How To Help Your Students Learn To Reflect On Their Learning?

14th August 2021

We as adults, what do we do at the end of any task? What do teachers do at the end of every lesson plan?

We self-reflect ourselves! It is very important to have self-reflection in every task we perform and also in every element of our life. It plays a crucial role in our personal growth and development. It helps us to understand the gaps between the expectations and the task achieved. It is the best way to know ourselves the best! Also, it is a good way to track our progress. It leads to self-realization and leads to self-acceptance.

With all these benefits, it is a very good habit that every individual needs to possess and work on. This can be made applicable to our learners as well. This habit needs to be embedded from a young age in the learner's life. They need to realize their positives and negatives and need to work on them. Self-reflection should be done in the classroom from an early age.

Following are some of the steps in which facilitators can help learners to reflect on their learning –

Set aims and objectives

The learners need to set aims and objectives for their tasks or activities or day. Without setting aims, it is impossible to reflect on self. Thus the first and the foremost important thing in self-reflection is to plan the aim and elucidate it.

Speak on the aims set

Setting an aim is not the only thing necessary. It is very important to speak on it and work towards its achievement. The set aim cannot be fulfilled unless there is some kind of discussion, planning and working on the goals.

Maintain daily reflection

Now, these aims and objectives need to be written and just not be in oral form. There needs to have a journal or diary or chart to reflect the daily activities and tasks.

Analyze the reflection

Once the reflection is planned, it needs to be analyzed. There needs to be appropriateness in the aims and goals set. Analyze the ways to work on it more smartly. Analyze and get going towards it.

Work on getting better

There should be a constant improvement in our process. The reflection track should move upwards and day by day it is very important to work on getting better.

Encourage

Encourage the learners to do it regularly. Initially, learners might find it difficult to maintain the regularity but as teachers, we should encourage the learners to do so through various techniques and not keeping it as regular. Some days, this can be done in the form of activities.

The above mentioned are some of the steps that help learners towards self-reflection.

This can be done through activities teachers can include worksheets or do the journal in a fun way to make the reflection more interesting for the learners. This can be done in the primary and young learner classes. International Teaching Diploma helps teachers to understand the importance of these strategies in your young learner classroom. Developing such habits needs a lot of dedication, patience, and innovativeness in the learners. So teachers need to be creative in planning such life learning habits when they are unaware of their importance.

Not only primary and secondary teaching should incorporate this important habit of self-realization but also Pre-primary teaching, Montessori teaching, Nursery teaching should also inculcate such habits in their lessons in the form of play or activities.

Kindergarten teaching jobs also ask for such requisite at the time of recruitment. 21st Century teachers need to be skilled and facilitate learning in every stage of learning as it is a need of an hour.

So, reflection is one of the life skills and is a way to embrace our positives and negatives and work on our growth and development. It is important to self-reflect through different phases of life and so this habit should be developed from the very beginning of their school life. It has also become an integral part of the instruction in a 21st Century school.

Written By : Neha Sharma