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Reflective Learning Journal Student Guide

What is a Reflective Learning Journal?
It is a piece of writing which allows students to record thoughts and insights about their own
learning experience. It encourages students to review and consolidate learning, to evaluate
performance, to plan future learning based on past learning experience. In such a way,
students become capable to take charge of their own learning, and eventually to develop into
independent life long learners.

The term “Reflection” has been used widely and colloquially in academic disciplines, such as
psychology and education. Nevertheless, in both settings, it simply means the process of
thinking deeply with one’s awareness and conscious effort on an issue or event. The
product of such a highly engaged cognitive process would be informing insights, strategies,
plans and predictions on the issue one vigorously ponders upon.

Psychologist and educators further differentiate two kinds of reflective thinking: reflection-
in-action and reflection-on-action. The former suggests a simultaneous monitoring when
performing or practicing a task; the latter suggests a retrospective evaluation after the task is
accomplished.

The meaning of the word “reflection” means writing something that becomes very
meaningful and fruitful in the process of learning, which is one of the reasons why the use of
Reflective Learning Journal in teaching has a long history. Reflective learning journal is
well-accepted by many educators in higher education because it helps students to narrow the
gaps between theory and practice, and most importantly heightens students’ felt need of
constantly monitoring their learning progress. Learning should not be a passive process of
simply in-taking information from tutors and lecturers, but rather an active process
that requires a lot of personal thinking and questioning.

By engaging in reflective journal writing regularly, you will find in it a personal space for
you to keep records of your own ideas and thoughts, and these thoughts are then useful for
yourselves to come up with solutions and novel approaches to get around problems
encountered in the course of your learning.

Positive outcomes expected

✓ Students can gain a clearer overview of their learning progress
✓ Students can gain an insight of their own strengths and weaknesses as a learner
✓ Students can realize and recognise learning strategies which suit their personal needs
✓ Students will become more capable in planning for overcoming learning difficulties
✓ Students will understand and appreciate the importance self-evaluation in the role of
improving oneself; and importantly
✓ Reflective learners are more likely to develop a deeper understanding of their
subject and to achieve higher grades as a result.

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Designing a Reflective Learning Journal

The structure of reflective learning journal
A journal can be structured with guiding questions (see the Prompt Questions Bank) or
unstructured, in which students are asked to write about anything related to the assessment
item or to their learning. An over-structured journal prevents reflective thinking, while an
overly unstructured one might not encourage reflection to be made either.

Unstructured reflective learning journal

This type of reflective journal is characterised by little prompting questions,

which give students the greatest freedom to ponder upon things that had the
greatest personal significance to them. This regular writing exercise helps
students to organise their thoughts, reflect on their work, identify problems, and
find solution to them independently.

However, students often feel confused and uncertain about what to write in this
highly unstructured piece of writing. Therefore, we give simple instructions and
jump-start questions to give students a lift, but these questions do not
necessarily confine the structure or intrude the personal quality of students’
writing. See the following template:

Writing your Reflective Learning Journal

Notes:
This course composes of different teaching and learning
activities, such as lecture, workshop, discussion, take-home  This piece of writing should
case study assignment, reflective journal, and a final open- be highly unstructured,
book exam.
therefore it’s important that
In each journal entry, you might therefore want to write down the guiding questions
your reaction, comment, personal feelings, and suggestions to provided should be very
the journaling activities. For example, you can start by open-ended, so that allow
thinking: students to carry deep
thinking on course-related
 What’s my interest in the free trial ITSM software
chosen, and why did I choose it? issues

 What’s my reaction to a particular topic covered in a  Only a few guided questions

lecture or workshop activity? will do, otherwise, students
will be overwhelmed and
 How do I feel when confronted about undertaking an
analysis of ITSM practice, reading a number of articles,
divert all their energy in
and having to synthesise and make sense of them all? attempting all the questions
(which is not required)
 How can I relate other things directly or indirectly to instead of taking a quality
things that I have learnt in this course and to my reflection on their learning
assignment report?

 How do I get motivated and interested in writing 1 ½ -

2,000 words when I am already time-poor, and this task
is so new to me?

