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Using blogs to enhance Reflective Journal writing

Andrew Filmer uses the ‘journal tool’ provided on Blackboard to improve students’ reflective journal writing on a second year module called ‘Improvisation’. He has found the journal tool to be useful in encouraging students to undertake a regular practice of reflective journal writing, and it also helps him provide feedback on draft writing.

The focus of the module is split between ‘creative’ and ‘critical’ practice. Classes consist of weekly two hour workshops in which students are introduced to solo and group improvisation techniques, as well as weekly one hour seminars in which they think about the historical and theoretical contexts for these techniques and wider issues including the connection between improvisation, creativity and innovation in culture more generally, as well as the body, intentionality, and agency. They are also introduced to phenomenology as a key theoretical framework.

Half of a student’s mark is based on a ‘Creative Portfolio’ comprised of two improvised performances of 3-5 minutes in duration: one solo and one group. This includes a verbal reflection at the conclusion of each performance.

The other half is based on a ‘Reflective Journal’. This is a 3000-word piece of academic writing in which students are asked to investigate and reflect on the relationship between theory and practices on the module and to record their developing thoughts on a weekly basis. The final assessed journal submission is based on weekly blog entries.

This teaching intervention was found to improve student learning, especially enhancing their grasp of critical theory in relation to practice. Some student feedback is quoted below:

• ‘Forcing myself to actually write something each week. Making me not leave it until the very end.’ 
• ‘Made it easier to keep up to date and motivated me to reflect’
• ‘It encouraged you to keep track of what you were doing/had done.’ 
• One specifically referred to the helpfulness of having to write a ‘detailed reflection on each week rather than a module-long chunk.’ 
• ‘I found it extremely useful as far as critical reflection between theory and practice was concerned. Besides, especially after a few weeks in between, it helped me to follow my own train of thought again.’

Resources

You can view the entire talk, as well as the teaching cycle upon which it is based:

• PowerPoint presentation used at the Brownbag talk. Please note that the students gave permission for their work to be included here, and the screenshots showing student blog entries have been anonymised.)
• Speaker's notes to accompany the PowerPoint.
• These notes formed the basis of an oral presentation and are largely drawn from a teaching cycle completed as part of a PGCTHE at Aberystwyth University. The full text of the teaching cycle can be found online at: http://hdl.handle.net/2160/7494.