H808 E-Portfolio: Web Tutorial 3 Review

In Sessions 1 and 2, we have focused on explaining the background to our organisation model, Future Shape of the winner, and having the students study it and get used to articulating the main features of the model.


In Session 3, we want to move on to have students start the process of integrating FSW into their existing practice. We decided to prompt this thinking by setting some background reading on how the model connects with other well known management theories, and then to explain three case studies which outline the way that we have integrated the model into our practice. These case studies elicited a number of questions, that were at quite a practical level, and indicated to me that students were putting themselves in the position of using the model and having to make sense of its findings. One contacted me after the Web Tutorial with the following comment:

"This is becoming a lot clearer in my mind and am getting a lot of confidence!"

This seems to be an example of someone discovering how to integrate this new knowledge into their existing knowledge bank.


I remain uncomfortable with medium of the webinar platform, and am not convinced that it is the best for presenting data. And whilst the telephone contact enables us to have discussions and answer questions, it is still an imperfect way of judging the audience reactions to the material. 
However, the benefit of the teleconference is that the community of the programme is beginning to strengthen, and students are showing an obligation to each other to contribute. Being honest, the mindset that is probably the most important to shift is that of the tutors, including myself, whose background is almost entirely face to face training. Becoming comfortable with a style of teaching that relies much more on the learner to make sense of the material is difficult, and may not at the outset feel so personally rewarding, but is essential in the Distance Learning arena.


By the end of this first programme, I aim to be able to map the key learning inputs that are essential for the programme, and find ways of delivering that material through a more suitable medium; podcasts, videocasts, quizzes ...etc. And I would want to identify which are the most important subjects for discussion. Setting up activities that engender the right discussions will be the next challenge.


But all in all, we are managing to have the right conversations, and the confidence our students are developing for the material is most heartening.

My Mental Block around E-Portfolios

The first six weeks of H808 have been a period in which I have felt extremely confused. I have had these same emotions on previous H80X programmes, and I have found that if I can trust the expertise of the Open University's course designers, the fog will eventually clear. Or perhaps to be a bit more theoretical about the description of this process, I will find a way to integrate the new knowledge into my existing knowledge bank.

My confusion has largely been around the use of the e-portfolio. The idea of having an electronic place to store, organise and retrieve pieces of work or pieces of interesting research or information is a straightforward enough idea, particularly in the era of Web 2.0. My confusion has arisen around how an established professional, with many years of experience and insights, and with a multitude of uses for an e-portfolio, would begin to set up and organise one.

On reflection, maybe the root of my problem is that I am not someone who thinks in a linear way. My first degree was in Music, and my Belbin team role is Plant; I have always considered myself to have a more creative than scientific mind. Organising thoughts at a meta level is not my strength, and I am lucky to have a business partner for whom this comes naturally. This may therefore have let me off the hook with this discipline in a work context.

My H808 confusion has arisen because I did not grasp quickly enough that to use tools like My Stuff, de-licious, and Google apps (these latter two highly recommended by H808 colleague Eugene), I must first decide how to sort and store my data. When I went back into My Stuff after 5 weeks of collecting, the tags were chaotic, to say the least.

So, I decided to become intensely practical, and to organise my thoughts around the immediate challenge; H808 activities. With that in mind, I was able to organise the My Stuff tags, which meant renaming a few tags, housekeeping the tags I had set up to avoid duplication, and revisiting those artifacts already stored there to include as many tags as are relevant. I then moved on to my Google Docs Application, and carried over as many of the My Stuff tags as are relevant to this (work based) project. Some additional tags were needed to reflect the H808 Skills and Competencies requirements of the EC. And lastly, I revisited the tags I had set up on De-licious, and discovered similar chaos to the other two repositories. Again, I have done an editing and clearing out job here, and have tried to maintain tag consistency with Google and My Stuff.

