Higher Education Observer

I think we do need a new word for reflection, as it is so misused and overused.   Controlled, focused personal investigation or interrogation. The latter sounds like a criminal proceeding, so probably not; it assumes guilt, and what I want to get away from is how we prioritize deficiency and the need for improvement rather than strengths and what the student does know and why—or how what they know is incomplete but a building block for what the “next step” is.   I have not always followed this principle but I see its value now. I have been far too fundamentalistic in my whole life, and I so want to change that, to drop the negativity, the gap-emphasis, and see what’s there rather than what is not there.   Reflection—or this focused, intentional, controlled investigation and assessment of experience—should start with the positive. It should have a system and framework.   We should teach this starting in freshman year, and we should teach a form of it that is informed by knowledge ra

Controlled failure. That is what a college classroom allows. Controlled failure doesn’t mean “no failure.” There will be failure, for many. But it is under controlled conditions. This is why formative assessments are so very important. Those are the controls under which they can learn from errors, as long as there is reflection or better, controlled, focused personal investigation involved as to why they got 75% of the questions right and 25% wrong. (How much of human knowledge is later decided by the discipline or society to be wrong?) It is the current state of the knowledge they get right and wrong, not the big questions of the human existence which they also should be examining.   Example: I teach how to write resumes and cover letters. Rarely are they up to par or even really good examples of how the students could present themselves for career opportunities. And I want them to know they could always do it better, giving suggestions as someone who 1. Hires