by Ellen Weber©

When I first learned to operate a standard transmission, my car left the first curb as a bucking bronco bursts through its stall. I froze. My leg instinctively slammed brake pedal to the floor and locked it there. My brain refused to respond to any further signals to move. Later a good friend reflected with me, and advised: "Once you locate the clutch’s friction point, you’ll be able to operate the gears properly."

Many worthwhile lessons I’ve learned have actually come through reflecting on personal mistakes. Sometimes after endless regrets over blunders I’ve made along the way, I find amazing new opportunities to reflect and change course. Opportunities to begin again and to understand issues in deeper ways.

Abraham Lincoln’s 1836 business failure, and his lost re-nomination to Congress called for reflection. Then again in 1854 Lincoln missed the nomination for US President. And in 1858 he lost the Senate race again. Through reflection Lincoln seemed to convert his mistakes into courage and compassion for others. His leadership prospered as he converted errors into reflective opportunities.

Mistakes for many of us form an inevitable part of learning lessons at a deeper level. Once converted through reflection, past errors can actually light fires within that prompt us to leap up and try again. Maybe that’s why Lincoln wrote: "I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come." The fact is, we can help students convert simple mistakes into opportunities to learn more, through a few straightforward intrapersonal questions.

Reflective Opportunities for Students

In portfolios I often require reflective perceptions from students. Their work might include responses which include:

• Why was each item entered into the portfolio?.
• What revisions were made?
• What objectives does this work meet?
• What are perceived strengths and weaknesses of each work entered?
• What rubric checklist was created to edit and revise the work?

Sometimes I provide exit slips that students complete as an exit requirement from my class. Exit slips can help students to think about both knowledge gained as well as their learning process. For instance, if students were preparing for a major exam, reflection might consist of stepping back to consider review progress. In my text, Student Assessment that Works: A Practical Approach, (Allyn & Bacon, 1999, p. 96), we reflect on specific review questions, which include:

1. How much time have you spent reviewing during the past week?
2. Describe your review process.
3. What evidence do you have that you have succeeded in learning the material reviewed?
4. What facts did you know already about your topic?
5. What new facts did you learn?
6. How did you organize materials for further review before the exams?
7. What questions did you still have that were not resolved in your review?
8. How have you activated your unique abilities and interests in your review activities?
9. What comments can you add to describe the review success?

Students often discuss their responses with peers in order to gain insights that will enhance lesson reviews and raise their grades.

Faculty reflection also prompts more effective learning and teaching approaches. The following reflective guide, from Student Assessment that Works: A Practical Approach, (p.15-16) may provide another useful tool for improving a lesson on any topic:

Faculty Reflection Guide

It is usually a good idea to start with overall aspects of your lessons that worked well.

1. What three aspects of your lesson were most valuable for students?
2. What might you change in future? Why? How would you teach this differently?

Faculty reflective questions about content might include:

  3.   What main goal did this lesson cover?
  4.   Which content did students learn well? Why?
  6.   What would I do differently in future?
  7.   Was content interesting and appropriate for this class?
  8.   Did Students possess the necessary background knowledge?
  9.   What will be the future development of this lesson?

Faculty reflective questions about delivery are equally as useful for improving the learning and teaching process:

 10.  How much time did I spend talking?
 11.  How much time did students talk?
 12.  Who talked most? Why?
 13.  Are there additional activities or questions that would have helped the
       students to  discover more?
 14.  Am I telling students or asking them?
 15.  How did I motivate students for this particular lesson? Did my motivation
       strategy work? Why or why not?

General reflective questions about specific learners in our classes also help us to relate content to more diverse groups. These questions include:

 16.  How did any one advanced student feel sitting in class today?
 17.  How did any one weaker student feel sitting in class today?
 18.  What did most students think of the lesson? Why?

Checklists for reflection simply provide one more method to step back from the teaching process to reconsider the learning achievement. Some faculty use these guides for peer observations and then discuss each item with a colleague in order to gain another’s views or suggestions. However reflection guides are used, it is usually better to begin with positives so that any suggestions for change will come into perspective as motivators to improve.

A Final Note

As scholars in their fields, faculty assume critical roles to ensure reflection opportunities that improve teaching and learning practices. Few would disagree that to facilitate meaningful reflective opportunities is also to ensure that more of today’s students will succeed at college, and university. As novices to the academic community, students reflect to improve, apply and make judgements about their work. Both students and faculty who reflect on a regular basis gain understanding of their unique contributions both in and beyond higher education classrooms.

Until I had rocked that car off the curb, I had never thought about a car’s internal structure. Nor had I considered how to locate one vibration point within the clutch. But after reflection, I went back to feel the friction point just beneath the vibration under my foot. Not surprisingly, operation of the clutch followed quite naturally. Clutch in, shift into first gear, hold at friction point, ease off brake, allow three rotations of the tires, then ease clutch out, accelerate, clutch in, and shift into second. Then, repeat the process with the clutch for third gear. It worked! After years of driving cars with automatic transmissions, I finally learned to operate a standard shift and, in the process, learned a lesson about how reflection can convert higher education lessons into opportunities for understanding at deeper levels.

Ellen Weber founded and is CEO of the MITA (Multiple Intelligence Teaching Approach) Center, which brings brain based methods to secondary and higher education. She is author of several books, including MI Strategies in the Classroom and Beyond: Using Roundtable Learning (2005). Needham Heights, MA, Allyn & Bacon. You may contact her at: The MITA Center, P.O. Box 347, Pittsford, NY 14534.