This all feels as if I have managed to clear out a cluttered kitchen drawer;-)

It will be most interesting to discover whether I am able to hold myself to the discipline of organising my thoughts, my work and my reading beyond H808. I suspect that I will, as my unease with the early clutter of H808 mirrors my general unease with the amount of data that is available in the world today. The explosion of information over the last 10 or so years that the internet and the other publishing media are generating has felt, at times, overwhelming. Having a way of categorising and then storing information which adds value to my practice and my hobbies is beginning to feel like a watershed in my cognitive mapping process.

FSW DL Reflection tool (1)

In an earlier blog posting (Reflecting on Reflection, 2nd October 2009), I described a moment of realisation about my own professional practice. I have tended to assume that allocating time for my students to reflect assumes that they will know how to reflect. My research around the subject of reflection has given me pause for thought on that subject.

I decided this week, to provide some extra scaffolding for reflection on the Web Tutorial. On this session, all students had been asked to prepare a five minute input summarising their learning on a section of the course manual (Practitioner's Guide). Listening to any subject tackled 8 times can be both tedious and challenging; I therefore provided a Reflection Tool for everyone to use if they chose. The tool listed all the names of students, and invited the listener to record their answers under three headings; features benefits that they focused on, powerful images/phrases, ideas to incorporate into your pitch, any questions.

Students have been invited to contribute to a blog discussion following that session, and I will be fascinated to see if there any good evidence of listening and reflection.

H808 E-Portfolio: Web Tutorial 2 Review

The second web tutorial in our series of four took place on 19th October. Students had been assigned pre-work of studying five sections of the Practitioners Guide describing the Future Shape of the Winner organisation model and prepared a five minute input to describe the features that they judge to be unique.

This exercise allowed us to judge their early grasp of the model and also to get a sense of their presentational capabilities, albeit in the limiting arena of a teleconference.

We audio recorded this conference, which provided my colleague and I with the opportunity to review the inputs of students, and make a more considered assessment of progress.

Two had clearly developed an excellent understanding of the model and were able to relate the model to their existing mental models around organisations. Four showed good understanding being able to articulate the model well, and two, both native Spanish speakers were more limited in their grasp.

In one case, this may be due to the student's poor spoken english; this student's presentation showed signs of his questioning whether the model can truly be useful in his practice. In the coming weeks, I must monitor the situation with both students, to decide whether additional learning support is required.

Today's review will support my PDP in two areas; Assessment and Awareness of Students. In carrying the review out with my colleague, I was also improving our collaboration on e-learning.

Memo: Extracts from PDP Goals which are being addressed in this activity
This is the first programme that we have developed in this field. I will work with colleagues, and research best academic practice to establish the criteria against which we will judge the performance of our learners.


I will engage my colleagues in the assessment process, which will give me a benchmark to judge my own assessment competences.

Structure for my H808 E-Portfolio

Structure for H808 E-Portfolio: Madeleine McGrath

H808 is designed to help students to develop their understanding of what it means to be an e-learning professional in a period in which this medium is in its relative infancy. A major element of the module is for students to create an e-portfolio as a record of their learning and development during H808. This document outlines how I intend to organise my e-portfolio artifacts in order to meet that course objective.

Structure for Storing Artifacts

The H808 Course Guide provides us with a Personal and Professional Development Template, and we have also been required (activity 3 part 2) to conduct a Needs Analysis of the areas in which we require development. These two frameworks will guide the structure of the collection of my e-portfolio artifacts.

The tagging structure I will use to label artifacts will be as follows:

Areas of Practice

H808EP Skills

H808EP Reflection

H808EP Critique

H808EP Proactivity

Competencies

H808EP Practice

H808EP Communication

H808EP Technology

H808EP Research

These tags may combine both areas of practice and competencies in the following format (H808EP Skills/Practice).

I plan to use the same tagging structure in 2 e-portfolio repositories. The OU's My Stuff Repository will be used to collect artifacts related to the H808 learning, and Google Apps will be used for artifacts relating to my Work Based learning. This division is to enable me to continue to use an e-portfolio after my OU incumbency, assuming that the experience of using one proves valuable in the long term.

