Research and Evaluation Exercise

THE EVIDENCE

The aim of the study conducted by Sargent (2015) was to investigate the impact of individual and course-level variables on college students’ reflective thinking. The paper presents the following evidence. First, that reflective thinking is found on abstract thinking (p. 625). Second, reflective thinking requires significant effort thus students without motivation are less likely to develop their thinking capacity (p. 625). Additionally, reflective thinking is majorly shaped during higher education but this cannot be attributed to individual courses (p. 626). Further, instructors influence reflective thinking through creating a climate where students are encouraged to reflectively think on the major course concepts (p. 626). Instructors dominantly use reflection journals and construction of alternative views to improve the quality of reflective thinking among students (p. 627). The primary data collected reveals that age, gender, subject area significantly affect reflective thinking (p. 632). Additionally, the primary data establishes that students change beliefs as a result of college rather than the completed individual courses (p. 633). Finally, the primary data shows that class participation and group presentation significantly affect critical reflection (p. 635).

Choy and San (2012) aimed at determining whether teachers practice reflective thinking and whether there is a link between reflective thinking and critical thinking. Choy and San (2012) present the following evidence: teacher reflection is majorly characterised by problem-solving, retrospection, putting thoughts into action, and critical analysis (p. 168). Teachers are more concerned with their performance in own discipline rather than enhancing their teaching through reflecting on their practices (p. 175). Teachers feel that their students judge them thus reflect on feedback from students to improve their teaching (p. 175). However, a significant number of teachers are not concerned about student feedback as long as they are doing their job thus are not able to reflect and learn from past mistakes (p. 176). Teachers value guidance from a supervisor in identifying problems in teaching in order to develop new strategies to better deliver their lessons (p. 176). Most teachers are open to reflecting on how their deliver their lessons and explore strategies to improve their teaching practice (p. 176).

COMPARISON

In comparing two research journal papers, an exploration into the similarities and differences between the two articles is necessary. In this essay, two journal articles in the field of education are selected one about reflective thinking among college students (Sargent 2015) and the other about reflective thinking among teachers (Choy and San 2012). The following paragraphs compare and contrast the main arguments and conclusions in the two journal articles.

The fundamental of reflective thinking among students differ from those among teachers. According to Sargent (2015), development of reflective thinking depends on a student’s intellectual stimulation, reasoning ability, and motivation and absence of any of these factors could impede development in reflective thinking (p. 626). On the other hand, Choy and San (2012) claim that reflective thinking in teachers is based on problem solving skills, critical analysis, retrospection, and putting thoughts into action. The authors argue that a deficiency in one of these skills negatively affects reflective thinking among teachers. Choy and San (2012) claim that a teacher’s ability to self-assess helps him/her to improve practice based on prior experience. In addition, Choy and San (2012) argue that when a teacher is aware of how one learns, he/she is able to articulate problems before taking action which connects teaching and actual practice. Further, Choy and San (2012), claim that teachers with a continuous self-improvement habit are better reflectors as they are motivated to learn from past experience. Therefore, Choy and San (2012) conclude that reflective thinking capability is based on a teacher’s ability to analyse, reconsider, and question experiences before taking action (p. 169).

Excellence in reflective thinking is a personal decision. According to Sargent (2015), every student decides whether to exert the effort required to develop reflective thinking habits in daily life. In addition, Sargent (2015) claims that student must want to remain motivated in reflecting on the subjects they are willing to consider deeply. Further, Sargent (2015) alludes that habitual thinking is a prerequisite for learning new skills, which implies that for students to hone their reflective skills, they must cultivate a culture of habitual thinking with motivation at the core. Sargent (2015) concludes that since reflective thinking requires substantial effort, students without motivation may never develop reflective thinking potential. In the same vein, Choy and San (2012) claim that reflective thinking requires continuous self-improvement, which requires time and energy, thus teachers without the motivation may never develop their skills. Additionally, Choy and San (2012) posit that students’ needs are dynamic thus teachers must remain motivated to reflect, self-assess, and change their teaching strategies, which require time and determination. Further, Choy and San (2012) assert that in reflective thinking, teachers must value and consider feedback from students, which takes even more time. Still, Choy and San (2012) argue that reflective thinking for teachers mean learning from mistakes and moving forward: moving forward in this case means developing new teaching strategies which requires motivation and determination. Therefore, Choy and San (2012) conclude that reflective thinking for teachers require time and energy thus only the determined and motivated teachers will attain development.

Age and gender are significant predictors of reflective thinking. Sargent (2015) claims that older students, in terms of age rather than college experience, are more reflective in that they tend to think about the relationship between knowledge and their lives while younger students are less reflective. In addition, Sargent (2015) argues that males are more reflective in business courses and less reflective in science and humanities while females are more reflective in science and humanities and less reflective on business courses. On the other hand, the study conducted by Choy and San (2012) is silent on the role of age and gender in reflective thinking. However, the authors state that teachers value the guidance of supervisors in identifying problems, which can be associated with age though in terms of experience in teaching.

