I have a few notes written on the whiteboard in my office. One contains Dave Perkins’ list of “lifeworthy skills:" insight, action, ethics, and “comeupance.” Another is a list of Daniel Pink’s drivers of motivation: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. At the upper right hand corner is something that I wrote this summer: reflection is the key to change.
The work of reflection -- examination, thinking, and evaluation -- is what leads to learning. Unfortunately, because many of us are poor reflectors, we continue to make the same mistakes throughout our lives leading to a Groundhog Day type of existence. Many of us are not life-long learners because we never learned how to be reflective.
The key to reflection is that it involves the self, not an outside source. While external motivation may be needed to poke and prod folks into reflection, it is the actual work of the individual that makes it so valuable. The fact is, we really don’t learn very well from instruction or watching others. If we did, 7th graders would have the wisdom of Yoda and war would be a faint memory.
If we are trying to prepare our students to be adaptive, functional adults, we must teach them to be reflective. It can be practiced and learned so that it becomes an active part of life, prompting introspection and growth. Schools should institutionalize systems that require students to reflect on what they learn and how they learn. There are many ways to do this: self assessment on assignments, student-designed rubrics, reporting systems that require students to comment on their own progress, portfolios (electronic or paper) that ask students to catalog and reflect on their work, and student blogs.
As long as teachers and tests remain the primary judges of students, students will continue to look outside of themselves for guidance. They need to learn to look inside to find their own way.
