Degrees of reflection in academic development: Construction and application of a tool to assess critical reflection in portfolios and projects
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30827/profesorado.v24i2.15227Keywords:
college of education, evaluation, measuring instrument, research project, teacher education, universityAbstract
Academic development based on ‘reflective practice’ consists of observing, analysing and reflecting on teacher practice in order to improve students’ learning processes. Participants of the 10 ECTS programme of the Centre for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, choose between the development of a reflective portfolio or a project on their teaching practice based on the premises of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). We conducted a study to better understand the reflective processes of participants expressed in their portfolios or projects with the overall aim to improve the support to their professional development as teachers. The obtained results provided a foundation for the re-design of the programme in terms of analysing the reflective practice with the use of a reflective analysis tool. Our main research questions were: How can we assess the quality of reflection in portfolios and projects? What dimensions of reflection can be found? At what level of reflectivity do our participants operate? To answer these questions, and based on an extensive literature review, we first developed a model and two rubrics to assess the quality of reflection in written texts. Second, portfolios and projects of participants were analysed with the rubrics and semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with the same participants. Results show differences in the reflective processes between projects and portfolios; that the difference in teaching experience influences the quality of reflection in both text types but that also the motivation and fulfilment of entry expectations conditions the reflection level in learning processes.Downloads
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