Reflective Learning
For decades, various learning styles have been invented and used to teach learners, all with varying aims and different outcomes. One such teaching approach that tends to be in the spotlight is reflective learning. Reflective learning has made high inroads into the higher education curriculum (Bourner, 2003). It can be defined as an approach involving looking back at something, a concept, or a previous encounter and critically assessing the occurrence. When students evaluate the successful and unsuccessful elements of a meeting, they can learn from their past, thus turning surface learning into deep learning. Typically, reflective learning tends to be helpful in various learning areas. Frequently, reflection is inserted into assessment necessities in higher education subjects, in most cases without scaffolding or clear anticipations for learners (Ryan & Ryan, 2013, p. 245). This essay evaluates the significance of reflective learning and how its application in feedback and feedforward could inform and advance future formative and summative assessed work.
Reflection and Reflective Approach to Learning
Reflection has been defined as a concept resulting from deep and cautious thought or rather something that portrays the impact of a specific circumstance (Farrell, 2017). One of the models behind this theory is the John Dewey theory. In this model, reflective thought is the most potent antidote to flawed convictions. Dewey saw reflection as a preoccupation for dwelling upon things that disturb or puzzle people. As such, reflection tends to be a type of precursor to action. Reflective thinking tends to be flawless, and the judgment that instructors and learners should think to learn is undeniable (Rodgers, 2002, p. 843). Typically, reflective learning is an approach to enabling students to step back from their learning experience. Accordingly, this helps them develop critical thinking abilities and advance on future performance by evaluating the things learned and how far along they are. Get in touch with us at eminencepapers.com to get your assignment completed by a team of experts.
Learners are summoned to become increasingly invested in the intended goals, learning opportunities, and the involved activities during the learning process. Eventually, they begin directing their learning. Students can connect past learning encounters together in this method. After processing this information, students can comprehend where given activities have assisted precise abilities or aided them in understanding a concept. In business and management discipline, it facilitates the learners to cultivate robust, proficient identities, which could act as valuable anchors in the unpredictable world of professional business practice.
Additionally, modifications in the business practice itself necessitate practitioners to be reflective actors and thinkers. Critical reflection also enables business learners to engage with the ethics of business practice. This facilitates the future business practitioners to locate an approach in the broader world and, consequently, make a difference in the practice terms. The probability of utilizing reflection to enhance comprehension or provide additional discernment for management learners has been advocated for some time (Ronnie, 2016, p. 3). Through reflective learning practices, improving the achievement of business students comes easy. Learners can reflect on class sessions, thus identifying and improving their weaknesses.
Moreover, business students can develop critical coping and thinking skills and improve their capacity to solve school and career challenges. For a long time, marketing instructors have supported the essence of critical thinking as an approach to developing learners’ higher-order problem-solving abilities (Dahl et al., 2018, p. 102). Reflective learning plays a significant role in raising students’ awareness of questioning and assessing their knowledge in the classroom (Weng et al., 2021, p. 2).
The Nature of Feedback and Feedforward
Feedback tends to inform learners about where they stand concerning their learning objectives. This facilitates them to assess their progress, recognize misconceptions or gaps in their comprehension, and take counteractive actions. Typically, feedback could be generated by a computer, mentors, tutors, supervisors, self-evaluation, or peers. It is a crucial learning element and should be precise, supportive, and constructive. Whereas feedback concentrates on the learners’ present performance and could merely justify the awarded grade, feedforward generally looks ahead to succeeding assignments and gives productive direction on performing better. Uniting feedback and feedforward assists in ensuring that evaluation has a positive effect on the learning process. Successful feedback should motivate action on the learner’s part.
Feedforward can be described as constructive and timely feedback, which tends to feed into the following assignment (Hounsell et al., 2008, p. 57). As such, the literature frequently associates self-directed learning with it (Maitra, 2021). This method is rooted in conventional models like Kolb’s learning cycle (Kolb, 1984). Nevertheless, there are common issues with feedforward. One of the problems is timeliness. This pertains to the fact that feedforward may be successful if it is timely or acknowledged when meaningful action could be made. In most cases, high-stakes evaluations tend to be set toward the module’s end or semester completion, which minimizes the opportunities for learners to utilize any feedback they get.
Additionally, feedforward leads to passive students. Repeatedly, they could be passive feedback recipients, perceiving it as the teacher’s responsibility to give feedback. This is contrary to comprehending the significance of participating in the meaningful discourse around the feedback to assist their growth. Moreover, some feedforward could be hard to understand. Following Dewey’s teachings, educators who practice descriptive feedback, goal-setting, and self-evaluation tend to appreciate the continuous communication procedure (Kucey & Parsons, 2010). Dewey positions that besides social life being identical to communication, every communication tends to be educative. Instructors are supposed to know their learners, their social conduct, learning styles, learning capacities, and lives, as this information is vital for successful AFL implementation and arranging crucial learning encounters. Typically, self-evaluation facilitates the learners’ realization of their strengths and sections of advancement and also progresses curriculum engagement. Henderson et al. (2004, p. 357) conducted research examining the use of reflective learning journals online. The outcome was that learners gained a deeper comprehension of the learned material, succeeded in contextualizing it, and developed meaningful specialized relationships with the instructor.
Feedback and Feedforward: Informing and Improving Future Summative Assessments
Formative assessment tends to be the tests and quizzes aimed at assessing learners’ learning material throughout the course (Dolin et al., 2018, p. 55). On the other hand, summative assessments tend to be exams and quizzes assessing how much students have learned throughout the course. Typically, the formative evaluation assists learners in identifying their weaknesses, strengths, and the target areas that should be worked on (Dixson & Worrell, 2016, p. 154). Additionally, through these tests, the faculty can identify the areas of struggle for the learners and address the issues instantaneously. Summative assessments are intended to assess student learning after an instructional unit ends by comparing it against some benchmark or standard (Bhat & Bhat, 2019, p. 776).