Connecting PDP with H808 Personal and Professional Development Template (PPDT)

My PDP has highlighted 8 meta skill categories (Prefixed below with MS) and 17 individual skills (Prefixed below with S) that will benefit from attention during H808 and beyond. Some of these fall into more than one area of competency.

Here is how they can be plotted against the PPDT areas of competency:

Practice

MS 1a-c. Awareness of students and their learning needs

MS 5a-c Student assessment

S 4a Transform teaching material for the online environment

MS 6a Steps taken to improve my teaching

Communication

MS 2a-c Creating the right online atmosphere

MS 3a Generating 'stickability" (Learner persistence)

S 4d Developing an online community

MS 8a Collaboration with teaching colleagues

Technology

MS 3a Generating 'stickability' (Learner persistence)

MS 4 a-d Ability to use IT appropriately

Research

MS 6a Steps taken to improve my teaching

MS 7 Organisation and record keeping

Each area of competency may have evidence of skills, reflection, critique and/or proactivity development.

Sources of Artifacts

Evidence of my development/performance against the PPDT elements will be drawn from:

• Forum postings from H808
• Selected H808 activities
• Relevant academic research
• Www sources
• Previous H80X ECs and TMAs
• Specially created documents to chronicle relevant aspects of my work based Distance Learning Project
• Audio and other AV records from my work based DL Project

