Dewey is credited with the assertion that we learn more from reflecting on our experiences than from the actual experiences themselves.
I have moved to generally providing an in-class opportunity to reflect on how the course is going at the ~5-week mark and ~10-week mark (in addition to evaluation at the end).
I try to state very explicitly that my hope is that these reflections are useful for both me as the course instructor but also for each student as they think about their own learning.
Questions include:
- What might you (the student) do differently to improve your learning and that of others?
- How do you feel that you as an individual and we as a class are making progress on course learning goals?
- Which course component (or part of assignment X) was most challenging and why?
