Influences on the reflection quality of journal writing: an exploratory study

ABSTRACT

Reflection has a long history as an assessment mode in teaching and learning for higher education, and particularly for teacher education. However, past studies have not systematically analysed how attributes of students, content, and feedback are linked to the quality of students’ reflections in journal writing. To fill the gap, this exploratory study examines 1,210 journal entries by 121 university students in a General Education course. We apply multilevel, cross-classification, ordered logit analysis to test the explanatory model. Results show that entries written by young women (vs. young men) written later in the course, with personal content (vs. academic or societal), or following teacher or student feedback had higher teacher ratings for reflection, compared to other entries. These results suggest the importance of gender, time, journal content, and feedback to raising reflection quality.

KEYWORDS:

• Reflective practice
• journal writing
• students’ attributes
• feedback
• higher education
• preservice teachers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wai Ming Yu

Wai Ming Yu is currently an assistant professor. Her research interests lie in narrative inquiry, curriculum, assessment, and teacher professional development.

Ming Ming Chiu

Ming Ming Chiu is currently the director of Assessment Research Centre, he also serves as chair professor of Analytics and Diversity.