Reflective Learning

Message to the students:

The journal is basically for you.  It is a place to try out ideas, to make sense of what you are doing and how you are feeling.  It is a place to practice wiring and, in writing, an occasion for some deep thinking.  A journal can also be a concrete way for you to assess the changes you experience in Co-Op.

The following suggestions will help you when you say, “I don’t know what to write!”

1.       Tell about the best thing that happened to you this week; something someone said or did; something you said or did; a feeling, an insight, a goal accomplished, etc.

2.       What happened that made you feel would (or would not) like to do this sort of thing as a career?

3.       How do you think you might need to change to succeed in a preferred career?

4.       What new task did you learn to perform?

5.       What did you do in you work that was enjoyable or satisfying?

6.       Did you get an idea that would improve you work?  This program?  The world?

7.       What did you do that seemed to be effective in your relationships with others?

8.       What criticisms did you receive and how did you respond to them?

9.       What compliments were you given and what did they mean to you?

10.   What happened that made you feel uncomfortable or unhappy?

11.   What did you do today that made you feel proud?  Why?

12.   What were some things you wanted to say today and did not say?

13.   Did you stand up for, assert yourself on, something today?

14. Did you take some risk today?  How did it turn out?

15. What did you learn from a disappointment or failure?

16  Were you surprised by anything said to you or about you?

17. How similar is your impression of yourself to the impression others have of you?

18.   What did you discover, or rediscover, about other people?

19.   How did your feelings about any person change as a result of today’s activities?

20.   What feeling or idea seemed especially strong today?