One of the primary components that distinguishes service and volunteerism from service-learning (also known as community-engaged learning) is critical reflection. Intentionally designed reflection that evokes critical thinking about the service (or other applied or engaged experience) can help learners avoid thinking simplistically and reinforcing stereotypes, and can help them learn about course content and how they learn. During a food distribution event I (Lori) participated in, my students noticed a participant selectively choosing items from the line and leaving some behind. Initially, my students assumed that the person didn’t need as much food since they declined certain items. However, through a group critical reflection session after the event, we reflected together. The students explored alternative interpretations; such as the person trying to avoid wasting food or simply having personal food preferences or food allergies. This reflective process fostered empathy and strengthened the connection between my students and the individuals receiving the food assistance.
In this latest entry of the What is Service-Learning? blog series, we discuss the opportunities provided by critical reflection to enhance learning. We describe a popular, research-grounded model of critical reflection that can be applied in any curricular or co-curricular context and across disciplines to guide and structure reflection in service-learning (or any other experiential learning process). Lastly, we share important considerations for designing critical reflection to make visible some of the various approaches to designing reflection.
What is critical reflection?
One of the founders of experiential learning, John Dewey, emphasized that while experience provides a foundation for learning, it is actually making meaning of (reflecting on) the experience that generates learning, not the experience itself. When we think about integrating service-learning into a course, then, it is not sufficient to simply incorporate service experiences and assume students will learn from them. It is essential to thoughtfully design critical reflection that is woven through these experiences, both so that meaningful learning occurs and so that the full range of relationships and outcomes deepen over time. Specifically, it’s important to use reflection to connect service experiences to the various learning goals. Those goals might include academic learning goals (e.g., course concepts, disciplinary perspectives), civic learning goals (e.g., power, systems), personal growth goals (e.g., communication, values) generally associated with service-learning (See the What is Service-Learning blog in this series).
As you design reflection in your course (or other context), one of the first things to think about is how to surface and push aside the baggage often associated with the term reflection. In our culture and in many disciplines (and in the past experience of many of our students), “reflection” evokes writing in a diary and keeping it hidden, spending time off task on “fluff,” thinking only about yourself and your feelings, summarizing what you are doing (like an activity log), and/or looking backwards. That baggage is not helpful, and can even get in the way, if we are to use the process to generate learning and improve practice. Dewey said that reflection involves thinking about what we know, why it matters, and why we think we know it. Service-learning scholars have defined it as making meaning of experiences in light of learning goals. Framed this way, reflection is about taking multiple perspectives, about looking for evidence and counter-evidence for our knowledge claims, about building our capacities for critical thinking, and about making and deepening connections between our own ideas and experiences and those of others. As I (Patti) explain it: “Critical reflection puts lenses (i.e., prompts) between the learner and the experience so that they see the presence, or sometimes the absence, of the stuff we want to learn about and then push, push, push their thinking about it to a new and actionable level.” Using the adjective “critical” can help everyone involved to think about and use the process not as “touchy feely” or “soft” but rather in terms of its necessary connection to critical thinking and to the fundamental question-posing, power analysis, and systems thinking associated with critical theory.
How can I structure critical reflection?
Once we know what learning we are after – “we” here meaning instructors, of course, but also potentially community members and students, all of whom can work together to determine the learning goals of any particular service-learning activity – we can develop reflection prompts and processes accordingly. It is helpful to have a structure to guide yourself and your learners through the meaning making process. We explain the DEAL Model of Critical Reflection in detail as it is widely used within the field of service-learning and lends itself to making close connections between learning goals and experience. However, there are other reflection models you might want to check out (e.g., What? So What? Now What?; The ORID Group Reflection Process; The ABCs of Reflection).
Ash and Clayton (2009) suggest that critical reflection is a designed process of guiding learners through prompted inquiry that “generates learning (articulating questions, confronting bias, examining causality, contrasting theory with practice, pointing to systemic issues), deepens learning (challenging simplistic conclusions, inviting alternative perspectives, asking “why” iteratively), and documents learning (producing tangible expressions of new understandings for evaluation)” (p. 27). Their DEAL Model walks learners through three steps: Describe, Examine, Articulate Learning.
- Describe: Prompts in the describe step solicit objective observations and details – as if the person reflecting were a fly on the wall, noting the “what” / “who” / “when” / “where” / “how” of the experience.
- Examine: The examine step prompts meaning making specifically in terms of learning goals or objectives such as academic content, civic learning, or personal growth.
- Articulate Learning:The final step, articulate learning, supports learners in further (metacognitively) developing their learning (including its sources and significance) and setting goals related to ideas considered in the examine phase, thus generating actionable learning to improve thinking, partnerships, and practice.
(See example DEAL-based and other critical reflection activities on Patti’s website). DEAL has associated feedback tools and rubrics, grounded in Critical Thinking Standards and Bloom’s Taxonomy.
What should I consider when designing critical reflection?
Using DEAL or another model as your guide, critical reflection can be designed in a variety of ways to generate learning in different contexts. Here, we list some considerations or choice points regarding the design of critical reflection. As you develop reflection activities, keep in mind that one of the principles of best practice is to incorporate reflection at multiple points, weaving multiple activities of different types together. An interactive approach that builds upon previous experiences and reflections is a great overall strategy.
- Reflection can take various forms: written (e.g., guided journals, essays), oral (e.g., team discussion), audiovisual (e.g, digital stories), embodied (e.g., movement based), artistic (e.g., drawing), etc. It might be done in person or online. Consider a mixture for different learning styles.
