Linh Nguyen

Writing 2
02/25/23
Writing a Wrong Episode 3: Learning and Self Assessment

Welcome back to another episode of Writing a Wrong, a podcast about all things learning and

writing for all of you struggling out there.

Today we’re going to be talking about the idea of reflective writing. I’m sure many of us have

had to write some sort of reflection, whether it's for school or for personal reasons. I, myself,

have always been curious about how reflections improve my writing? And how can I think

reflectively as I revise and rewrite my work? Are my reflections good insight into my thoughts?

Today, we sat down with many guests who have experience in this field to see their opinions on

it. Why don’t we go around and have everyone introduce themselves?

Connor-Greene: Hi there, I’m Patricia Connor-Greene and I’m a faculty member at Clemson

University. I teach a Personality Theories course in the psychology department.

Cisero: Hello, I’m Cheryl Cisero an associate professor of psychology at Southern Connecticut

State University

Peden: Hi I’m Blaine Peden, professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin

Rusche: I’m Sarah Rusche, currently a pH.D candidate in sociology at North Carolina State

University. Jason is an associate professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina.

Knapp: Hi I’m Nancy Knapp, an associate professor in the Department of Educational

Psychology and Instructional Technology at the University of Georgia.

Mortari: And I’m Luigina Mortari, a professor and dean in the department of philosophy,

education and psychology at the University of Verona.

So, let’s jump right into the topic. I’ll start with you Professor Connor-Greene; what do you think

is the importance of reflection and reflective writing?

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Connor-Greene: I think that reflection is a great way for people to improve their writing and

learning. I consider reflection to be a kind of thinking about thinking. In my classes, I like to

encourage journal writing as a form of reflection. I think it helps the students engage in the

subject matter more.

And I understand that you’ve even done a little research on the subject, correct?

Connor-Greene: Well, sort of. I wouldn’t really call it research but I compared the grades of

students who did journal writing to those in the past who didn’t. I found that journal writing

made them more successful.

Cisero: I did something similar, actually I was inspired by your work.

Connor-Greene: Oh really? And what did you find?

Cisero: Well, not to be rude, but I did find that your sort of pseudo research had a lot of

confounding factors so I tried to replicate the situation without all of that. I just taught my classes

pretty similarly, same times, same days, same course content but one class had reflective journal

writing and the other didn't.

And what were your findings?

Cisero: There was definitely some improvement amongst those that did the journal writing but

my results were not nearly as significant as Professor Connor-Greene’s.

Connor-Greene: Well, I’m not surprised that my data wasn’t exactly well executed since I didn’t

really have the intention of an experiment and it was more of a little test to see whether I should

change my curriculum.

Rusche: I just wanted to intervene. I understand that, according to Professor Cisero, there isn’t

much relevant data, but I do believe that reflective writing does help. I, in fact, use it quite often

in my teaching and I like to share these sorts of teaching strategies with other colleagues as well.

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Cisero: I think a part of the reason why I didn't see that much improvement is because I found

that some of my students didn’t exactly put any effort into these journals which rendered them

ineffective. So I’m not saying that reflective journaling is not a good practice.

Rusche: Of course, of course and I think most of us would agree that self-reflection (especially

critical self reflection) encourages students to connect their own experiences with everything else

around them.

Knapp: I agree as well. I haven’t exactly conducted an experiment but I do see overall

improvement with some of my students.

Tell us more

Knapp: Well I think that it's important for our students to reflect on their experiences about what

they’re learning. I also use reflective journals and I feel like this is me inviting my “students to

reexamine both their experiences and assumptions”.

And I understand that your students are pre-education students, yes?

Knapp: That’s right. I work specifically with people who plan on becoming teachers. I think that

this reflective method is key for them to become educators. I think that journal writing helps

them get rid of any prejudices or assumptions they have about learning and teaching.

Mortari: Yes I strongly agree with Knapp. I also work with aspiring teachers as my students and I

find that this sort of reflective practice is key for them to truly understand being a teacher. I did

my own research where I qualitatively assessed some reflective journals from my students.

Knapp: How interesting!

Mortari: I believe that reflection is very important in terms of education and that it helps a person

be more aware of themselves. I had students reflect on the course and write reflective journals

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throughout it. We found a lot of interesting things about how the students were thinking and

‘thinking about thinking’ so to speak.

Rusche: I think that's fascinating. Many of my students have benefited from reflection and I’ve

been sort of testing different methods on what works. My students have also said that they find

assignments like assessment and reflection to be a lot less intimidating.

I notice that you haven’t had much to say Professor Peden

Peden: Well, I don’t think that we necessarily have a strong opinion regarding the effectiveness

but I think that our own data just provides a bit of interesting commentary on top of all these

arguments.

Why don’t you share your findings

Peden: Well, we used a bit of new technology known as Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count

(LIWC) to analyze the language of academic and reflective writing. Our data was pretty much

what you’d expect, self assessment writing has a lot more cognitive words like “think” or

“know” and it has much simpler language compared to academic writing.

I guess that is what you’d expect. But I think that this sort of technology could help further other

research on the subject of what really is important about self assessment and reflection.

Peden: Yes and while the information obtained might seem insignificant, we believe that it can

provide educators more insight into their students’ writing. And we would agree that self

assessment can help with academic writing.

Connor-Greene: I don’t mean to speak for everyone but I think we mostly agree that utilizing

reflective writing and self assessment in one way or another, will have a positive impact. Even if

it is minimal like in Professor Cisero’s data.

Cicero: Well said.

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Yes, I think we’ve reached a clear answer to our question of “is reflective writing an effective

tool” with an astounding yes. And Professor Peden’s research also begs the question, what can

technology do for us in this field as it becomes more advanced? How can we utilize these tools to

improve our writing?

Well, with those thought provoking questions, that's all we have time for today. I want to thank

all of our guests for joining us here today and sharing their thoughts and findings.

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Bibliography

Cisero, Cheryl A. “Does Reflective Journal Writing Improve Course Performance?” College
Teaching, vol. 54, no. 2, 2006, pp. 231–236. https://doi.org/10.3200/ctch.54.2.231-236

Connor-Greene, Patricia A. "Making connections: Evaluating the effectiveness of journal writing

in enhancing student learning." Teaching of Psychology 27.1 (2000): 44-46.
https://doi.org/10.1207/S15328023TOP2701_10

Knapp, Nancy Flanagan. "Reflective journals: Making constructive use of the “apprenticeship of
observation” in preservice teacher education." Teaching Education 23.3 (2012): 323-340.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2012.686487

Mortari, Luigina. "Learning thoughtful reflection in teacher education." Teachers and Teaching
18.5 (2012): 525-545. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2012.709729

Peden, Blaine F., and David W. Carroll. "Ways of writing: Linguistic analysis of self-assessment
and traditional assignments." Teaching of Psychology 35.4 (2008): 313-318.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00986280802374419

Rusche, Sarah Nell, and Kendra Jason. “‘You Have to Absorb Yourself in It’: Using Inquiry and
Reflection to Promote Student Learning and Self-knowledge." Teaching Sociology 39.4 (2011):
338-353. https://doi.org/10.1177/0092055X11418685