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The development of reflective practicethrough student journalsKathryn Pavlovich aa University of Waikato Management School , Hamilton, NewZealandPublished online: 13 Aug 2007.

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Higher Education Research & DevelopmentVol. 26, No. 3, September 2007, pp. 281–295

ISSN 0729-4360 (print)/ISSN 1469-8366 (online)/07/030281–15© 2007 HERDSADOI: 10.1080/07294360701494302

The development of reflective practice through student journalsKathryn Pavlovich*University of Waikato Management School, Hamilton, New ZealandTaylor and Francis LtdCHER_A_249304.sgm10.1080/07294360701494302Higher Education Research & Development0729-4360 (print)/1469-8366 (online)Original Article2007Taylor & Francis263000000September 2007KathrynPavlovichkpav@waikato.ac.nz

This paper explores the design and assessment of reflective journals in a course on spirituality andmanagement in a tertiary institution. The purpose of reflection in education is to develop students’self-awareness and inner leadership. Yet, such assessment poses challenges in terms of design,content and grading. This paper explores the literature surrounding these issues, and then describesthe introduction of such an approach through a case study. Two types of assessment were developedto assist students to explore self-awareness. The first was through reflective journal entriescompleted throughout the course, and the second was a report due at the end of the course, describ-ing the journey of the student’s most significant learning. The paper concludes by assessing theeffectiveness of such an approach through qualitative measures. The use of student narratives fromtheir journals, with their consent, illustrates the power of the reflective method.

Keywords: Education; Inner leadership; Management; Reflection; Self-awareness

Introduction

Emma’s story

When I first started this paper, my flatmates asked me what I would learn. I replied thatwe were doing “stuff about values and reflection, being yourself at work and how to createan environment that allows you to do that, and a bit of scary stuff like quantum physics”.They thought it sounded pretty ‘airy fairy’ and sometimes I agreed. I wondered when Iwould be able to use the things that I was going to learn and whether they would beapplicable in my life. Now, at the end of the semester, I feel differently. I sat down to goover the semester’s learning in order to write this paper and started to jot the things that Ihave learnt down. I have a metaphor for what this paper has taught me:

*University of Waikato Management School, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand. Email:kpav@waikato.ac.nz

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It is dusk and you are working in the kitchen. It’s a bit dark in the pantry, so you turn onthe kitchen light. Then you sit down to eat the evening meal, so you turn the dining roomlight on. After that, you go to watch TV, and you turn the lounge lights on. After TV, yougo to your office to do emails and pay bills, so another light comes on. Later, you go for awalk to post the letters, and you realise that night has fallen and its dark outside. You donot feel worried because turning around you see your house blazing with light.

This paper has opened my eyes to a whole range of things I had never considered. Beingmade aware of these things is like realising night has fallen and being able to see millionsof stars. It is a little overwhelming trying to understand all these things, but the learningwe went through in class was like a light switching on and making the dark less scary. Ithappened slowly and softly and just like lights turn on in the evening. I did not know whathad happened until I stood back and saw all the light spilling out [Emma].

This paper examines the development of reflective practice as a key learning objec-tive in a course within a university management school. The learning narrative aboveis taken from a student’s journal at the end of the semester. It powerfully illustratesher development of self-awareness, and the illumination process that unfolded.Significantly, it is not an outcome that she presented. Rather it is the process of‘learning to learn’ (Carr & Claxton, 2002, p. 9), described as the greatest challengefacing education in the 21st century. Yet, this focus on self and one’s learning journeyis rarely explored in tertiary institutes, with their focus primarily on what Palmer(1998) describes as questions of ‘what’ (the nature and boundaries of the problem)and ‘how’ (the methods and techniques for finding solutions). Occasionally, Palmernotes, questions of ‘why’ (the underlying purpose of the nature of the topic ofinvestigation) are examined, but rarely is there a focus on the ‘who’, on reflection,self-awareness and one’s interrelationships. This perspective is mirrored by Schön(1987), who too argues that the more conventional educational focus on technicalrationality is inadequate for solving complex problems. Although technical rationalitygreatly assists the management of professional organisations through the applicationof general theoretical principles that apply to specific problems, the standardisationthat emerges from this process does not teach to engage in the ‘spontaneous, intuitiveperformance of everyday life’ (Schön, 1983, p. 49). This, Schön claims, necessitatesa more complex set of skill development based around reflection and self-awareness.