MM Personal Development Plan.rtf

H808 PDP: Madeleine McGrath

	Overview
	I am currently leading a team who are running a 5 week Distance Learning Programme for consultants to train them in the use of my company’s Organisation Development model. Successful consultants will be granted a license to use this product with their own clients. The programme has been developed in the light of my experience of designing and facilitating an online module as part of my H804 studies, and following my occasional use of webinar technology to make presentations to dispersed audiences. I plan to use the experience of running this programme to develop my skills as an e-learning professional. I judge the following skill areas to be the most promising places to make improvements.
	Skills and Competences	Existing competence level		Improvement Actions/Goals
1.	Awareness of Students and their learning needs	Memo: this was an area that was judged lacking in my H804 EC.
1a	Understanding of students’ knowledge base	The current process uncovers the students knowledge base from student cvs and registration documents		Experiment with ways systematically to find out the existing levels of knowledge of my learners in future programmes.
1b	Knowledge of students and their backgrounds	The registration process asks questions about the professional, academic and personal backgrounds of learners		The existing process will be reviewed, and more searching questions included in future if necessary.
1c	Awareness of individual and special needs	This information is currently derived from the current registration process.		Identify specific learning needs based on findings from 1a and 1b, and the experience of the first programme. Introduce a more searching inquiry process if necessary.
2	Creating the right online atmosphere
2a	Use of voice and gesture	We currently have both voice and online communication with learners.		Monitor the online/telephone responses of learners to my and my colleagues inputs.
2b	Ability to include all students in discussion	The telephone conference format makes it difficult to ensure everyone can participate. A number of strategies to support this have been introduced on this programme. The success of these strategies will be reviewed at the end of the programme.		Monitor participation of learners in telephone and online conferences, and investigate any disappointing participation levels. Identify strategies to encourage optimum participation in the learner’s circumstances.
2c	Ability to create a suitable atmosphere in groups	The various learning arenas (blogsite, webinar, Linkedin) I have chosen give my colleagues and I a variety of ways of judging whether we have been able to generate a group dynamic.		I will monitor participation in group sessions/arenas, to decide on any improvements for future events. The long term test of success in this factor will be whether learners choose to remain active members of our online community after the end of the programme.
3	Generating stickability	Memo: this was an aspect of my H804 project that I found most disappointing.
3a	Ability to engage students	Persistence levels of learners have been variable in past programmes of mine – from not even participating though to erratic, unreliable participation up to enthusiastic and energetic participation. Participation is important to this programme, as it gives us visibility of learners who will be representing our products in the market place and assists in our assessment of their capabilities.		Though observing any differences in participation levels of learners, identify the factors that do/will motivate learners to participate in our programme, and incorporate as many as possible into future programmes.
4	Ability to use IT appropriately
4a	Understanding of online course design: how to write online teaching material, how to design online activities, how to transform teaching or training material for the online environment.	Our current programme has a blog, an audio webinar platform, participant guide book and a mentored assignment as its learning methodology.		In order to turn this programme into one that can deliver high quality training to larger numbers of geographically dispersed students, it is vital that our basic programme includes a much greater proportion of asynchronous activities. The experience of the first programme will provide insights into the activities and discussions that are essential in our learning process. This learning can be incorporated into the next design of the programme. The fact that we have chosen technologies for the first programme which give us visibility of the process learners are going through will provide valuable insights into the actual learning process that is taking place.
4b	Experience of audio and visual facilities of the web; for example, Netmeeting, Skype, digital photos, webcasting, podcasting	The current programme uses webcasting (which is called webinar in my field).		In future programmes, I envisage much greater use of podcasts to replace some of the webinar inputs, and will be very interested to experiment with the use of Skype and its video conferencing capabilities.
4c	Understanding of the different text-based communication systems: computer conferencing, bulletin boards, listserves etc	The current programme uses a webinar platform for synchronous communication and a blogsite for asynchronous communication.		It is my aim to migrate the programme gradually to incorporate a greater proportion of asynchronous communication. This will make the programme more time efficient for tutors and learners, and will give us much greater scalability of numbers of learners.
4d	Skill in developing online community: what works and what doesn’t; providing focus, animating online groups, developing collaborative activities	We are using two online community platforms; blogger and linkedin..		Monitoring the community dynamics of the first programme will give us data to assess our community building capabilities and identify areas for improvement. The ultimate test of this competence will be the extent to which learners stay active in this learning community after the programme has finished.
5	Student Assessment
5a	Ability to mark to the department’s standards	No previous experience	This is the first programme that we have developed in this field. I will work with colleagues, and research best academic practice to establish the criteria against which we will judge the performance of our learners.
5b	Consistency and reliability in marking standards	No previous experience.	I will engage my colleagues in the assessment process, which will give me a benchmark to judge my own assessment competences.
5c	Written feedback on assignments	At present I am not required to provide written feedback to learners. This programme will therefore provide my first experience of this.	The experience of providing feedback for the first time will be a valuable learning experience for me. I shall reflect on that experience and ask for feedback from colleagues to help me to hone my skills in this area.
6a	Steps taken to improve your teaching	This programme was created based on my previous H80X experience and in particular the experience of designing and facilitating three online modules in H804.	The items in this Action/Goals column provide a template against which I will develop my e-learning skills for the future.
7	Organisation and record-keeping	Since this has been a prototype programme, the documents and records have been created using our best instincts and prior experience, which is largely of face to face training.	In the light of our experience, I will analyse the documents and course materials that we have used, and streamline their use and storage.
8	Collaboration with teaching colleagues	On the programme to date, my colleagues have collaborated in supporting the delivery of my course design, although this has largely been rather passive collaboration.	I will involve colleagues in the end of programme review, and encourage them to take part in the design of future programmes. This will improve the quality of future programmes, and will increase their ownership of the programme in the future.

Adapted from Source: H851 Practice Guide 7, Reviewing and Improving your Teaching, The Open University, 1998, p.31. and Technology related skills and competences for e-learning professionals, Robin Mason.

Activity 3.2 Second Attempt

In my business, my colleagues and I have embarked recently on a new venture which uses Distance Learning as its methodology. Since they are novices at e-learning, my colleagues are very cautious about the use of technology, and since our learners come from disparate backgrounds, and have varying capabilities, again caution seems a wise mindset.


