Reflective/Reflexive Practices in Education

The Beginning Blogging is not a practice I had previously engaged in prior to participating in the course “Reflective-Reflexive Practices in Technology-Enabled Environments”. As I read the assignment guidelines, there was a sense of trepidation but, at the same time, I was very open to the possibilities of what the activity would unearth. Throughout the semester, I had to keep my focus on what I was learning in a particular module and how this influenced my thinking, how I felt about my practice and any adjustments I thought I needed to make to improve my practice. I was also encouraged to reflect on what was effective and how I could maintain consistency with each new group of students.My journey through the modules, the readings and the various activities was truly enlightening as well as inspiring. I was exposed to various reflective models but what was most significant was that I was using a digital tool, the online blog, to record my learning every step of the way. ...

           Introduction In my immediate context, I teach first year undergraduate students in a mandatory writing course. In this course, students are required to complete two reflective essays: one at the beginning of the semester and one at the end of teaching. Typically students are asked to reflect on a certain aspect of the course that has been emphasized throughout the semester. The lesson planning assignment was based on the requirements for the final reflection with emphasis on getting students to engage in reflections using online technological tools; the tools selected were discussion forums and a graded wiki. Planning the lesson As I prepared to plan the lesson, I was guided by Karunanayaka, Naidu, Rajendra and Ratnayake (2017) who asserted that meaningful reflective practice "should be carefully designed, with appropriate structure and guidance" (p. 143). They identified online discussions and reflective journal writing as "authentic lea...