In a study on organisational development, Kallaith and Coghlan (2001) posit that‘self-awareness is as important as the ability to draw on and utilise conceptualframeworks and tools from the organisational sciences’ (p. 61). This learning, theyclaim, can occur through both an inward and an outward form: inward throughwhat is happening inside of oneself, and outward through what is happening in theorganisation.

One of the earliest advocates of self-awareness in education is Dewey (1933), whobelieves that reflection is the ‘active, persistent and careful consideration of any beliefor supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and thefurther conclusions to which it tends’ (p. 9). Each of the aforementioned education-alists has called for a redesign of education that includes reflective principles (Dewey,1933; Schön, 1987; Palmer, 1998), contending that a practice of reflection can bedeveloped. Thus, through an inner dialogue, a ‘method’ of self-awareness can emerge.

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One ‘method’ of reflection can be developed through learning journals. Theobserving, reflecting and learning from personal experience can be integrated into theclassroom through students making regular entries in journals as they engage withcourse content, relationships and their own experiences. The purpose of this activityis to deepen students’ understanding of experiences and to foster thinking skills thatactively engage them in learning (Williams & Wessel, 2004). This paper, then,presents the design of two pieces of assessed coursework based around reflection.First, the paper reviews the literature on learning journals and the difficulties associ-ated with them. The method is then described, as it relates to the course, design, andassessment of such activities. Finally, the evaluation of the journal’s ability to achievethe learning outcomes is discussed, itself a reflexive exercise for the course designer.

The reflection process

Reflective practice is described as an active, dynamic action-based and ethical set ofskills, placed in real time and dealing with real, complex and difficult situations(Bright, 1993). Many models for reflection are presented in the literature; fromMoon’s (1999) comprehensive 7-stage model to Hatton and Smith’s (1995) threegeneric stages of reflection. Synthesising the literature (see Table 1), four cleardimensions emerge, which are also summarised in Kennison and Misselwitz’s (2002)definition of reflection:

Reflection is the purposeful contemplation of thoughts, feelings, and happenings thatpertain to recent experiences. With thoughtful consideration, one challenges one’s initialthinking and the feelings embedded in a meaningful experience. With further review andexploration, one creates and clarifies the personal meaning of the lived experience. (p. 239)

The first dimension is the manner in which experience acts as the context forpersonal learning. Johns (1994), for instance, posits that reflection begins with askingkey questions that describe the experience. Schön (1983) also places the experienceas the key phenomenon around which reflection-in-action occurs. From this, thesecond dimension emerges, that of the mental activity that reviews the experience.Moon (1999), for example, defines reflective practice as ‘a mental process withpurpose and/or outcome in which manipulation of meaning is applied to relativelycomplicated or unstructured ideas in learning or to problems for which there is noobvious solution’ (p. 155). This mental activity is structured around an experiencefrom which, Atkins and Murphy (1993) claim, an emotional discomfort may emerge,forming the third dimension. Thus, the untangling of emotional discomfort involvescareful consideration about the experience that, if one is aware, should lead toconstructive action so that existing relations and patterns are challenged. Van Manen(1997) suggests that robust reflection requires a process of mindfulness, which hedescribes as a ‘quality of the behaviour of a person that links thought and action in arelationship between self and others. The quality of this relationship is maintained bymeans of reflection on or about actions and represents a concern in the relationshipbetween teacher and learner’ (as cited in Moon, 1999, p. 67). Reflection, then, is as

