By Fran Henshaw
As part of a foundation level literature review module, students then have to write a document reflecting on their skill development within the module, with evidence of their Sheffield Graduate Attributes (SGA) and how these will be useful in their future practice.
In the first year of teaching the module, I discovered that this process is challenging for many students, they are not comfortable with self-reflection, but especially as they have to evidence their skill development. Often, when they came to write the reflection at the end of the semester, they had difficulty remembering all of the steps and processes they had been through to evidence their development.
As a result, in the second year of teaching the module, I implemented a journal tool on the module blackboard page and introduced students to it as part of one of the seminars. I introduced the tool using an example entry, in which I modelled how to evidence development and consider the impact on future practice. Students were then given time at the end of the lesson to make their first entry, in order to demonstrate how accessible and user friendly the tool is. I also encouraged students to be as fulsome as possible with their entries, explaining that it would save them time in the long run, as most of the evidence and reflection would be present and would only require subsequently forming into continuous prose, editing and referencing.
As students are a diverse group, I also provide an editable version of this document.
The aim of this is to differentiate the level of guidance. Self-starters are able to see links to the module rubric, SGAs and determine how to achieve higher grades. Those requiring more support get a ‘how to guide’, sentence starters and inspiration ideas.
The impact of these tools is that students now feel more confident in writing the reflective document, it is handed in on time without the need for extensions (as had been the case in the first year) and is generally of better quality than in previous years, which enhances their module mark as it accounts for 25% of the mark.
Students who have used the journal tool most successfully make regular entries every time they progress with their work or learn a technique/skill etc. It is also a repository for keeping relevant references linked to their writing, and so provides the framework of the evidence needed for the work and circumvents starting from scratch.
A happy coincidence of using the journal tool through Blackboard, is that these two digital tools formulate part of the evidence for the SGA digital literacy and the editable table I provide helps to develop academic organisation that students can use moving forward into their degrees.
Fran teaches physiology in the School of Biosciences at undergraduate level and on foundation year. She is also a teaching specialist on level 3 and postgraduate programmes and supports students in their pedagogical research.