Assessing the quality of reflection in student journals: a review of the research

In this paper, we review 11 research articles that examine the level of reflection found in student journals in higher education across a range of disciplines. Our review reveals little to no consistency in the research community around the mechanisms and process of assessing levels of reflection in student journals. Our analysis also reveals that the quality of reflection found in student journals varies considerably across studies. In terms of trends, the five of 11 studies found that students or journals were not overly reflective and contained mostly descriptive accounts of events. Four of the 11 studies found that the majority of students or journals were somewhat reflective. Only two of the 11 studies found a high percentage of students or journals were highly reflective. We conclude with a series of factors to be considered when assessing the quality of reflection in student journals.