This article reflects on the concept of reflection in higher education, suggesting it embodies self-consciousness rather than being a mere learning outcome.
This article reflects on the meaning of ‘reflection’, and on enablers of ‘reflection’, in higher education. Irrespective of what university managers might want us to think, the key point is that student reflection cannot simply be seen as an intended learning outcome (ILO) of teaching. The author contends that reflection is better seen as the occasioning of a questing self-consciousness in students. The ‘self’ in the questing is key. Reflection in higher education is no mere outcome of teaching.
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Adrian Jones (2025) studied this question.
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