Our Distance Learning programme is designed to train already competent consultants in our Organisation model. Weller (2005), quoting a recent JISC report, states that an e-portfolio is “‘a collection (or archive) of reflective writing and associated evidence, which documents learning and which a learner may draw upon to present her/his learning and achievements. Incorporating an e-portfolio dimension on this programme would, in my view, improve the learning experience during the programme, and give learners valuable material for incorporating the model into their practice. It would also give my colleagues much greate visibility of how learners are engaging with the material.


From my colleagues’ point of view, several factors about an e-portfolio system will matter:
• Ease of use
• Integration with other technological packages, such as Powerpoint, Word and Blogging
• Enhancing the group dimension
• Assessing the performance of the learners
• Technical support
• Costs


Learners, in addition, are likely to value features that allow them to present their finished material professionally.


I have chosen Google Apps and Open Source r/Smart to consider as options for an e-portfolio platform.


Easy of Use/Accessibility
Google is likely to be a system that is very familiar to my audience. However, the e-portfolio functions will be supplied by using various Google Apps Tools, ie. Documents, Reader, Groups and Blogging, which may make the system feel cumbersome to users


Opensource has an integrated portfolio of tools and templates which we can customise. Users are able to select from a number of preset options to customise the look and feel of their portfolio, and can set up their own templates for collecting artifacts.


Interoperability
Both systems offer equivalent interoperability with popular software packages.


Group
Google Apps have a group forum for discussions and sharing of documents and the Documents Application can be used by a group to produce documents collaboratively. The Blog is also a forum in which the group can communicate and collaborate. Opensource has much less functionality in this arena, with neither a groups forum or a blog facility. However, documents can be shared amongst a group.


Assessment
Opensource has a function which enables tutors to prompts to mark progress. There is a template which enables tutors to monitor the progress being made by learners to their learning goals. There is also a review tool for the tutor's evaluation of the e-portfolio. No such features are available on Google.


Technical Support
Google Apps offers technical support through Help Functions, FAQs and user forums. Open Sources offers full technical support.


Costs
Google Apps is available for use at no/minimal charge, whereas Opensource Portfolio r/Smart is provided via a certified license on an annual subscription.


Presentation
Google Apps does not offer any facility to create presentations. Open Source, on the other hand, has choices of templates that learners can use to create professional presentations.




If I were purely taking an educational point of view, I would recommend Open Source r/smart with its Assessment, Technical Support and Presentational features being most attractive. However the familiarity of the Google system, along with the lesser cost and the group features is likely to make Google Apps an easier first step for my colleagues to take. On balance, although this might offer fewer educational benefits in the short term, encouraging colleagues to take a step into using e-portfolios will familiarise them with this technology. Persuading them to upgrade to a better system will be easier once that first step is taken.


Ref:

Weller, M (2005), ePortfolios report

Reflections on Unit 3 Activities

In researching unit 3, part 1, I came across the work of  Bisovsky and Schaffert (2009), on the subject of Learning and Teaching with e-Porfolios.They identify the most important processes in working with e-portfolios as:
" to clarify the target and context of the digital portfolio work, to collect, select and connect artifacts with a learning target, to reflect and manage the learning process, to present the e-portfolio artifacts, and to assess and evaluate the learning processes, development of competencies" (p13)

They use the European Commission definition of adult learning, which is  "all forms of learning undertaken by adults after having left initial education and training, however far this process may have gone [3]. Adult learning includes learning for personal, civic and social purposes as well as for employment-related purposes."

They also observe that the adult learners come with very different skills, experience and background and that these differences can be capitalized upon to create what they describe as connected learning. This connected learning dimension makes a most compelling case for the adoption of e-portfolios.

