Journaling
Overview
Journaling allows learners to reflect on their thinking and feelings, process their learning, and connect new information to what they know and their practical experiences. Journals can be used in formal ways to reflect on what the learners are learning, or as a more informal form of expression, where they can serve as safe spaces for learners to make their learning visible and to share their difficulties, questions, and emotions about a topic. Dialogue journals can provide Social Supports, increase Motivation, foster a Learner Mindset, and support vocabulary development, especially for English language learners.
Use It In Your Learning Environment
By using the journals for check-ins, low-lights and highlights, as well as feedback, an instructor is able to trace their learning, make the class more relevant to adult learners, and give everyone an opportunity to actively contribute. Journals can be context specific or metacognitive by design.
Instructors can incorporate structured and unstructured journaling in a variety of ways. Asking questions on what was learned can guide learners to journal about more specific ideas. These reflective journals, where learners record their learning, or trace how their perspectives change, can help develop their Metacognition and Problem Solving skills. Dialogue journals where learners engage in an ongoing conversation with the instructors are particularly effective with adult English language learners and help foster their sense of self-efficacy while fostering a Learner Mindset. Freewriting in journals can also help develop Composition skills.
Product developers can integrate ways for learners to reflect upon their learning using multimedia approaches and make it visible through different kinds of journaling exercises. Using an online tool like Google Classroom, an instructor can assign daily prompts as assignments, and learners can then write creative responses to these prompts in Google Docs. The instructor can then interact with the learners on these journals, thus allowing it to be an interactive space for the instructor to engage with the learners on their learning.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Metacognitive Supports Strategies
When annotating, learners engage deeply with a text and make their thinking visible while reading, which supports Foundational Reading Skills.
Setting overall goals with actionable steps for achievement can help learners feel more confident in their abilities and help minimize procrastination-related behaviors.
Pairing non-examples with examples helps learners compare and contrast to deepen understanding at both the concept and skill levels.
Perspective seeking is different from perspective taking as it involves communication with the purpose of gaining insight into the nuances of alternate views.
Positive self-talk can support self-efficacy, optimism, Self-regulation, and a Learner Mindset.
Reflection can take place throughout learning, supporting critical thinking and Problem Solving skills when learners actively question assumptions, and after learning experiences to support Metacognition.
When adults monitor their comprehension, performance, and use of strategies when learning they become more invested in their work, build their Metacognition, and actively participate in the process.