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The Prompt Question Bank

Facilitating reflective thinking

Students often get lost and frustrated when asked to write a reflective journal, and simply
resort to writing a diary of events or document hours spent studying, for example. Students
complain a lot and cry-out for guidelines to help them write a good reflective journal.

To facilitate students’ reflective thinking we have included prompting questions in this

Guide. This Prompt Questions Bank is a collection of questions for this purpose.

Focus of reflection

In the Prompt Questions Bank, we provide two sets of foci: one explores the learning
experience itself, the other thinks about the learning experience in relation to one’s
academic, professional and personal development.

The first set “Explore a learning experience” deals with the specific and the immediate. This
helps improve your performance. The foci of reflection are:
▪ Content - the ‘what’s of the learning experience
▪ Process - the ‘how’s of the learning experience
▪ Reasons - the ‘why’s of the learning experience

The second set concerns long-term issues and widening the perspective of students, helping
you see the relevance of and appreciate what you are learning. Think of a learning experience
in relation to your:
▪ Academic development
▪ Job ready and professional development
▪ Personal development

To do: After each reading and writing exercise for your fortnightly workshop activities (or
Google searching on Pink Elephant, for example) spend some time considering the Qs in
Area 1 and in Area 2 below. You don’t have to write specific answers, but these Qs will
prompt you to think reflectively about your learning activity. Now document your reflection
in any way you choose.

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The Prompt Questions Bank (Also known as ‘Reflection Menu’)

Area 1 Explore a learning experience…

Awareness Evaluation Regulation
Content (What) What have I learnt? Do I understand what I have What can I do in order to
learnt? gain a better understanding?

What else do I need to learn? Where can I find more

information?

Process (How) How did I learn / do it?
What strategy have I used in
learning this topic?
How effective is this How can I make this strategy
strategy? more effective?
Is the way I do it the best
way?

Reasons (why) Why learn it? Why would I think so? What would be a more useful
way to understand learning?
What is learning? Is this the only purpose of
learning? How could this learning
experience be interpreted
differently?

Area 2 Think of a learning experience in relation to…

Awareness
1. Academic How does this learning
development experience contribute to my
academic development?
What is/are my short-term /
long-term academic goal(s)?
Evaluation
What does this learning
experience tell about my
choice of academic goal and
path?
Am I making good progress?
Am I on the right track?
Regulation
All things considered, is this
goal a suitable goal?
Are there any other options?
What other paths can I take
to achieve my goals?

What obstacles have I What is the source of the How can I remove those
encountered? obstacles? obstacles?

Am I on the right track? What other paths can I take

to achieve my goals?

2. Professional Same as academic development, just that this time think about the learning experience in
development relation to your professional development instead of academic development.

3. Personal What does this learning
development experience mean to me?
How does it matter to me if I
failed or succeeded?
What does this learning What do I know about
experience tell me about my myself?
potentials, and myself as a
person? How am I living the most of
myself?

Meta-cognitive reflection
The backbone of the Prompt Question Bank is a sequence of metacognitive reflections – the
awareness of one’s learning experience, the evaluation of the experience, and the regulation
of one’s attitude and behaviour for better performance and more fruitful experience. They are
elements of one’s meta-cognitive abilities that enable one to become a better student and life-

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long learner, i.e. to grow, and reflection is the mediating process essential to the development
and operation of these abilities.

1. Awareness of one’s learning experience

Awareness of the current state is a necessary prerequisite of any conscious improvement.
Students often do their study without knowing much about their current state of learning (e.g.
how they learn, why they learn, etc). A reflective learning journal is a good place for you to
start noticing your learning experiences.

2. Evaluation of the experience

Between being aware of one’s learning experience and taking steps to do better is a stage
where judgements must be made. An evaluation of the current state identifies problems and
creates a felt need for change. It is sometimes useful to provide some criteria for evaluation.
For example, in the prompt question “Do I understand what I have learnt”, understanding is a
criterion for the evaluation, as contrast to memorisation that some students (and junior
lecturers) mistakenly believe is important.