[ Personal note for future reference: In my own case, I am introducing a diverse group of seasoned professionals to a new organisation model. This model will only be adopted if they are able to make the connections with their previous learning on organisations. The e-portfolio functionality of being able to incorporate artifacts that reflect the broad range of experience of these learners should certainly facilitate the integration of the new knowledge with their existing knowledge. Being able to incorporate input from their diverse colleagues into their e-portfolio will also add value to their learning experience. Finally, the functionality in an e-portfolio of being able to collect, select, and then present relevant material from their connected learning, must be a valuable additional tool in their professional practice.]

This paper has provided me with some helpful guidance around the selection of the 6 features that I use to compare e-porfolio systems. Using Bisovsky and Schaffert's findings, there is a good argument for incorporating the five processes identified above as key to the use of e-porfolios into my 6 features. As a 6th feature, I would like to explore further one of my H808 Unit 2 reflections on learner reluctance as an obstacle to the adoption of e-portfolios.

I have decided to take the viewpoint of the educator in this analysis. What would be the features of an e-portfolio system that would matter to someone engaged in adult education, such as myself? I hope to be able to incorporate my findings into Activity 3.2 in which I have to make the case for the use of an e-porfolio system.

So, to re-frame these points to fit into the activity 3.1, the six evaluation features of e-portfolio systems might be:
the functionality to target and contextualize the digital portfolio work,
the functionality to collect, select and connect artifacts with a learning target,
the functionality to reflect and manage the learning process,
the functionality to present the e-portfolio artifacts,
the functionality to assess and evaluate the learning processes, development of competencies, and
the functionality that makes the system easy to use by the learners



Ref: Bisovsky, G. and Schaffert. S., (2009), Learning and Teaching With E-Portfolios: Experiences in and Challenges for Adult Education,  International Journal: emerging technologies in learning, Vol 4, No.1,
http://online-journals.org/i-jet/article/view/822/839 (accessed 10th October 2009)

Purpose of Unit 3

Having had a rather disorientating experience in Unit 2 of H808, one of my learning resolutions was as follows:

"with every new activity I must ask myself, why am I doing this, what do I need to get as a personal learning outcome and how will it contribute to my H808 studies?"


Here's how I think the activities of unit 3 will help me to make progress.

TMA1 has two parts, the first of which focuses on the pros and cons of using of e-portfolio systems in PDP and assessment, and the second of which requires me to provide a reflective commentary on my own PDP on H808.

As I see it, the activities in unit 3 help in both of these elements of TMA1. Core activities 3.1 and 3.2 will encourage a deeper understanding of the functionality of a number of e-portfolio systems and will enable me to consider the various arguments (from the literature and from colleagues) for and against the use of these systems. This should supplement the learning from Units 1 and 2.

The three parts of core activity 3.4 will give me a framework for mapping out my PDP needs, and should then give me the chance to incorporate the H808 reflections on my development that have been recorded to date. I am hoping that if I can get H808 colleagues to critique this work, I can avoid the trap of 'sterilized selection' that was flagged by Hazel Beadle in her 17th September posting on the Activity 2.5 forum. These studies should build on the work done on Learning and Reflection in Unit 2.

Core Activity 2.5 Criteria for Reflective Writing

Hazel has focused on one of the aspects of the PENNState Reflect: Providing Insight website pages that gave me pause for thought, namely the selection of the subject for reflection. Hazel wondered whether this advice would lead to what she called 'sterilised selection', and I am inclined to agree.


On the very first page of the website, they describe what reflection can help learners to do; understanding yourself, reflecting on experiences, reflecting on yourself as a learner by discovering what kind of a learner you are, are three of those outcomes. The four stage Reflection process they describe in the Reflective Writing Steps section mirrors precisely the four stages in the Kolb Learning Cycle, referenced by Moon (2001), and whilst Moon observes that this process has proved very popular with teachers, I wonder if, for professional self development, there is enough emphasis on critical reflection. For my taste, the tone of all of the Reflect pages is rather introspective, and I wonder whether this introspection might focus the learner too heavily on what is already known or experienced - 'sterilised reflection' to extend Hazel's point;-)