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much a state of mind as it is a set of activities, with the end process being not so muchresolution of an experience but rather a better understanding of it. This reinforcesunderstanding rather than problem resolution as the learning outcome. Hart (1990)has a more comprehensive vision of reflection as ‘both a process of completion and ofopening up the view on the terrain of unexplored interpretations of experience and ofpossibilities for action’ (as cited in Moon, 1999, p. 87). This adds a fourth dimensionto reflective practice: that of taking action to change behaviour as a consequence ofthis contemplation of experience. This last dimension is also referenced by Johns(1994), noting how learning from situations can influence changed behaviour in thefuture. Moon (1999), too, talks of transformation through changed action. Self-awareness of actions, then, becomes the key trigger for learning outcomes.

Thus, in this synthesis of the literature, these four clear dimensions emerge assignificant in developing reflection as a method, and are used as a basis of my journaldesign: describing the experience; analysis of the experience; creation of newmeanings and understandings; and actions for change. These are reviewed in Table 1.

Reflection and learning in education: the journal

In the classroom, the journal provides a mechanism for developing reflection skills,and becomes a discipline for capturing personal experience (Kallaith & Coghlan, 2001).Locke and Brazelton (1997) claim that the writing of the journal itself is a learningprocess, as it is a discipline for articulating and rethinking our conceptualisations ofthe world. The act of writing facilitates deeper analysis of the experience through assess-ing and articulating it. This activity assists the writers to stand outside the experience,to see it more objectively, and to become detached from the emotional outcomes.

Spalding and Wilson (2002) succinctly discuss the following benefits of journallingas ‘serving as a permanent record of thoughts and experiences; providing a means ofestablishing and maintaining relationship with instructors; serving as a safe outlet forpersonal concerns and frustrations; and, as an aid to internal dialogue’ (p. 1396).Woodward (1998) also found journals helped students ‘discover personal qualitiesthey were hitherto unaware of and gave them a new perception of both themselvespersonally and the learning processes they had embodied during the program. Ithelped them discover who they were, what they knew, what they could do, and whatthey were like as individuals and as prospective teachers’ (p. 421). Furthermore,Varner and Peck (2003) noted that learning journals encouraged students to be self-directed and determine their own focus in assignment; to anchor new learning inexperience; and, finally, to solve actual problems.

A key element of these journals, then, is the personal reflections that are experi-enced. For many students, this is very challenging because of the unfamiliar use of thepersonal voice, so divergent from the usual passive voice and densely referenced textfamiliar in academic writing. Crème (2005) notes that we require more than apersonal voice: we ask our students to open themselves up in the process of writingon very personal experiences, which means being honest and authentic in what theywrite. This involves taking a risk in the content they write.

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Tab

le 1

.R

eflec

tion

as

a m

etho

d

Hat

ton

&

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(199

5)W

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ms

& W

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04)

Ken

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n &

M

isse

lwit

z (2

002)

Var

ner

&

Pec

k (2

003)

Moo

n (1

999)

John

s (1

994)

Sum

mar

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Des

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eD

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ibes

eve

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Art

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Ana

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s*N

eed

to r

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tion

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issu

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evie

win

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* R

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ence

sA

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se

Cri

tica

l*V

erif

ies

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ning

*Gai

ns n

ew u

nder

stan

ding

Dis

cuss

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outc

ome

Exp

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Pro

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war

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ow c

ould

hav

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ne b

ette

r?N

ew m

eani

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unde

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tes

futu

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ehav

iour

Act

ion

*Res

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*Cha

nged

act

ion

Lea

rnin

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om

expe

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n

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Thus, students are asked to invest much of their personality and self-image into thejournals, making them sensitive pieces of assessment to mark (Varner & Peck, 2003).This makes grading and evaluation difficult, as their subjective nature defies the stan-dardised criteria that more technical assessment entails. Furthermore, when journalsare graded, the grade becomes the emphasis that constrains free expression andcreativity, supporting strategic approaches to learning (Moon, 1999). On the otherhand, grading can encourage classroom preparation and participation, which canmotivate deep approaches to learning (Moon, 1999). Furthermore, Kennison andMisselwitz (2002) conclude that when journals don’t count toward grades, studentsdon’t put in the work. Thus, there is substantial debate on the role of gradingassessment and its impact on learning.

