Student Reflections

Student reflections are an important assessment form that allows students to think about how, why and what they are learning. They are valuable because they encourage metacognition and synthesis, two important skills of understanding, analyzing and managing one’s learning, and the ability to put together pieces of learned information and see the big picture. By assessing students’ attitudes, values and opinions about learning processes through student reflections, instructors can quickly gain insight into progress and potential problems, and are able to address them accordingly.

Some opportunities for students to reflect are:

• Minute papers: students briefly answer a couple of questions (e.g. “What was the most important thing you learned during this class?”);
• Other short questions and prompts: students answer questions about their learning processes, attitudes and values (e.g. “Describe something major that you’ve learned about yourself from this assignment.”;
• Before-and-after reflections: allow for assessment of students’ growth and development by comparing their responses at the beginning and at the end of the course (e.g. “Why is this discipline/course important?”);
• Longer self-reflection assignments: students write essays to reflect on the learning experience (this form requires the instructor to provide detailed prompts such as “set explicit goals, monitor your progress, seek out feedback, evaluate your learning, assess personal strengths,” etc.)
• Journals: written assignments throughout the semester to develop skill through repeated practice, study skills, conceptual understanding, metacognitive and synthesis skills;
• Self-Ratings: students rate themselves on their knowledge, skills, and attitudes (e.g. students rate a course-related skill on a scale from 1 to 5);
• Interviews and focus groups: instructor poses open-ended or questionnaire-type questions to elicit discussion (e.g. “What did you think was the best part of this course?”).

Suskie, L. (2004). Assessing student learning: A common sense guide. San Francisco, CA: Anker Publishing Company, Inc.