Moon (2001) also considers Schon's work on professional learning. Schon's research has concluded that professional practice is not derived from theory, but rather develops when the professional adapts their theoretical learning to apply in the practice area in which they are engaged. This practice over time become what Schon calls tacit knowledge, and professionals can be unaware of the personal mental models upon which they are basing their professional practice. As I reflected in my blog on activity 2.4, "Making this 'knowing in action' explicit in order to reflect on it critically is seen as an essential trigger to professional development." On that basis, a model which focuses unduly on what has happened and what can therefore be concluded about the learner may make the learning process 'sterilised' (to use Hazel's term). My favourite writer on the subject of Transformative Learning in Adults is Jack Mezirow. His research (1991) highlights the predisposition in adults to develop a set of assumptions which, over time, become strongly held, and are rarely open to question. Yet if, as professionals we are to make our 'knowing in action' explicit, as Schon recommends, the subjects that we choose for reflection are surely vital. To make our tacit knowledge explicit, we must surely reflect on experiences which were, for us, routine, and which we handled instinctively?
Having made that selection, the Penn State advice does not cover how learners go on critically to reflect on that experience to surface an assumption. Mezirow's (1991) model includes a reflective stage in which an assumption is critically reviewed, "to re-establish its validity or to correct distortions"(p15). Moon's (2001) input-output model of refection imagines a number of possible outcomes of reflecting on an experience, two of which are; critical review and material for further reflection. Looking outside of the experience for material that challenges the assumptions, and brings an alternative perspective to supplement the existing mental models would seem to me to be important stimulus to engender transformational learning.

That said, the basic structure of the PENNState Reflection advice seems solid and logical, and gives learners an understandable structure which, for many, may de-mystify the process of reflection. In particular, I found the Rubric in the section Description vs Reflection gives valuable questions that learners can use to critique the extent to which their reflective writing has progressed beyond the purely descriptive to the sharing of meaning. The advice about writing style in the Reflective writing steps is most practical and makes what could be a most challenging task seem eminently do-able.



Madeleine


Note: this blog duplicates my posting on the H808 website, and is included on my personal blog for completeness of records.



Mezirow, J. (1991) 'Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning', Jossey Bass, San Francisco.

Moon, J. (2001) ‘PDP working paper 4: reflection in higher education learning’ (online), The Higher Education Academy. Available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase/id72_Reflection_in_Higher_Education_Learning.rtf (accessed 29 June 2007).

Penn State University (2006) REFLECT: providing insight, http://portfolio.psu.edu/reflect (accessed 10 July 2009).

Reflecting on Reflection

Activity 2.4, in which I read several pieces on the subject of reflection in learning has given me pause for thought in my H808 studies.

In H808, we are required to reflect on our own personal development, and it occurs to me that devoting some time to examining my approach to reflection would be a valuable activity that would benefit from the rigour of the H808 framework.

There is no doubt that in my life, I have a bias for action. I am someone who always likes to press for action when a problem or opportunity arises, and I try to create that kind of an environment in all the circles in which I operate.

When applied to my professional life, the kinds of programmes that I am engaged to organise and run by my business clients are invariably attempting to solve 'people' problems, for example situations where managers are failing to show leadership, situations where employees are not providing the right level of customer service or situations where groups are not operating as a team. I have some long held beliefs about not only the kind of reflection that is needed in such situations, but also how to set up learning experiences that make people want to stop and think about their behaviour. However, the literature I have read recently on reflection has made me question whether my tacit assumptions are overdue a spring clean! In reading the literature, it struck me that my practicing theory may be missing an important element, namely I am assuming that when the period of reflection is set up that my learners will know how to reflect. But there may be more asssumptions that require challenging.

So, my latest thinking on my H808 e-portfolio study is that I reflect on my professional practice in providing learners with the support they need for reflection. This, in turn, may require me to revise other aspects of the way I set up and support learning programmes. The H808 Skills Framework looks a good model in which to do this reflection. 