3. Regulation of one’s attitude and behaviour

Knowing how one is doing does not lead to improvement unless one is willing to make some
adjustments accordingly. This is where remedies are generated and alternatives considered.
Writing the plans down also helps students commit to doing them. Questions at this stage are
very important as they help students look at the situation in a positive light, rather than
leaving them in despair which the finding out of problems at the evaluation stage has created.

A reflective journal is designed to help you think deeply about your learning, especially on
issues such as: your progress in learning, the difficulties you encountered in the process of
learning, the strategies you have taken to get around those difficulties, and your evaluation of
your own performance.

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General Instructions
Quick reference
What learning experience to reflect on?

The object of reflection for this journal is your experience in

learning during the semester (Weeks 1 to 11). The choice here Your study during the
is open-ended. You will include your learning experience on week
any topics from any weeks.

Frequency and length expected Once or

twice a week
✓ You are required to make one or two (or more if you like) 100 to 200 words/entry
entries per week, each about 100 to 200 words of length. You (Take it as a guideline
how you can progress
are instructed to make entries regularly rather than leaving it and develop your
till before a submission date, and the quality of reflection reflective learning
should be the emphasis of your entries rather than worrying journal throughout the
about the word count. course. For the actual
✓ The key is authenticity. If your journal isn’t reflective and length (in words), weeks
to cover, and marks see
doesn’t contain a serious reflection about your free-reading the relevant
report topic, then no marks will be awarded. Remember, specification file for the
reflective learners are more likely to develop a deeper assignment/assessment
understanding of their topic and to achieve higher grades as a submission.)
result.
Check for completion
Assessment 5% to 15% of final
grade (Again, take this
as a guideline. The
Your reflective learning journal is a main part of your final actual contribution (%)
assignment report, which also includes a case study. The to the assignment will
journal part contributes to your 5,00-1,500 words report and be given in the relevant
carries about 5% to 15% of your final grade for this course. specification file
The criterion for assessment of the reflective journal is the released later. The
assignment may have 2
satisfactory completion of the task, i.e. making regular entries parts, so the word-limit
as required. The focus of this exercise is on reflection. will be divided into 2.)

Requirement for submission

Draft due in Week 5
(Part 1) and Week 10
Your journal will be scrutinised in two stages: In around Week (Part 2) for feed-
5 (Part 1) and Weeks 10 (Part 2), each student is advised to forward.
show a copy of his/her report to the tutor during Workshop/Lab
time. Then, you will submit your final report online at the end of Assignment Parts 1 & 2
Week 6 (Part 1) and Week 11 (Part 2). You need to submit your are due in Week 6 &
Week 11, respectively.
reflective journal and case study report together in one
document using the mandated report template. Append your See the report template
reflective learning journal at the end of the case study report under the Assessment
(start a new page for the journal). menu item on L@G.

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Detail Guidelines
This section offers further guidelines to making journal entries that are reflective and
significant to you personally.

What learning experience to reflect on?

Reflect on your process of learning. Record any observations,
experience, thoughts and insights that are significant to you as a
learner, or even as a person.

Prompt questions for your reference:

The function of prompt questions is to stimulate your reflective
thinking. You don’t need to (in fact, you are not supposed to)
answer every one of them in any entry.

▪ How what I have learned relates to my other experiences?

▪ What implications does it have regarding my learning?
▪ What difficulties have I encountered in applying my
knowledge in dealing with everyday situations?
▪ What would be the causes for those difficulties and how could
I overcome them?
▪ What have I found today and read about? What does it mean to me?
▪ What do I find difficult in understanding? Why?
▪ What do I find difficult in accepting? Why?
▪ How could it be different?

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Sample entry
Here is a sample fictitious entry to a reflective learning journal with Dr Bruce’s comments on
the right.

