Understanding Context and Reflecting on Your Research
Understanding Context and Reflecting on Your Research
Reading
Select and read this article, “Backpacks Vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis” by Laura Bolin Carroll. (41)
Reflective Thinking and Writing
Reflective writing is a useful tool for contextualizing and memorializing our learning activities. A variety of educational theories on how we acquire knowledge and make sense of our experiences include reflective composition as an important culminating activity.
Reflective writing is personal, of course, and it should discuss a spectrum of introspective thinking on how a learning opportunity positively impacted you. That spectrum begins with you and your prior knowledge about a given subject, and it then progresses through a series of questions (or stages of thinking). Generally speaking, a piece of reflective writing will address some of the following areas.
A writer will…
- Review his or her experiences as a learner. Which new or innovative ideas did you encounter? What type of learning experience (hands on or academic) did you participate in? What did you do or make, and how did your experiences create skills or aptitudes that can help you in other areas of your life?
- Consider the assumptions (previously held notions), attitudes, values, and beliefs that he or she brought to this learning experience. Did participating in the class or course of study help you develop any core personal principles? Were there any important changes in your personal belief systems that can be tied directly to your learning activity?
- Speculate on the future. How can you use what you have learned to justify your beliefs and actions? How can you use what you have learned to solve problems for you, your family, or your community? How has what you have learned changed your understanding of a subject or added meaning to your broader worldview?
The value of reflective writing rests in the activity of stepping back and adopting a wider view of yourself and your subjects. By taking some time to tie these concepts together, students can gain a clearer perspective on their core beliefs and attitudes and create depth and complexity in their understanding of important rhetorical subjects. (1)
Reflective Thinking and Writing in Practice
So how do we engage in useful reflection?
University of Portland educator Peter Pappas modified Dr. Benjamin Blooms Taxonomy of Learning to focus on reflection. He writes:
Reflection can be a challenging endeavor. It’s not something that’s fostered in school—where typically someone else tells you how you’re doing! Principals (and other instructional leaders) are often so caught up in meeting the demands of the day that they rarely have the luxury to muse on how things went. Self-assessment is clouded by the need to meet competing demands from multiple stakeholders.
Each level of reflection in the examples to follow is structured to parallel influential theorist Dr. Benjamin Bloom’s taxonomy. Dr. Bloom’s taxonomy (an orderly classif