At UW, you have taken classes, met new people, worked or interned or volunteered, made choices about how to spend your time and what interests you’ll pursue. Taken together, what have you learned?
Many educators believe that you haven't really learned from an experience until you've reflected on it. When you reflect, you reimagine what happened in both first and third person - as you were seen, and as you saw through your own eyes. This allows you to go beyond rote memorization to making meaning by harvesting insights from your experiences and making connections among them.
We foster our own growth when we control our learning, so some reflection is best done alone. Reflection is also enhanced, however, when we ponder our learning with others. There are places at the UW where deep reflection is built into your learning, like the Jackson School Task Force and the Husky Leadership Certificate, but you can practice reflection anytime and reap its benefits.
Reflecting by Asking Questions
Reflection involves linking a current experience to previous learnings (a process called scaffolding). Reflection also involves drawing forth cognitive and emotional information from several sources: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile. You can reflect on previous experiences by asking yourself questions such as these:
- What have I done that has been surprising? Scary? Delightful?
- When was I the most creative and why?
- What experience sparked my curiosity?
- What experience has been the most challenging? The most rewarding?
You can also incorporate reflection into your everyday life, whether in class or as part of a community:
- What are three things I learned today?
- What are two ways I will act on what I learned?
- What is one thing I want to know more about?
Don't let the idea of reflection seem daunting (or time consuming); get in the habit of asking questions and making connections between what you see, hear, read, and experience. This will deepen your learning and guide your next steps.