However, Crème (2005) notes that what we assess is pedagogically important as itpowerfully influences student learning, and also sends signals as to what we, as teach-ers, believe is important. In order to encourage deep learning, I elect for the gradingof assessment, believing that most people put energy into what will be rewarded(Varner & Peck, 2003). Also, I wish to signal the importance of the journals as theysupport the course objectives and, thus, extensive feedback is also given. Although theliterature has identified generic assessment criteria, part of my design process forthese reflective assessments has included customised grading criteria. The followingsection outlines the structure and aims of the course before I discuss the assessmentdesign.

Method

Two reflective journal assignments have been designed and implemented in a fourth-year course on spirituality and management, as part of an undergraduate Bachelor ofManagement Studies degree. The Management School has an overarching purpose‘to inspire the world with fresh understandings of sustainable success’. Thus, a coursein spirituality fits within the overall aim of leading-edge teaching and research thatpushes conventional boundaries of organisational management. The teaching andlearning of management can include personal management, inner leadership and self-awareness alongside that of organisational management.

The aim of the course is to challenge students’ awareness around inner leadership,with three key questions threading throughout the course: Who am I? Why am I here?What is my life’s purpose? The course has a central awareness that there is a guidingforce that assists our life’s journey if we listen to our inner voice and act with integrity.Thus, the purpose of the journal is to develop a method for assisting students tobecome more mindful and aware of their everyday actions. Assessed work for thecourse includes: three reflective journal entries (20%), my most significant learningreport (20%)—with these two assignments being the focus of this paper—a grouporganisation study (25%), a literature review (25%), and class attendance (10%).

The course has been offered for two years. In its first year (i.e. 2004), there were12 students enrolled, and they often spoke of how scary it was to take a paper thatpushed the boundaries of their expectations of management courses. The need for

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such a course in a management degree is evident in its growth to 46 students thefollowing year (i.e. 2005). The composition of the 2005 class was 65% female, 35%male; and 45% international and 55% domestic students coming from a globalenvironment that included Europe, USA, South America, South Africa, China andAustralasia.

Although a learning journal was used in the first year, I realised that a much morerigorous framework needed to be designed to successfully assist students to developthe reflective qualities that formed the essence of this course. Thus, the followingdesign, which I will now discuss, has only been in place for one year.

The design of the assessment

Central to the aim of this course is the practice of reflection. As noted earlier, jour-nals can be a powerful mechanism for students to develop a reflective ‘method’.Thus, two pieces of assessment were designed to engage students in this practice.The first included the reflective journals that were written through the duration ofthe 12-week semester. The second was a single assignment, my most significantlearning, due in Week 15, following the end of semester. This assignment was asummary of the student’s learning through the course, using their journals as afoundation.

The reflective journal

The design of the reflective journals was modified from the principles of Uline andcolleagues (2004). They requested that the student complete a journal entry aftereach class for both a personal reflection of experience in their educational setting, anda discussion related to the assigned topic. I chose to distance the student a little fromthe immediate classroom experience to encourage more reflection on key issues.Thus, over the duration of the 12-week course, students were required to submitthree journal entries, each two pages in length. The entry needed to include thecourse readings, classroom discussions and personal experiences.

Moon (1999) claims that assessment criteria play a central part in the success ofthe journal writing, as they provide the structure and foundation for what isexpected. This can create clarity in the objectives, and may assist students to movebeyond descriptive accounts of their experiences. Thus, I provided clear guidelinesrelating to the structure of the journal entry. This guidance conformed to my anal-ysis of the literature relating to reflection as a method: describing the experience,analysing it, creating new meaning from the experience, and action for learning(see Table 1).

