scholarly journals Higher Education Students’ Reflective Journal Writing and Lifelong Learning Skills: Insights From an Exploratory Sequential Study

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorit Alt ◽  
Nirit Raichel ◽  
Lior Naamati-Schneider

Reflective journal (RJ) writing has been recognized as an effective pedagogical tool for nurturing students’ lifelong learning skills. With the paucity of empirical work on the dimensionality of reflective writing, this research sought to qualitatively analyze students’ RJ writing and design a generic reflection scheme for identifying dimensions of reflective thinking. Drawing on the theoretical scheme, another aim was to design and validate a questionnaire to measure students’ perceptions of their reflective writing experiences. The last aim was to quantitatively measure the link between perceived reflective writing and students’ tendency to use RJs in their future careers and personal lives. This exploratory sequential research included the following steps: First, experts’ review and analysis of 1312 RJ entries were attained. This step led to the design of a theoretical scheme of reflective writing and a 31-item questionnaire, used to gather data from 171 students (second-year pre-service teachers and third-year health managers). Partial Least Squares analysis corroborated the structure suggested by the theoretical scheme: two timelines–reflections regarding the current course assignments and those related to the student’s future development. Students’ tendency to use reflective skills in their future professional lives was highly connected to their long-term reflections, including learning experiences linked to academic, professional, personal, and multicultural development. The current study’s suggested validated generic scheme can be adapted and integrated into different curricula, thereby possibly increasing the potential of infusing RJ instructional strategies into higher education curricula, improving the quality of reflection in student journals, and promoting lifelong learning skills.

2021 ◽  
Vol 124 ◽  
pp. 07006
Author(s):  
S. Chee Choy ◽  
Joanne Sau-Ching Yim ◽  
Daljeet Singh Sedhu ◽  
Azlinda Boheran Nudin

Teachers in Malaysia are expected to possess the necessary reflective skills to help them analyse and think through classroom situations that require diplomacy and sound judgement. This study examined the contributions of lifelong learning skills, self-assessment ability, self-belief, teaching awareness and reflective thinking in explaining the differences in teaching practices among Malaysian pre service teachers (PSTs). A mixed-methods approach was used to provide pragmatic knowledge that can be applied to further develop reflective thinking practices among PSTs. The sample of this study were 387 PSTs enrolled in Bachelor level programmes from which 11 of them volunteered to participate in the interviews. The quantitative data showed lifelong learning skills, self-belief, and teaching awareness had a significant relationship with reflective thinking. From the qualitative data analysis, PSTs were generally focused on the immediate challenge of becoming better teachers and were open to further education in time. Similarly, the results of the qualitative thread showed the PSTs were able to manage their planning, monitoring of students and evaluation of themselves and their relation to students, suggesting metacognitive awareness, a good indicator of established reflective thinking processes. Future studies will need to consider how this will influence how reflective thinking is carried out when they are practicing teachers.


Author(s):  
Kathleen P. King ◽  
Christina M. Partin ◽  
Hidelisa C. Manibusan ◽  
Gillian M. Sadhi

In this chapter, the authors propose examining online learning in higher education as a mechanism for promoting lifelong learning skills, and thus, as a way to provide capital to students. With that in mind, they provide a theoretical foundation to demonstrate the need for workforce development as well as interdisciplinary perspectives on the skills and requisites necessary for successful lifelong learning, and how both are important to the central mission of higher education. This chapter explores the literature and major issues surrounding the importance and use of capital and lifelong learning skills, and how both can be gained through online learning. The authors argue that lifelong learning skills can be generated through transformative leaning experiences and that facilitating these experiences should be a goal of online learning in higher education in order to ensure that students have the skills necessary to gain social, cultural, and economic capital in order to remain relevant through their lives in a 21st century, learning society. In this chapter, the authors discuss several relevant examples of “Tools for Lifelong Learning” including specific examples to demonstrate how online classes can serve as a mechanism to generate capital for students in higher education settings. They provide a model and build upon theory across higher education, sociology, adult learning, and educational psychology to provide a new perspective of the importance of lifelong learning as well as best practices for achieving these goals.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Lisa Blaschake

