I’ve been reflecting quite a bit these past few weeks, both personally and professionally. This month’s post marks the three year anniversary of launching my reflective journal, which has since evolved into my learning portfolio. I wonder if in three years time I will be reflecting on my PhD viva? Only time will tell.
Also, this month, I have been reminded by the Project Management Institute that my Project Management Professional certification is due for 3-year renewal in order to keep my status as ‘in good standing‘ – what a wonderful term. In fact, they’ve been sending me a regular reminder email for the last year since for some reason I tend to collect 60 PDUs in a far shorter time than 3 years 😇
Fast forward to this semester’s module on Networked Learning where I quickly decided that my 5,500 word empirical study would be on the topic of reflective learning by postgraduate students and reflective practice evidenced through eportfolios (I know it’s a mouthful of a sentence so just read it quickly!). 6,050 words later (the +10% limit 😬) I think I’ve done a reasonable job at demonstrating the benefits of reflective writing on a programme of study as a foundation for continued reflective practice. The networked learning angle comes about through an eportfolio utilising a software platform (WordPress, Mahara, whatever you like really and can manage without too much tech effort) to share experiences and networking opportunities. I have a little more work to do in the week ahead to make better sense of the data I obtained from the participants in my study. Not sure if it will be good enough to develop into a paper but who knows and I’ve enjoyed working on it over the past few months.
Until next time, Sandra
References:
Zubizarreta, J. (2019). Good practice: Improving and Assessing Honors Student Learning with Learning Portfolios. Journal of the European Honors Council, 3(1), 1-9.
Sandra Flynn 
hi Sandra 🤗 oh my gosh yes this comment “Why didn’t I capture my reflections at the time and share my thoughts with likeminded peers? It feels that so much shareable knowledge has been lost because I didn’t take the time to reflect over all those years…” rings such a chord with me. I find reflection really difficult. I’m learning to try and capture stuff as I do it as inevitably I have it so invaluable to go back to things when I have actually taken the time to do so. I’m always in awe of people that live blog at conferences or even just getting their thoughts down in a blog post a few days after … I start with good intensions and then find my blog posts languishing in the drafts box … I suspect this is imposter syndrome related to me as I second guess myself on my own reflections … haha 😂 I do hope to do better … your paper sounds really interesting would love to read it !
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Just submitted it today. Overall I’m happy with it, and it’s another module under the belt. I find it’s the evidence of reflection that I need to work on, hence my interested in learning portfolios and eportfolios and as you say, an invaluable log of reflections. We’ll just have to keep practicing!
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