From this method, a consistent marking schedule (see Table 2) was created, whichwas included in the course workbook. Thus, each student had access to the guidelinesand marking schedule of this assessment before the semester began. To ensure thatthe students understood the guidelines, a 2-hour class was also spent explaining,discussing and practising reflective journal writing in Week 2 of the semester.

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My most significant learning

The second reflective activity, my most significant learning, required a summaryof the learning through the course, using the journals as a foundation. It was dueafter the conclusion of the course (i.e. in Week 15), and thus allowed a deeper reflec-tion of the student’s learning over the whole course. Three key questions were askedfrom which the six-page assessment was framed:

● Discuss your journey of learning during the course;● Give examples of changes in your thinking that have occurred through the course,

and how these have occurred;● How have you applied the outcomes from your reflective practice in your daily life?

Students were also provided with other questions that could prompt morediscussion in their assignment. These included:

● What key experiences triggered your reflective practice?● How has reflective practice changed your approach to learning?● How has being in a community shaped your learning?● How has this process enabled you to stand outside your experiences to identify

patterns of behaviour?● How has this process enabled you to take charge of your life?● How has this process connected you with how you feel?

By the end of this course, there was a strong level of trust in the classroom, and Ifelt it appropriate that the students participate in designing the marking criteria.Thus, during the final week of classes we developed the following:

● Exploring of individual learning process (journey of learning);● Process of learning;● Examples and applications (appropriateness and relevance);● Depth of probing of ideas;● Scope of content covered (classes, readings, experiences);● Richness of engagement;● Overall synthesis.

The effectiveness of these criteria is discussed in the following section.

Table 2. Marking criteria for reflective journals

GradeDescription (of

experience)Analysis (of experience)

New meanings

Action (for change – what was learnt?) Comments

C *C+/B * *B+/A− * * *A/A+ * * * *

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Challenges and issues of the assessments

Evaluating the success of reflective assessment is difficult because of both its qualita-tive nature and its subjectivity (Varner & Peck, 2003; Crème, 2005). The only quan-titative measure that I have for the success of this course is through our studentevaluation mechanisms that are taken at the end of the semester. The students gavethis course a rating of 1.3 out of 5 (1 = outstanding), and my teaching evaluation was1.1. While acknowledging the crudeness of these measures, they do give an indicationthat the students thought very highly of this course at its completion.

The following qualitative evaluation will focus on the issues and challenges that Ifaced with these assessments. In keeping with the tenor of this paper, it is based onmy personal reflection rather than formal analysis. Thus, my method of evaluation isthrough integrating my challenges and the student responses from their journalnarratives.

The reflective journal

Two major challenges emerged from this assessment: writing in the personal voice,and engaging in the method of reflection. Writing reflective journals requires studentsto express themselves in a new way, through finding their personal voice. I use aquotation from a Chinese student because it illustrates the significant struggles shewent through to understand this, and it highlights the numerous issues that we, asteachers, encounter when grappling with our teaching pedagogy:

Reflective journals were strange to me and none of my three journals has a good mark.When I first did the journal, I just thought this was an assessment to ensure the studentswould do the readings, and then write a summary about it. So I did the journals in my ownway.

However, one day I was really shocked by a classmate’s journal! Having the girl’s permis-sion, the teacher read out her reflective journal to the class. I suddenly noticed the differ-ence between hers and mine. She did the journal by her heart, she did not see the journalas an assessment, and the journal was from her deep voice. She related the reflective jour-nal together with her feeling, her life experience and her spirit together.

