Reflective Practice in an Experiential Learning Program: An Exploratory Content Analysis of Reflective Writing in Experiential Learning Portfolios

Abstract

A foundational principle of experiential learning is to reflectively process the information learned from an experience. The purpose of this paper is to explore how Science With Practice, an undergraduate experiential learning program, used Do, Reflect, Apply to facilitate reflective practice in portfolios. DRA is an adaptation of the 4-H EL Model and is used in SWP to guide reflection. Conducting an inductive qualitative content analysis resulted in identifying four themes in SWP students’ reflective writing: Analysis and Assessment, Awareness, Transformation, and Transfer of Learning. The themes were then deductively aligned with the DRA model. When talking about what they did, students in SWP analyzed and assessed their experiences by analyzing their learning and assessing challenges and successes. Students demonstrated awareness while reflecting about the impacts of mentorship and community, by offering advice and recommendations, and through demonstrating growth in affective and metacognitive awareness. In further reflection, SWP students identified ways they were transformed by sharing how they changed during the experience. Finally, students applied their learning by transferring their experience from previous contexts to SWP, from SWP to other situations, and considered future applications. The findings from this study suggest that DRA structured reflection provides a foundation for learners to move beyond explaining what they did and engage in deeper reflective processing. In practice, we recommend using DRA prompts to scaffold student reflective processing and facilitate deeper reflective thinking when introducing students to reflective practice in experiential learning.