Consequently, with a reflective approach to feedback and feedforward, the formative and summative assessments are more specific and cater more to the student’s needs. This is because the instructor has used a reflective approach to feedback, thus making him more aware of the student’s areas of strength and weaknesses. Teachers will have been able to adjust and react to problems. As such, the assessments are also less challenging for the learners. With reflective learning, the teacher’s feedback is most likely to be positive. Typically, the students can develop critical thinking abilities and advance in future performance by evaluating the things learned and those that necessitate improvement. Also, learners are summoned to become increasingly invested in the intended goals, learning opportunities, and the involved activities, and they begin directing their learning. This means that the teacher’s feedback will be positive, so they will find the formative and summative assessment less challenging, thus improving performance.
Moreover, the set assessments become broad, covering various learner skills because the learners are most likely to be tested in multiple areas. This is because they can gain varying abilities. For example, business students will develop critical coping and thinking skills and improved problem-solving capacity. Accordingly, the set exams could test various skills, such as real-life problem-solving, thus making the assessment broader. The reviews could also be in multiple formats, thus catering to the different needs of the learners. Typically, including reflective learning in all these areas makes the students skilled in other sizes with better performances.
Conclusion
In conclusion, reflective learning is very significant to learning. Its application to feedback and feedforward only positively impacts formative and summative assessment. Essentially, reflective learning is an approach to enabling students to step back from their learning experience. Consequently, this helps them develop critical thinking abilities and advance in future performance by evaluating the things learned and how far along they are. Typically, learners can connect past learning encounters together in this technique. After processing this information, students can comprehend where given activities have assisted precise abilities or assisted them in understanding a concept.
Moreover, critical reflection enables business learners to engage with the ethics of business practice. Whereas feedback concentrates on the learners’ present performance and could merely justify the awarded grade, feedforward essentially looks ahead to succeeding assignments and gives productive direction on performing better. Consequently, with a reflective approach to feedback and feedforward, the formative and summative assessments are more specific and cater to the student’s needs. The reviews are broader and less challenging for the learners.
References
Bhat, B. A., & Bhat, G. J., 2019. Formative and summative evaluation techniques for improvement of the learning process. European Journal of Business & Social Sciences, 7(5), 776-785.
Bourner, T., 2003. Assessing reflective learning. Education+ training.
Farrell, T. S., 2017. Research on reflective practice in TESOL. Routledge.
Dahl, A. J., Peltier, J. W., & Schibrowsky, J. A., 2018. Critical thinking and reflective learning in the marketing education literature: A historical perspective and future research needs. Journal of Marketing Education, 40(2), 101-116.
Dolin, J., Black, P., Harlen, W., & Tiberghien, A., 2018. I am exploring the relationship between formative and summative assessment. In Transforming Assessment (pp. 53-80). Springer, Cham.
Dixson, D. D., & Worrell, F. C., 2016. Formative and summative assessment in the classroom. Theory into Practice, 55(2), 153-159.
Henderson, K., Napan, K., & Monteiro, S., 2004. We are encouraging reflective learning: An online challenge. In Beyond the comfort zone: Proceedings of the 21st ASCILITE Conference (pp. 357-364).
Hounsell, D., McCune, V., Hounsell, J., & Litjens, J., 2008. The quality of guidance and feedback to students. Higher Education Research and Development, 27(1), 55–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360701658765
Kucey, S., & Parsons, J., 2010. Connecting Dewey and Assessment for Learning. Online Submission.
Kolb, D. A., 1984. Experiential learning : Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hal
Maitra, C., 2021. The power of feedforward. https://educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au/teaching@sydney/the-power-of-feed-forward/
Rodgers, C., 2002. Defining reflection: Another look at John Dewey and reflective thinking. Teachers college record, 104(4), 842-866.
Ronnie, L., 2016. Reflection as a strategy to improve management practice: Insights from management education. Acta Commercii, 16(1), 1-7.
Ryan, M., & Ryan, M., 2013. Theorizing a model for teaching and assessing reflective learning in higher education. Higher Education Research & Development, 32(2), 244-257.
Weng, C., Puspitasari, D., Rathinasabapathi, A., & Kuo, A., 2021. Reflective learning is an essential key to the success of an online course. Behavior & Information Technology, 1-17.
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Question 
Discuss the importance of reflective learning and describe how a thoughtful approach to feedback and feedforward can inform and improve future formative and summative assessed work.
Reflective Learning
DESCRIPTION OF THE TASK – WHAT YOU ARE BEING ASKED TO DO
The guidance below sets out the requirements of the task and a suggested structure for the essay.
Introduction (150 words) Your introduction should state the aim of the essay, define reflective learning and other key concepts, and outline the article’s content. The paper’s content should include a relevant model of reflection, a description of a reflective approach to feedback and feedforward, and how this can inform and improve formative and summative assessments.
The first body paragraph (400 words) should describe reflection and the reflective approach to learning using a relevant model of thinking (e.g., Gibbs, 1988)
The second body paragraph (400 words) should describe the nature of feedback and feedforward and the use of your chosen model for reflection on feedback and feedforward. The Third body paragraph (400 words) should describe how a reflective approach to feedback and feedforward can inform and improve future formative and summative assessments.
Conclusion (150 words): your judgment should link back to the aim of the essay and briefly restate your main points in addition to your final thought or reflection on the topic’s significance