I suddenly noticed I am too little and small. I understand that study is not only gainingskills and knowledge; the purpose of study is to learn from one’s own heart and to improveone’s shortcomings. Therefore, I decided to change myself, change my attitude to thestudy. I decided to try my best to learn how to use spirituality to change my life. Now, Iknow that reflective journals is a useful tool which help people to go back to their own heartand to see what is their deep voice and feeling. I try to link the study with my daily life. Iobserve and feel everything happens to me and people around. Every night, when I lay onmy bed, I can hear my inner voice and I can sum up important things to my brain. As longas I study this course, I can feel my heart and my spirit is light [Liu NN].

This journal narrative illustrates the significant challenges students have to over-come in writing effective entries. They need to find a new voice, which is not the neutralpassive voice so prevalent in academic writing. This process encourages the studentsto connect with their hearts first, and their heads second. It transfers the emphasis to

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‘I feel…’, which then creates a space for students to then turn to their own innerlearning. Thus, using the personal voice gives the writer a vehicle to explore theirexperience more reflectively, reinforcing what Schön (1983) notes as learning throughaccessing one’s inner awareness. This process also assists to address what Palmer(1991) notes as the ‘pain of disconnection’, caused by a life solely focused onintellectual pursuits.

The second challenge was to facilitate the method of reflection, and the process ofwriting three journal entries provide this. Kennison and Misselwitz (2002) describethe writing of a reflective journal as a purposeful activity intended to challenge andclarify existing meaning, and these three steps are noted in the following section. Formost students, their first entry was primarily descriptive. Following this experience, Ispent more time in the classroom further explaining the structure and, as notedabove, reading out some good journal entries in class. Part of this challenge was to getstudents to focus on one situation that they could analyse, rather than trying to coverall the readings. To achieve this, I modified the guidelines and marking criteria asgiven below:

● Topic;● Description of single event/incident/situation;● Emotional response;● Analysis (through personal reflection and course readings);● Learning and changed actions.

In asking the students to define the topic, it helped them articulate more preciselythe purpose of the entry, as noted by Kennison and Misselwitz (2002). With a two-page limit, they needed to carefully focus on what and how to present their material.Through articulating the topic, issue or problem, students were more able to describethe emotional feeling that arose. As discussed in the literature (Hatton & Smith, 1993;Moon, 1999), the deep reflection that comes with identifying the emotional responseis uncomfortable and challenging as one examines the inner meanings that the emotionsreside in. While most of this reflection occurred through the writing process, studentswere also asked to reference their academic readings with this analysis. Most studentstook two to three journal entries to move their entries into a more analytical space.There were, however, a small number of students who continued to write all threeentries descriptively on class topics and did not connect at a personal level. Althoughmany of these were students who did not fully participate in the class community, somewere diligent students who could not adapt to the different writing style.

The final step in the method is clarity, which emerges from a deeper level of under-standing. An example came from one student whose first journal was a rambling‘stream of consciousness’ over an action that led to considerable guilt. She wrote allthree of her entries on this one topic until she was finally able to see the core issue:that of freedom from family pressures. She noted how important this process was inhelping her make sense of this issue, and then being able to come to some decisionsregarding the situation. A further example of clarity emerging from the reflectivemethod is presented below:

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This class has helped me put the past behind me. No matter how many times I have toldmyself I was over the accident, when I had to write it down it was clear to me that I wasnot. I’m coming to peace with it now, thanks to having become aware that I’m totally notover it, but finally feeling able to tackle the issues that are left through the things that I havelearnt from this class. Memories are so powerful and so emotional; I have learnt that I usedto deal with them by just taking the emotion out of the situation and pretending to betough. I’m getting better at not just putting my emotion in the cupboard at the first signof something difficult and I’m so proud of myself! [SB].

This narrative powerfully illustrates reflection as a process of mental reviewing, andreinforces Van Manen’s (1997) call that reflective practice is not so much problem-solving, as it is resolution through clarity of deeper understanding.

Overall, I was pleased with the overall design and assessment of this assignment.One area for further improvement will be working with students so that they under-stand more readily how to use their personal voice. Although this assessment requireda lot of time for marking and significant feedback, it was a pleasure to read, mark andwitness the personal transformation that was taking place in many students.

