Reflection in the Electronic
Writing Classroom
L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College

Introduction

The Importance of Reflection
Reflection as a Catalyst

Reflection in the Writing Classroom
Reflection in the E-Writing Classroom

Reflection as Observation
Reflection as Refraction
Reflection as Coherence

Conclusion

Conclusion -- Works Cited

So are computer networks, as Kathleen Blake Yancey asks, hospitable mediums for reflection? (204). My answer is a definitive, "Yes." Whether we view the learning cycle, as I have, as a movement from invention to reflection to reinvention or as Kolb has articulated it as the movement from Concrete Experience to Reflection to Abstract Conceptualization to Active Experimentation leading to the next Concrete Experience, reflection is at the center of learning (Atherton). This learning cycle can happen in any context--electronic or not. However, the electronic learning environment magnifies the potentials for reflection's role within this learning cycle.

Sharing texts over a computer network enables students to observe, and hence reflect upon, each other and themselves in ways not possible in a traditional classroom. The electronic environment creates an enlarged context for the "dialectical engagement with the other" that stimulates reflexivity (Qualley, Turns of Thought 11). The environment also makes it easier to share reflective text and push the process of reflection to a deeper level of refraction. By sharing individual pieces of reflective writing, students can complicate, expand, and synthesize deeper understandings than if they went no further than the individual act of reflection. Certainly, students can observe each other and share reflective pieces outside of an electronic learning environment, but networks greatly expand the the ability to share texts and derive greater benefits from this increased communication.

The best description of how the context of the electronic writing classroom is different can be seen in Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. For Vygotsky, the Zone of Proximal Development is the "distance between ... [a student's] actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and ... [a student's] level of potential development as determined through problem solving under the adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers" (qtd. in Boettcher 36). Students constantly move from creating text on their own (independent problem solving) to sharing this text with their peers (the context of "capable peers"). In short, an electronic writing classroom creates a richer social setting--an expanded Zone of Proximal Development--where students are able to observe and learn from each other. This enhancement to the potentials of the Zone of Proximal Development includes the crucial catalyst of reflection as well.

Works Cited

Introduction | The Importance of Reflection | Reflection as a Catalyst | Reflection in the Writing Classroom | Reflection in the E-Writing Classroom | Reflection as Observation | Reflection as Refraction | Reflection as Coherence | Conclusion | Works Cited
by L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College