Structuring International University Students’ Reflection and Meta-reflection Experiences Online

Abstract

The recent emergency remote teaching experiences caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have placed a forced attention on existing online pedagogical tools and intelligent ways of combining them to reinforce student presence in the learning environment. In higher education, where students' autonomy is even more desired, the design of online learning experiences that focus on reflective thinking has always been a principal focus, due to the relation between reflection and self-regulated learning. This study focuses on a technically non-demanding way of combining two existing online tools and appropriating their use towards a twofold pedagogical goal: (a) students' creation and sharing of reflective narrations on their experience of a practice-oriented social science methods introductory course using JustPaste.it; and (b) their subsequent meta-reflection on these narrations using the course's online Discussion Forum. The study highlights two main factors in the success of this combination, namely the importance of structuring guidelines and prompts for both reflection and meta-reflection to take place, and taking into account the age (average 17 years old) and multiple national backgrounds of the participants. An assessment rubric for students' reflective and meta-reflective texts was also designed and tested as part of the study.