My most significant learning

My purpose for this assignment was to discover how taking this course might havechanged student perceptions of ‘Who am I? Why am I here? What is my purpose?’ Toachieve this, the key question being asked in this final piece of assessment was ‘Howdid you understand reflective practice at the beginning of the course and how do youunderstand it now?’ I intended that, by engaging in reflective practice, innerawareness of actions as a mindful experience could be developed. Two key issuesemerge from this assignment. The first relates to the marking criteria and the processof grading, and the second to assessing my intended outcomes from this assignment.

As noted earlier, the marking criteria were developed with the students at the endof the semester. Questions arise as to what the benefits were of having studentsparticipate in design of the marking criteria. Did this development allow them moreownership of the assignment? Were they more motivated to engage in their learningat a deeper level? Did they spend more time reflecting on the issues? One challenge Ifaced was adapting my preconceptions of how I would grade this assessment to thestudent-developed criteria. Rather than focusing on the specific details of learning, amore thoughtful reflection on their journeys over the duration of the course wasrequired to conform with their criteria. This made marking the report more qualita-tive than I had intended originally, but did allow students to share more readily theirissues of significance. Again, the challenge came not so much from assigning a gradebut rather from justifying it through a standardised format, although this is nodifferent to most grading. The criteria developed were well grounded in learningpedagogy, and enabled clear differentiation between students able to more articu-lately conceptualise their learning.

The second issue relates to how this assignment indicated achievement of the courselearning objectives of inner leadership and self-management. Two clear themesemerged from these final journals: life as a purposeful endeavour and self-awareness.

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This first theme was discussed in many journals, as indicated in the following twoquotations:

It’s funny to think that a class I nearly withdrew from in the first week has resulted in achange of life: I am now volunteering and choosing a different career path that has low paybut much more enjoyment. Two things that six months ago I would never have picked[Anon].

It amazes me that I took this paper because I wanted an easy ride this semester. Well whata ride it has been. Twelve weeks down the track, and I am a different person. I am a personwith a purpose, but also a person who recognises that I am in charge of my own destiny. Irecognise that I have faults, but I also recognise that they are fixable, adaptable and thatthey are worth working on. I recognise that it will be a hard road, but one that will be fulfill-ing and joyful [SM].

Nine months after the course concluded, I still receive emails from students whoare reflecting on their life’s purpose. One student is now working with disadvantagedchildren, another with a foreign-aid program, a mature student is returning touniversity to get higher education because she now believes she ‘can be bigger thanwhat she originally believed’. As a result of doing a reflective journal entry, a furtherstudent found the courage for a job interview. She was appointed to the position, andnow spends a lot of time travelling—her passion. These examples indicate that somestudents are realising their life’s purpose as a result of this class.

The second learning outcome related to inner leadership through self-awareness. Ileave this to the voices of the students to illustrate this achievement:

I find that I learn in a different place now. Before, learning was something that was doneto me, now I am learning because I want to improve myself. It’s become a much moreinwardly focused action. Now I ask, how will this help me to understand myself? [SM].

In the last class today, I really got it! I knew there was something really significant that Ihad learnt, something about me had changed; and all I could say to the class was that somequestions of mine had been answered but mostly it had opened up more questions for me.However, I realised this afternoon as I thought about it some more that I am more awareof my actions. I do things with intent; that is what I have learnt and what has changed mylife. I think about the water when it comes out of the tap. I think about my breathing. Ithink about how great it was swimming for the first time in the sea this year. I think abouthow my feet are standing in the mud playing volleyball the other day. This is what I havelearnt. I do things with intention now [Sarah].