What is quite exciting about this area of study is that it spills over into a voluntary activity in which I am involved. For many years, I have been involved in a help line for people who are feeling suicidal or despairing. Whilst a proportion of these callers have mental conditions which have no hope of cure, a good proportion of callers find themselves in a depairing frame of mind because of combinations of unfortunate circumstances. If I can improve my understanding of how to engender quality reflection in my learners, there may be the chance for me to do a better job of helping these callers make better progress with dealing with some of these challenges.

All in all, outcomes that will improve my professional skills on many levels.

Reflection and Learning Core Activity 2.4

Moon's (2001) paper takes a practical view of reflection and the role it can play in higher education. There are several helpful pointers for H808. And, whilst I am currently engaged in higher education as part of H808, my professional life involves me providing learning experiences for professionals who are in employment, rather than in education. I will therefore be very keenly looking out for lessons that can carry over to my professional practice.

Moon quotes Schon on the subject of Professional Knowledge. His research has demonstrated that espoused theory does not guide professional practice, rather a professional's expertise in practice is based on their reflections of the experience of being a professional. The professional over time develops tacit theories, of which they may be unaware. Making this 'knowing in action' explicit in order to reflect on it critically is seen as an essential trigger to professional development. This may very well be a start point that H808 participants should assume, myself included.

Mezirow (1991) similarly contends that adult judgements are based on assumptions, many of them very deeply held, and that these assumptions are open to question. Reflection on assumptions is therefore vital if the learner is to incorporate new knowledge into their view of the world. He describes reflection as the "intentional assessment of prior learning in order to re-establish its validity or to correct distortions"(p15).

It seems to me that both of these descriptions of the professional mindset demonstrate why we ought to take seriously the development of our reflective capabilities as learning professionals. If we wish to set an example for our learners of good learning practice, we must consider the extent to which we actively look for input that challenges our own view of the world, and that we demonstrate that we can use this input critically to examine our own assumptions. The more experienced we are, the more difficult that may prove to be, especially in the event that we do not have sufficient awareness of our own metacognitive processes.

The cohort on H808 contains a highly experienced group of professionals, who undoubtedly have strong assumptions and opinions, myself included. Since we are all required to use a reflective journal of our personal and professional development, I believe we must be willing to engage in Deep Learning. Moon, quoting Marton, Hounsell and Entwistle (1997), believes that reflection is required if learners are to move into the deeper levels of learning; making meaning, working with meaning and transformative learning.

In my own personal practice, there is an immediate parallel for the application of this learning, as we are running a Distance Learning Programme for a group of experienced professionals: these individuals have signed up to learn our consulting methodology and are considering incorporating it into their own practices. The three higher level learning processes I described above are very relevant for this group, who must be encouraged and supported to engage in deep learning, and hence, reflection. It may be possible for me to use the observation of the levels of reflection I am able to engender in my business students in parallel with our H808 reflections.

Moon recommends a number of methods for capturing reflective activity, including blogs, portfolios, reflecting on work experience, and peer and self assessment. These are all being encouraged on H808, and blogs, work experience and peer assessment will be used on my work project. Moon also recommends reflective exercises for learners who find reflective thinking difficult. These may have a place in my work based programme.

One benefit of a blog for reflection is that it is a medium in which creating the learning journal is very adaptable and correctible. In addition, the fact that the blog can then be viewed and commented on by others provides the chance to get feedback. The opportunity that a blog offers of keeping an ongoing record of reflections also sets the data in a context that enables the tracking learning development over time. Finally, the fact the the blog is published lends weight to its significance; were you just keeping personal private journal, there may be less thought given to its construction.





Mezirow, J. (1991) 'Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning', Jossey Bass, San Francisco.
Moon, J. (2001) 'PDP working paper 4: reflection in higher education learning' online, The Higher
Education Academy. Available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/resources/resourcedatabase/id69_guide_for_busy_academics_no4.doc (accessed 2 July 2008)