The Impact Of Reflections In Service Learning And Other Undergraduate Team Project Learning

These analyses were designed to assess the relationships between written reflective thinking exercises and general learning outcomes in undergraduate multidisciplinary teams that were oriented toward service learning projects or other kinds of projects. Much of the literature on service learning assumes that engaging in reflections is an essential aspect of the educational process, and that engaging in service learning promotes higher level reflective thinking; however, there is little evidence that compares service learning projects with non-service learning projects to test this assertion. We compared learning outcomes for (1) students engaged in service learning projects who a) completed 3 written assignments which each contained one or two reflective thinking questions, or b) did not have this assignment as part of their project work; (2) students engaged in service learning teams and students engaged in other types of teams; (3) service learning teams that did reflections and non-service learning teams that did reflections; and (4) students engaged in service learning teams and students engaged in other teams that did not do reflections. The data were drawn from approximately 800 students who engaged in campus-wide multidisciplinary projects (average size of 12) during the fall 2006 and spring 2007 semesters. Four independent samples t-tests were conducted to assess differences in levels of reflective thinking (where such data were available) and self-assessed competence in communication, teamwork, ethical awareness, and project management. Contrary to expectations, service learning projects do not appear to increase the students’ perceptions of their own performance. Nor could we find any evidence that engaging in the Reflection exercises enhanced self-assessed competence in the domains assessed. Foundational Research on Reflective Thinking The concept of reflective thinking has been developed in several theories, empirically supported and almost universally accepted within the field. The foundational theories are in the work of John Dewey 4 , William Perry 11 , and King and Kitchener 8 . John Dewey was a psychologist, a philosopher, and a voice for educational reform. He saw reflection as an integral part of education and life itself. Dewey described reflection as "an intentional endeavor to discover specific connections between something which we do and the consequences which result" 4 . His philosophies began the progressive movement in education and influenced all modern educational theories in American in one form or another. William Perry conducted pivotal research on the development of students over the course of their four years at a university 11 . The result of Perry’s diligent work and many hours of interviews was a scheme for understanding how college students come to their beliefs about knowledge and P ge 14223.2 knowing, and how this understanding influence the cognitive processes of thinking, reasoning, and understanding. Perry’s model is used to explain how people view truth and knowledge, which is only one part of Reflective Thinking models. Perry’s scheme was a pre-cursor to King and Kitchener’s work as well as Lynch and Wilcott’s 10 research on the subject. These researchers have expounded upon the work done by their predecessor and used their findings to produce a more rounded view on the subject. When comparing the models or stages of development (see Figures 1 & 2) it is clear that they do not disagree with one another; on the contrary, King and Kitchener’s work began with studying Perry’s theories and contemplating how to validate Perry’s findings 8. Figure 2 King & Kitchener Levels of Reflective Judgment Thinking 8 Figure 1: Perry’s Developmental Stages 11