Learners embed learning when they set goals and ‘Reflect’ on their learning journey. A focus on setting goals and mastery, learning outcomes, action learning, informed iterative feedback, personal and collective learning, and reflective practice provides a learning pathway to conscious learning. These interconnections are the building blocks for learning journeys and enablers for intuitive and natural learning growth. Students learn better when they receive intuitive formative and summative feedback that provide pathways for reflective practice on the learning journey. Formative feedback, throughout the process of learning, provides a guided and responsive approach to enabling reflective learning practice. Personal intentions, and associated reflections, are are cornerstones for conscious learning.
The approach we adopt to action learning is one that embraces an intuitive, and iterative, approach towards reflective practice. A formative lens, rooted in reflection, is a key enabler for learning growth. Integral to this process is the teacher, learner, and wider learning community. An holistic approach to ‘Reflect’, by all stakeholders, within the learning journey is enabled through specific techniques such as digital portfolios. Digital portfolios can be used as a technique to facilitate the holistic approach to reflective practice and the integral nature of feedback from others and oneself. Learners are able to scaffold knowledge, and refine personal thinking, that can evolve and adapt through learning pathways. ‘Reflect’ is inherent to a personal learning approach, which provides meaning and a way to deepen and enrich the learning experience. It provides a way to set intentions, in an iterative way, that embeds intuitive and deep reflective practice. A collective approach can also be integrated into reflective practice through formative feedback from teachers and wider reference groups, such as peers and mentors. This provides a powerful way to learn, based on intentions, and an iterative approach to deep reflective practice.
Digital portfolios provides a visual approach to thinking, and reflection, that can be both personal and collaborative in form. To ‘Reflect’ and think about the scaffolding process is often considered in the context of metacognition and associated cognitive processing that realises a learners learning. It supports learning consciousness and, for many, the deeper learning that leads to daily practice. Increasingly reflective practice also supports self-directed learning and skills required for lifelong learning. Here we can see how deeper thinking can be an enabler for conscious learning with meaningful impact in our lives.
It is generally recognised that learning is more impactful when we have deeper consciousness towards our knowledge acquisition, thinking, and learning processes. Metacognition is our ability to reflect and direct personal thinking. As learners we engage in metacognitive strategies for learning, through instructional techniques, that are often enablers for intentional and conscious learning experience. Digital Portfolios, and increasingly data analytics, are becoming integral to the process of reflective practice and associated learning. The emerging Learner Experience Platforms typically embed artificial intelligence and this provides early insights into how the learner can seemlessly integrated with advanced computing. This provides a new, and intuitive, way to reflect and adapt the personal learning experience. Metacognitive skills are central for learners in realising successful learning experiences. Reflective practice is often integrated with both personal and social learning and both provide platforms for driving cognitive processing in building conscious but deep lifelong learning experiences.