Even before Covid-19, higher education was facing a perfect storm of challenges: increased costs, reduced funding, and rising industry demand for more skilled graduates. Educators were also challenged with finding ways to better prepare students for an uncertain future where lifelong learning skills are essential. The current pandemic has only served to intensify the storm, and educational institutions have rushed to technology in order to survive. In response to the new — or next — normal, institutional leaders are attempting to adapt traditional curriculum and systems so that they can transition rapidly to remote teaching and learning. Online, hybrid, and hyflex learning have become the beguiling buzzword solutions of today. How to survive this perfect storm and the storms to come? This presentation will propose that it is not technology that will best address these challenges; instead, a fundamental rethinking of how we teach and learn is necessary. By adopting heutagogy — or a pedagogy of agency, where the learner takes control of learning — will we be able to agilely transition and pivot across delivery methods, while also equipping our students with the lifelong learning skills and competencies required for the future.


2004 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-3
Author(s):  
H. Carter ◽  

Since the release of the Australian Government’s White Paper in 1988 there have been significant changes occurring in the Australian Higher Education sector. Worldwide there is growing acknowledgement that teaching and learning at University has undergone a transformation. Students entering University now come from a much broader range of backgrounds. Many are having to work to support their study and all are expected to develop lifelong learning skills.


Author(s):  
Gerry Geitz ◽  
Desirée Joosten - Ten Brinke ◽  
Paul Kirschner

Feedback has been shown to substantially influence students’ learning. However, not everything characterized as feedback is effective. Sustainable feedback places students in an active role in which they generate and use feedback from peers, self or others and aims at developing lifelong learning skills. First-year higher education students and tutors received sustainable feedback during their problem-based learning. To gain insights into how they perceived the sustainable feedback, students were probed via structured, open-ended questionnaires. While all participants positively valued the feedback, their personal characteristics, previous experience with feedback and concomitant perceptions appeared to have greatly influenced both tutors’ and students’ specific, individual behavior and responses. Conclusion is that sustainable feedback requires an evolving role of students and tutors with respect to sharing their perceptions of what feedback is, understanding the value and importance of feedback contributions of all participants, and developing the necessary skills to ask questions and give feedback.


2020 ◽  
pp. 146978742098237
Author(s):  
Joanne M Russell ◽  
Chi Baik ◽  
Anna T Ryan ◽  
Elizabeth Molloy

Research associates self-regulated learning with academic achievement and lifelong learning. Although there is consensus surrounding the need for students to develop self-regulated learning skills, there is a paucity of research exploring how educators can foster student self-regulated learning. This study examines the teaching practices, beliefs and experiences of educators that foster student self-regulated learning, across a range of disciplines. It explores the characteristics of teaching that foster self-regulated learning, and the influences on educator approaches. Questionnaire and semi-structured interview data were subjected to analysis. The findings identified four types of teaching strategies used to foster self-regulated learning. This study illuminates the conditions that support educators to foster student self-regulated learning, as well as the challenges they face. Educators’ own engagement in self-regulation, often made visible to students, played a key role in promoting students’ self-regulatory capacities.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Jae-Eun Chae ◽  
Soonghee Han

2014 ◽  
Vol 116 ◽  
pp. 2030-2038 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurhayat Çelebi ◽  
Hatice Özdemir ◽  
Özge Eliçin

1995 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 205-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman Longworth

The papers which follow in this special focus on lifelong learning are based on presentations at the First Global Conference on Lifelong Learning, held in Rome on 30 November–2 December 1994. In this introductory paper, Norman Longworth discusses the concept, definition and practice of lifelong learning and assesses why its importance and significance for the future are increasingly appreciated and stressed. He also sets out and discusses the main themes of the Rome conference, and analyses their implications and challenges specifically for business and higher education. Finally he describes the roles of the European Lifelong Learning Initiative (ELU), which organized the Rome conference, and the World Initiative on Lifelong Learning (WILL), which was established at the conference.


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