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Principles of Good Practice for Effective Reflection

Effective Reflection…

  1. Links service objectives to the course objectives by integrating the service experience with course learning;
  2. Is guided and purposeful;
  3. Occurs regularly within the course;
  4. Includes components that can be evaluated according to well-defined criteria;
  5. Provides opportunities for both private and public reflection;
  6. Fosters civic responsibility

Eyler, Giles and Schmiedes, A Practitioner’s Guide to Reflection in Service-Learning identify

The 4 C’s of Reflection

  1. Continuous in time frame. An ongoing part of the learner’s education and service involvement, this allows students to formulate new ideas following Kolb’s Cycle of Learning
  2. Connected to the intellectual and academic needs of those involved. This is where the connection between real life experiences and course material are compared and become relevant.
  3. Challenging to assumptions and complacency. Reflection must challenge students and provoke thought in a more critical way.
  4. Contextualized in terms of design and setting. Faculty determine if the reflection is appropriate for the context of the service-learning experience, thus adding to the linkage between thinking about course content and actually applying it.