- Reflection can be individual or collaborative; best may be a mix of both. Collaborative reflection might involve other students (peers enrolled in the class; student reflection facilitators), community members, service-learning staff, and, of course, you.
- Reflection should occur before, during/throughout, and after service experiences. Before an experience, students can be asked to think about their assumptions and expectations going into it as well as its purposes; and they can be primed to be on the lookout for academic content as they go through the experience. Reflection during an experience might take the form of pausing a group during an activity to process together; it can serve to call attention to particular dynamics or interactions while there is still time to modify them for greater learning or impact. (See Schön’s (1983) work on reflection-in-action). Reflection after an experience can hark back to ideas explored before and during (e.g., challenges to assumptions, fulfillment of purposes) and can push on similarities and differences between, for example, theory as it emerged in experience and in readings or other content sources.
- Reflection can be short and frequent (e.g., activities in class, weekly journal entries, posting online) and/or in-depth and comprehensive (e.g., written and revised essays that may incorporate research, digital stories that synthesize the thinking and learning across multiple prior reflection activities).
- Reflection can be integrated into the course’s overall assessment process. Just like any other type of learning process, the quality of reflection and its resultant learning and action can be deepened with feedback and opportunities for revision (formative assessment). Feedback might come from peers, community members, and/or instructors; particularly useful is feedback focused on the quality of reasoning that can help build critical thinking and other metacognitive capacities. And just like any other type of student product that is intended to provide evidence of learning, reflection products can be graded (summative assessment). Rubrics exist and can be developed to make evaluative criteria visible and to generate grades. (See a feedback tool and rubric, both focused on critical thinking, on Patti’s website).
The most important takeaway underlying the design of high-quality critical reflection in service-learning is intentional alignment between the learning outcomes we are after, the reflection prompts used to generate that learning, the feedback used to deepen it, and the rubrics used to assess/grade.
Teaching and learning through critical reflection in service-learning is often counter-normative (in other words, unlike the processes we are all more used to). It is crucial that we and our students get on the same page about what it is and isn’t and build our capacities to engage meaningfully with it. I (Patti) will never forget the distressed student in the back of the classroom, imploring “Patti, just give us the answer!” That is how she had been taught that learning happens: people with knowledge give it to those who don’t have it. Teaching and learning through critical reflection in service-learning is most decidedly not that. It is, rather, a process of co-generating knowledge through making one’s own meaning and supporting others in doing the same. While we focus here on student reflection, it’s important to note that everyone who participates in service-learning and civic engagement partnerships can – and, we think, should – critically reflect on and learn through these experiences. We encourage you to reflect critically on your own experiences – in both communities and classrooms, on your own and alongside your students and community partners – so as to enhance your own learning and growth.
References
Ash, S. L., & Clayton, P. H. (2009). Generating, deepening, and documenting learning: The power of critical reflection for applied learning. Journal of Applied Learning in Higher Education, 1(1), 25-48. https://www.missouriwestern.edu/appliedlearning/wp-content/uploads/sites/116/2018/11/JALHE-1.pdf
Kniffin, L. E. (2023, September 6). What is service-learning? [Blog post]. The Loop. Staley School of Leadership Studies, Kansas State University. https://blogs.k-state.edu/leadership/2023/09/06/what-is-service-learning/
Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books.
Stokamer, S. T., & Clayton, P. H. (2017, February 22). Civic learning. [Blog Post]. Center for Engaged Learning, Elon University. https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/civic-learning/
The ORID Group Reflection Process ( n.d.) The Ohio State University. https://u.osu.edu/reslifedialogue/how-to-dialogue-helpful-readings/the-orid-group-reflection-process/
Use the “What? So What? Now What?” model: A great example of reflective questioning. (n.d.) MTa Learning. https://www.experientiallearning.org/blog/what-so-what-now-what-reflection-model-and-reflection-questions/?v=7516fd43adaa
Welch. M. (1999). The ABCs of Reflection: A template for students and instructors to implement written reflection in service-learning. Evaluation/Reflection, 16. https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/slceeval/16
About the authors
Patti H. Clayton, Ph.D. is an independent consultant (PHC Ventures, www.curricularengagement.com) with 25 years of experience as a practitioner-scholar and educational developer in community-campus engagement and experiential learning in higher education. She serves as a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Community and Economic Engagement at UNC Greensboro and as Practitioner-Scholar-in-Residence with NC Campus Engagement. Patti has worked with over 150 colleges, universities, and higher education organizations in the US, Canada, Ireland, England, and Singapore. Much of her scholarship through the years has focused on critical reflection and assessment of learning, democratic civic engagement, and transformational partnerships. For her own community engagement, she collaborates with human service and animal service organizations on building partnerships and changing systems to advance the inclusivity of companion animals in justice work related to housing and food security.
Lori E. Kniffin, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of leadership at Fort Hays State University. She teaches a variety of courses including undergraduate and graduate courses through in-person and virtual modalities. Her teaching and research interests include collective leadership development, civic leadership, service-learning and community engagement, and qualitative research methods, and critical leadership studies. Prior to her time at FHSU, Lori served as a community engagement professional at UNC Greensboro and was named the 2019 Civic Engagement Professional of the Year by North Carolina Campus Compact. She was also an administrator and instructor for Kansas State University in the Staley School of Leadership from 2010-2016.
