Reflection - Role and Resource

Reflection is one of the essential elements of service-learning, and Bringle and Hatcher (handout from Edward Zlotkowski’s FGCU workshop) offer the following guidelines for reflection activities:

• They should link experience to learning.
• They should be guided.
• They should occur regularly.
• They should involve feedback.
• They should help clarify values.

Resource

An excellent resource for designing appropriate, creative reflection activities is A Practitioner’s Guide to Reflection in Service Learning by Janet Eyler, Dwight E. Giles, Jr., and Angela Schmiede. The Corporation for National Service supported publication of this book. Interviews with students from eight colleges and universities provide the research base, and years of practical application in the classroom provide the expertise and knowledge shared in the book.

The authors discuss an experiential learning cycle in Chapter 3 built on the theories of Homey and Mumford (learning styles), Dewey (action-reflection-action), and Kolb (What? So What? Now What?). This discussion leads to details regarding effective reflection activities for students with different learning styles. Their suggestion is to offer a choice of several reflection activities or be prepared to spend extra time with students who have trouble with the one reflection activity assigned.

Approximately 2/3 of A Practitioner’s Guide is devoted to outlining reflective activities, which are classified as reading, writing, doing, and telling. This publication is a quick read at 169 pages, and one that will be helpful over and over again. It is available in the library.

The national Campus Compact website has a wonderful section on reflection, along with lots and lots of other resources.