Individuals reflect more on what is important. According to Sargent (2015), students do not exert the same energy when reflecting about different issues: more energy is exerted to what is deemed more important while the less important things may not even be considered reflectively. For example, men value business courses more compared to humanities thus they tend to reflect more in business courses. Similarly, Choy and San (2012) claim that teachers perceive their job as important thus they tend to practice reflective thinking in order to improve their performance rather than challenge their students which are deemed less important in teaching practice. In addition, Choy and San (2012) argue that even though teachers are aware of the role of student feedback in improving their performance, some teachers do not collect student feedback as long as they think they are doing their job right. To the latter, going the job right is more important than collecting student feedback thus feedback is ignored in the process of reflective thinking.

Therefore, reflective thinking is an important concept in teaching and learning; both teachers and students practice reflective thinking to improve their performance. Nevertheless, the premises of reflective thinking in teachers are different from those of reflective thinking in students. Reasoning ability, intellectual stimulation, and absence affect reflective thinking among students while problem solving skills, retrospection, critical analysis, and putting thoughts into action affect reflective thinking in teachers. Absence of any of these factors is said to have a negative effect on reflective thinking. Motivation is said to be a prerequisite to excellence in reflective thinking; reflective thinking requires time and effort resulting to excellence in students and teachers who remain motivated and determined. Age and gender are seen to affect reflective thinking in students and teachers. Older students (in terms of age) are more reflective while older teachers (in terms of experience) are a reliable source of guidance to other teachers in the reflective process. Females are more reflective in science courses and humanities while males are more reflective in business courses. Finally, a person’s perception of what is important affects reflective thinking which implies that individuals think more reflectively about what is important.

REFLECTION

From this exercise, I have learnt that conclusions should be drawn from the evidence presented in a paper. In the two journal articles, the authors’ first present evidence from secondary sources and then evidence from primary sources, compare the evidence and draw conclusions from patterns in this evidence. Similarly, McLean (2016) states that inference should be made from the presented evidence thus should come at the end of the article. This implies that as I complete my assignments, I should first identify relevant secondary sources and establish what they say about the topic, present this evidence and then draw conclusions from the patters observed from the evidence. I have learnt that I cannot draw conclusions from a single source and this would be equivalent to duplicating the work. Instead, I should analyse the perceptions of different authors, observe their articulations, and make a strong conclusion from the available evidence. I have also learnt that a conclusion is not new information but a summary of the presented evidence. A conclusion should remind a reader of the key points in the article.

From the exercise, I have learnt that evidence without references is interpreted as claims. According to Hoeken and Hustinx (2009), claims are controversial and therefore not everyone agree with them while evidence is factual thus everyone agree on it. When analysing the two sources, I have observed that the authors avoid claims by providing supporting evidence in order to make arguments factual. This way, I have been able to differentiate claims from evidence which was essential in completing subsection 1 and 2. The implication for practice is that I should minimise on the use of claims in my academic work through providing evidence for the claims. One of the ways I can attain this is by providing citations to give readers the source of the information thus making it more reliable.

From the exercise, I have learnt that academic journals have a specific aim to achieve which is clearly written in the introduction chapter. The researcher then goes on to provide the objectives that will help in attaining the research aim. Prior to formulation of the research objectives, the authors in the two journals identified research gaps in existing literature and drafted the objectives in a way that bridges the bridges. This is in line with the argument of Saunders et al. (2009): research topic and research objectives should reflect a gap in literature so that the study makes worthwhile contribution to literature. The implication for practice from this lesson is that before embarking on my academic research project, I should research deeper, understand what is known, identify gaps in knowledge, and research an issue that will add new knowledge. I should also ensure that the aim of the research is clear and specific such that the collected data directly answers the research questions.

From the exercise, I have learnt that I can get relevant sources from the reference list of the already identified sources. With the provided source (Sargent 2015), I was able to get another relevant source from the reference list (Choy and San 2012) and the two had considerable similarities and contribution to the research topic. According to Boyack and Klavans (2010), bibliographies, works cited, or references are useful for finding current articles relevant to a topic. On the other hand, Whitehead (2013) state that finding articles from references saves time in that search process has already been completed and the author of the completed journal identified what is relevant to the topic. The implication for practice is that after finding a relevant source I refer to the references for more sources. Nevertheless, I realised that not all the sources in references are relevant: some are too old and others may not directly relate to the current topic. It could be wise to use sources in reference list sparingly.

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References

Boyack, K.W. and Klavans, R., 2010. Co‐citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and direct citation: Which citation approach represents the research front most accurately? Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 61(12), pp.2389-2404.

Choy, S. C., & San Oo, P. (2012). Reflective thinking and teaching practices: A precursor for incorporating critical thinking into the classroom? International Journal of Instruction, 5(1), pp.1-8.

Hoeken, H. and Hustinx, L., 2009. When is statistical evidence superior to anecdotal evidence in supporting probability claims? The role of argument type. Human Communication Research, 35(4), pp.491-510.

McLean, S., 2016. The Importance of Supporting Inferences with Evidence: Learning Lessons from Huffman (2014) in the Hope of Providing Stronger Evidence for Extensive Reading. Reading in a Foreign Language, 28(1), pp.143-147.

Sargent, C. S. (2015). Evidence of reflective thinking across the curriculum: college experience versus individual courses. Higher Education Research & Development, 34(3), 624-640.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P., Thornhill, A. and Wilson, J., 2009. Business research methods. Financial Times, Prentice Hall: London.

Whitehead, D., 2013. Searching and reviewing the research literature. Nursing and Midwifery Research: Methods and Appraisal for Evidence Based Practice, pp.35-53.