The first half of the course introduced the claim that ITSM leads to
improved IT department performance and in turn, increased organisational
performance. At least that is the claim of the proponents of ITSM like the
itSMF and the ITIL people. In reference to all the ITIL manuals and the
course textbook, I’ve found myself always reading books passively from
page 1 onwards. When I have to read textbooks or manuals I tend to read
the same way. Some contents of those manuals are quite long and boring.
Just now I am studying the ITIL framework and in particular we have been
introduced to the ITIL terminology and ITIL software tools for assignment
ideas. But where do I start? Should I read the whole Introductory Overview
of ITIL 2001 manual or the entire Passing Your ITIL Foundation Exam
from cover to cover to get more information and concepts about this topic?
But I don’t think it is easy to read. The sentences are long and hard to Well in the IT industry
understand. And those examples are all about organisations. As I know very manuals are common place.
little about how organisations operate as I haven’t worked FT in a company They are a resource. But this
yet, let alone understand issues of ITIL use, or what the heck is the service is a reflection about the value
lifecycle!!! Last week’s lecture and reading titled BMC Best Practice of manuals to professional
Insights on ITIL Service Strategy is far-out. I feel spaced-out when I read development.
this stuff, I often cannot get concise concepts and write a summary.

Bruce recommends us to treat the manuals like the old telephone

books. Use them when you need to, don’t start at page one, but selectively
find pages that relate to the task at hand. I now agree with his tip. Yes, it’s called scaffolding:
learning new content is
Then today in the ITIL lecture, Bruce introduced the ITIL 5 stages. easier if it relates to concepts
Hey, this was easy to understand as it reminded me of the SDLC and each you already know.
stage was similar to s/w development. Also ITIL is comprised of lots of
manuals and manuals describe processes, just as the <other course This is an example of
manuals> do. In fact, it’s the same format. And when we watched the Utube reflection.
video I could understand the restaurant analogy because I have worked in a
restaurant before, knew what a matre de does, and could follow the
examples. It’s easy to learn new things when it relates to what I already Here is an example of a
know. problem for a student. Now
reflect on why it is.
I also have a question: We spent almost the entire workshop talking about
wicked problems, and how to distinguish them from tame problems. Do we
have to know this for the exam, or how can we apply it in the assignment? This is not a reflection, but
I’ve got many difficulties and questions in writing this reflective just a thought Q.
journal. At first, I think I knew well how to write a journal but later, I don’t
think so. Do I need to write or reflect on everything I read or write? I
cannot apply them so quick and see if they work for me.
The content of the 8th lecture on maturity assessment is quite hard
for me to apply in my daily life. I also have a question of what I learnt from
Just reflect and write on what
last week’s lecture. At that workshop session, we focused on ……………..
you see as important to you.
I think these points can be tried only when I read a commentary or article. If
Use the prompts to help
I am reading some storybooks or textbooks, can I still apply them?

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What to write in the Reflective Learning Journal?

Reflective learning journal writing is very different from academic assignments that you have
been writing, such as the case study report. It is a piece of flexible, personal, informal piece
of writing. If you are unsure about how to start, and how to write, don’t just scribble
something in the journal, or write in week 3 “I did this and answered these Qs, and submitted
my answers for marking”. Writing something truly “reflective” is the most important part of
the process, see if these tips can give you a lift!

“I don’t know what to write!”

5 tips on what to write in a journal entry:
- Start off with whatever is in your mind about your learning experience in the assignment
- Don’t just throw in events in chronological order. This is not a diary.
- Describe the meaning of what you learnt in your reading and in finding the readings.
Also, your reaction, feeling, opinions, views on both the learning process and the learnt
material
- List the good and the bad, strengths and weaknesses you consider you demonstrate in the
course of your learning
- Make advice for yourself and make plans for your learning in the near future

“Now I know what to put in the entry, but how

should I write it?”
5 tips on how to write a journal entry:
- Write in first person “I”, as if you are writing a letter to a friend.
- There is no right or wrong answer for a journal entry. Bruce bangs on about this point.
Therefore, feel free to express your ideas, opinions, and thoughts
- Don’t hesitate to share your personal experience if that helps to illustrate your point
- Don’t limit yourself to words – diagrams and pictures are ok too
- Don’t be too intimidated by English rules. It’s okay to make minor grammatical mistakes
initially if that does not interfere with the transmission of ideas. But proof-read and
correct later before submission.
- And don’t worry about referencing in a journal. Woo Hoo.

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