ryan, 2011; Wald et al, 2012) sample provided; 1st is a general introduction Can “correct distortions in our beliefs and errors in problem-solving“ (Mezirow, 1990: 1) Should be purposeful (Moon, 2006) students given 3 guiding questions Should “show evidence of learning” (Ryan, 2011: 101) and “transform practice” (ibid: 103) How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Sample Reflective Writing Task Cycle 1 What are/were your aims for the practice session? Reflective Writing You may choose to reflect on your preparation and well as the practice session. For your reflection on the practice session, please also reflect on your ability to participate in the discussions both as a speaker and as a listener. What did you do well? What do you want to improve? How can you make the improvement happen? (Be specific about what action you could take.) Comments from your tutor Your response to your tutor’s comments How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Initial Course Questionnaire to be more confident made better than expected progress 12 made the progress I expected 29 made slower than expected progress 5 the course has not helped my progress not applicable (I don't know) 1 to talk about academic texts made better than expected progress 16 made the progress I expected 25 made slower than expected progress 5 the course has not helped my progress 1 not applicable (I don't know) to talk in general made better than expected progress 16 made the progress I expected 21 made slower than expected progress 7 the course has not helped my progress 1 not applicable (I don't know) 2 to interact with others in an academic environment made better than expected progress 22 made the progress I expected 15 made slower than expected progress 6 the course has not helped my progress 3 not applicable (I don't know) 1 How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Initial Course Questionnaire How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Initial Course Questionnaire How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Questions I had How do students feel about reflective writing? Did they see the benefit of doing reflective writing on a speaking course? Did it help them improve? Does the guided/dialogic approach help with reflection? Was there something that I could learn from one course that could be transferred to another course? How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Student Interviews What did you know about Reflective Writing before the course started? St 1: I really don’t know what is reflective writing and I don’t know what content should I write maybe just like a primary school student St 2: actually no… St 3: I think basically nothing How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Student Interviews How do you feel about Reflective Writing now? St 1: I think reflective writing is…is not simple…it’s not too simple that you only use some difficult words to make a whole article but I think it helps me to describe the course, describe the knowledge I get in a proper way St 3: I think that it’s a good way to know to remember what happened on the class and what I learned and I think that’s a good way to …to think the thing you did good and the thing you need to improve and to make things better and that’s quite important to me to improve the speaking skills How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Student Interviews Tutor responses: St 1: I think response is…is much more important than what I am writing because if no response you can also…you may be alone because you might take the class alone and write something in yourself and get no feedback and you only can learn from yourself. Maybe some other skills and some other things that you can’t see it by yourself and this response really helped me to see somewhere I ignored. St 2: I think you can give me some useful advice. For example, if I say for this situation I don’t know how to answer or I don’t know how to organise my words and I can use blah blah blah and you will give me feedback, you will advice me how to answer the question…Yeah, I think it can make me more confident next time. How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Student Interviews St 3: Yes, it’s very interesting. It’s very personal, like it’s communication between us and I’m really looking forward to seeing what’s your recommends…it’s just like writing letters and I feel really excited and I can know that you pay attention on me and you can see what things I do…I was excited when I got the email saying your instructor has uploaded feedback…excited to see am I good, what’s the tutor thoughts… I was happy it was a dialogue How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Student Interviews Do you think that reflective writing has helped you to improve? St 1: I think reflective writing helped me improve in the course like in speaking skills, in sharing my opinion with my classmates and maybe helps me to check some small mistakes like in grammar or in spelling St 2: Yeah I think so because I can think about what I did well and …where I can improve. I think we need this process to think about the talking and we can do better next time. How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Student Interviews St 3: Yeah, I do. I think…the speaking part is important but actually after the class if I do not write the reflection maybe I’ll forget many things that happened on the course and maybe things just happen and maybe I’ll forget about that and I can’t make more improvement like to think about what I did How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Student Interviews …helped to identify what areas you want to improve? St 2: It must be detailed…yeah you need to think…next time I have this situation what word do I need. I write down the weaknesses we have and we think about the way to solve it and next time you can organise your words quicker and it can make you improve St 3: yes cos I need to write things specifically about the points and so during the process I can record…like I can think about the things I want to improve How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Student Interviews If there weren’t written responses would you have approached the reflections differently? St 1: hmm, maybe St 3: I think to be honest, if I don’t have to write the reflection, I would think in my mind what happen today and that’s it. I won’t write it down or I won’t speak to myself. Pathways that Inspire Us , Sabancı University School of Languages International Conference 4-5 May 2018

Student Interviews If the reflective writing was not assessed would you have done the reflective writing? St 2: Maybe …maybe no… I must to know it’s useful for me then I’m willing to do but if at first you told us it’s not a must to do thing and maybe I have no chance to know it’s useful to me How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Student Interviews Do you think it was good to have guiding questions for the reflections of do you think there should be no guiding questions? St 1: I think it is good…in some guiding questions you can write the article in a logical way and it can save time but in no guiding questions you can response what you think is more important in this class and I think it is also interesting so I think it is hard to choose How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

What I’ve learned How do students feel about reflective writing? Did they see the benefit of doing reflective writing on a speaking course? Did it help them improve? Does the guided/dialogic approach help with reflection? Was there something that I could learn from one course that could be transferred to another course? How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

References Brookfield, S. (1995) Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Dadds, M. (1993) The feeling of thinking in professional self-study. Educational Action Research, 1(2), pp. 287-303 Leeds Beckett University (n.d.) Models for Structuring Reflection. Available online: http://skillsforlearning.leedsbeckett.ac.uk. Last Accessed: 30 April 2018 Mezirow, J. (1990). Fostering critical reflection in adulthood: How critical reflection triggers transformative learning, pp.1-6 Moon, J. (2006). Learning Journals: A Handbook for Reflective Practice and Professional Development. London: Routledge Ryan, M. (2011). Improving reflective writing in higher education: A social semiotic perspective. Teaching in Higher Education, 16(1), pp.99-111 Wald, H.S., Borkan, J.M., Taylor, J.S., Anthony, D. & Reis, S.P. (2012). Fostering and evaluating reflective capacity in medical education: Developing the REFLECT rubric for assessing reflective practice. Academic Medicine, 87(1), pp. 41-50 How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018

Thank you for listening. Questions or comments? Contact: vanessa.mcdonagh@glasgow.ac.uk How to do the “right things” by doing “things right”? ScOLa 2018 ELT Conference, 26 May 2018