Ethics

Nevertheless, although my experience has been inspiring, words of caution must benoted. Many students voice very personal and private details of their lives. Trustneeds to be developed between the student and the course facilitator, and severalstudents noted that their journal entries contained information that they had nevertold anyone else. Students knew their work was only ever marked by me, and whilethis type of assessment was demanding, it was also very rewarding. Thus, teachingneeds to be approached from a perspective of vocation. This requires a communaland cooperative classroom context, which relies heavily on a deep level of trust, not

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only between teacher and student, but also among the student body, as sharing ofexperiences is the essence of such dialogue.

A second challenge is that reflective journals can arouse deeply emotional issues.Several students commented they thought they had dealt with their personal tragedies,but through this exercise they realised they had not, and have since sought professionalhelp. At the beginning of the semester, we spend time discussing our personal supportnetwork and the importance of this for keeping ourselves safe. A second method formonitoring students is through compulsory attendance in the classroom and throughthis regular contact I have the opportunity to monitor students’ well-being. They knowthat they can come to me at any time if they need assistance. Furthermore, I willintroduce a buddy system for ongoing learning next semester, with an additionalbenefit being students informally watching over each other.

A final issue relates to the use of student work, as in this paper. I see it as a privilegethat students feel safe to share personal issues, and take this responsibility seriously.Every student quoted here has been personally contacted and has given permissionfor their learning narratives to be published, including their preferred citations.Indeed, all the students approached agreed, and several stated that they felt honouredtheir reflections were to be published as they were proud of the progress they hadmade.

Finally, I will continue to use both assignments in this course as they haveenabled me to assist students achieve a key learning outcome: that of reflectivepractice. Creating clear guidelines has been instrumental for students to engageactively in the practice of reflection. Thus, my experience has been that reflection asa method can be taught. I conclude by presenting an international student’sperspective of the course:

At the beginning I wondered why there was no exam, and why we just had to write downour thoughts. There was no ‘tangible’ knowledge presented in the class, like in otherclasses. I cannot say that I know a lot more about a specific topic than I did before. Ofcourse, we were covering things in class which I will always remember, but those thingshave more to do with myself than specific facts. But isn’t that what university should beabout? I will definitely forget what specific parts a business plan must have, or how I shouldapply Porters 5 Forces in the external analysis of my enterprise. But I can easily look uphundreds of text books, and most of the facts asked for in exams will vanish from mymemory as fast as they were put there. That is why there is no exam or test in this class. Inour education we learn how to understand everything around us. Science did a very goodjob in doing that. But what about ourselves, the intangible assets of our own being? Thiscourse taught me to understand myself which no other course has done before. The onlythings we will really remember from our university education are certain patterns, andmethods, not specific knowledge. Being able to understand myself a lot better makes itpossible for me to understand others [Michael].

Conclusion

You may be asking: what is a course like this is doing in a management school? Iargue that while management is a technical activity, it is also an art form. Manage-ment requires ongoing decision-making, and much of this is based on intuitive

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understandings. Intuition is listening to the inner voice, or what Schön (1987)describes as finding the theory you have in yourself and in the knowledge youderive from experience. Such a course, then, assists students to develop this capac-ity for self-awareness. The student narrative at the beginning of the paper uses themetaphor of illumination to describe this learning process.

Furthermore, in being self-aware, managers may engage in reflective conversationswith situations. Growing or downsizing organisations each have consequences, andeffective managers need to take responsibility for outcomes, based on their ability tointeract with others. Thus, in understanding reflection, one is able to develop anability to relate to others and form strong interpersonal relationships.

A final motivation for such a course is that it challenges the singular economicrationale of an organisation, and suggests that part of its rationale should be askinghow the organisation could contribute towards improving society? This placesindividual life purpose at the core of self-awareness, and also at the heart of theorganisational culture.

To conclude, this paper has described the development of reflection as a methodin a university management school course. It has argued that reflection can be taught,although it does require much energy from the teacher. The outcomes of such anapproach encourage students to learn how to learn, and to thoughtfully engage inreflective practice as a daily activity. This practice has the potential to empowersocially purposeful and just organisational contexts.

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