Reflection Literature Review: How We Think By John Dewey

Reflection Literature Review

The research on reflection focuses on what it is and the significance it has for learning. John Dewey wrote the book, How We Think (1933), which still has a strong influence on education. It provides a good starting point for looking at elements of reflection. Dewey defined reflective thought as ‘active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends’. He identified five phases or aspects of thinking: o Suggestions, in which the mind leaps forward to a possible solution. o An intellectualization of the difficulty or perplexity that has been felt (directly experienced) into a problem to be solved. o The use of one suggestion after another as a leading idea, or hypothesis, to initiate and guide observation and other operations in collection of factual material. o The mental elaboration of the idea, or supposition as an idea or supposition (reasoning, in the sense in which reasoning is a part, not the whole, of inference). o Testing the hypothesis by overt, or imaginative action.

Boud, Keogh, and Walker (1985) addressed emotions in the reflection process. They revised and reduced Dewey’s five aspects into three:

The research question, “How does daily use of the reflection strategy impact the achievement and opinions of students?” will add to the understanding of the use of reflections in the science classroom. The content and process reflections will be used in the study because of the variables of achievement and opinions. It is important that the students are able to determine that the strategy used daily has an effect on their achievement so they understand the purpose and power of reflection. If it does not have an effect on their achievement, their opinion questionnaires should show that.

The study will show how effective the reflection strategy is on the achievement of science concepts.

The literature review for action research may be much briefer than one done for a larger study. If you have selected a strategy to study, there may not be extensive research on just one strategy. It may be embedded in a larger research study. However, if your topic has many aspects and/or variables, your literature review may be more