Journal writing is intentional reflection used to facilitate and support the development of insight, cognitive awareness, and critical thinking and a means of communication with the personal, professional and academic self (Fichten, 2000; Andrusyszyn, & Davie, 1997). Learning journals provide a framework to support the process of reflective learning in individual courses and in the portfolio process as a whole. Their use not only documents the developmental process of the portfolios - making it more than just a presentation of selected work - but supports the self-assessment of processes and their documentation. It 'keeps records', encourages metacognition, ownership and control, and provides guidance. The learning journal can be the basis from which steps, missteps, decisions and successes - in individual courses and/or regarding topics in the MDE - can be captured and later extracted. This tool can therefore support the portfolio development process and helps demonstrate growth. It also provides a forum that enables students to develop meta-cognitive skills, build self-confidence and encourages the development of the abilities needed to become independent and self-directed learners and thus make a significant contribution to the overall learning process. Additionally, learning journals can capture research interests, literature and links that can continuously be built upon during the program and will be available when the final project in the capstone course must be tackled. Learning journals are not a mandatory part of the portfolio development process nor a requirement for the capstone course (690). They are recommended as a tool to support the portfolio development process and learning in the MDE overall. Webmaster |
