Achieving deeper learning with reflection

Reflection is a key, foundational component to service learning and global citizenship education. When we ask students to pause and reflect on what they're learning, we give them opportunities to synthesize and process their learning experiences, and to understand themselves and the world in deeper and more meaningful ways. That's why reflection is the stage of service learning that surfaces everywhere in the 5-stage cycle. If we're purposeful, we can embed meaningful reflection tasks into all of our service learning and global citizenship experiences.

And what can meaningful reflection look like? We might immediately think of journalling as a reflection tool, and journalling can definitely be valuable. But if it's the only strategy we use, students may disengage with it because of over-exposure. Also, students who have alternative learning strengths (kinesthetic, visual, etc.) may miss the opportunity to reflect in ways that help them maximize their ability to think deeply about something they have just experienced. 

I have found most teachers want to grow in this area so they can offer a variety of reflection tasks and prompts that appeal to a wide variety of learners and keep students fully engaged during all reflection activities. 

Download a free guide I have created featuring ideas for written reflection, oral reflection and kinesthetic reflection. Please feel free to use it and share it, and I hope you find the ideas add value to what you are doing in your classroom.