Building Critically Reflective Practice in Higher Education Students: Employing Auto-ethnography and Educational Connoisseurship in Assessment

Abstract

This study posed the question: Does using an educational connoisseurship framework applied to auto-ethnography assist in the development of reflective practice in teacher education? The design of authentic assessments that assist students in making meaningful links between theory and practice is a complex process. We created an assessment task that was directly linked to the lived experience of the students and specifically focused on their educational practice. Students were required to write an auto-ethnography that was shaped by educational connoisseurship and criticism. With ethical permission we retained the auto-ethnographic assignments by nineteen students. After independent thematic analysis we built a composite, thematic analysis and compiled tables of the content analysis. Our focus was how our students engaged with the task. We found that using an educational connoisseurship framework applied to auto-ethnographic writing has the potential to assist in the development of reflective practice in teacher education.

Reflective writing as summative assessment in higher education: A systematic review

“…Deconstructing the reflective writing framework in this case helped to provide manageable steps for students to follow and scaffolded the writing task. Similar forms of support were discussed in the study by Southcott and Crawford (2018) where the students were provided with a similar framework to help them focus their thinking and present their writing in a structured way. Furthermore, the study by Gadbury-Amyot and Overman (2018) also describes support to help students structuring a reflective portfolio.…”

“…Participants, who were trainee music teachers, in the Southcott and Crawford (2018) qualitative study indicated that reflective writing via autoethnography was helpful overall to the experience of reflective writing for assessment, especially with understanding past experiences in order to lay stronger foundations for the future. The literature also suggests that a positive experience for students has been the conceptualisation of their discipline and to develop deeper learning relevant to upcoming real-world professional practice (Ono & Ichii, 2019) which can improve student confidence going forward into the real world of employment.…”

The Development of a Reflective Language Learning Model: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

“…Some studies have supported the role of reflective journals in improving reflective thinking (Bruno & Dell'Aversana, 2017;Griggs et al, 2018). Still, some others have shown the effect of reflective practice on language learning (Fuertes-Camacho et al, 2021;Southcott & Crawford, 2018).…”

Reflections on the Process of Growing into Faculty: A Collaborative Experience in Being Apprentices

“…Reflexive practice is the process of intentionally examining one's practice at distinct times; in the middle of the practice, immediately after the practice has concluded, and some time afterward [27]- [29]. This process is especially effective within educational contexts, where the pacing can be relatively rapid, as there is always more content to cover and students to oversee.…”