Reflecting and Growing

Reflection is a crucial part of the learning process—John Dewey as well as the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm argued that we learn not from experience so much as from the reflection that comes afterward—and this is never more true than in the case of conversations and topics that push the boundaries of our thinking, our understandings of the world, and our comfort. We can model reflection and iterative growth as a part of the critical thinking and learning process by incorporating reflection into our own teaching practices and classrooms.

Reflect and teach reflection

In the Jesuit tradition, reflection is a key part of the learning process that allows us to draw meaning from our experiences, understand ourselves and others better, and approach future situations more thoughtfully (Kralovec, 2021), and learning science supports this (Veine et al., 2020). This goes both for our students and for us, and it’s especially important when you’ve done hard and challenging work in the course, including work that may leave students unsettled.

Do your own reflection work: whether it involves keeping a teaching journal, discussing the experience with others, or soliciting feedback on your teaching, dig into what went well and also what you could handle better in future class sessions
You can model openness and reflectiveness for your students by implementing a Midsemester Teaching Feedback Session with CNDLS
Student reflection can be individual: Ask students to complete an “exit ticket” after class, to take a short survey to see what they got out of the experience, and/or to share any other reflections (one widely-used tool is the Classroom Critical Incident Questionnaire, which can be adapted for your own use)
Reflection can also be communal: make time for a discussion about what students got out of the learning experience
If trust is well-established in the classroom, employ a “post-it runthrough”: quickly allow every student to write where they’re at emotionally in 1-4 words and then share the post-its around for others to read and realize how the collective may be feeling very different things
Consider crafting student assignments that explicitly ask them to reflect:
- MC Chan’s “Biochemistry and Society Final Reflection” paper
- Shiva Subbaraman’s “Is This a Story to Be Passed on?” assignment
- David Ebenbach’s Final Reflection paper
In meta-reflection, we put “situations into a temporal context” (Veine et al., 2020). In other words, whether individually or in a group, students can be asked to think about this experience in comparison to earlier ones. How did the conversation go, and why? How did people handle it differently or the same? How were the outcomes the same or different?

Academic exploration and collaborative learning can unearth conflicts and challenges that don’t resolve easily—or, in the space of a semester, perhaps at all. While tensions may remain unresolvable, acknowledging that they exist will reassure students that you are tuned into underlying group dynamics and that discomfort is a natural and necessary part of the learning process.

Help students understand that not all tensions can be resolved quickly or completely
If you or students crossed any lines harmfully, sincere apologies are in order (see this University of Maryland video on repair and recovery). Making an effort toward repair following a misstep often leaves a relationship even stronger than where it started
Reach out to students if the collective experience in class was challenging; consider especially reaching out to students who may have been negatively affected by class experience, and/or to students who may have caused hurt to others; encourage the constructive contributions that students made and/or further explain the intellectually destabilizing impact of the deconstructive contributions
Remind students (and yourself!) of self-care practices (e.g. hydrating, taking some time to journal, focusing on their breath, moving mindfully, and connecting with friends)
Share student support resources in canvas and again after heavy or heated sessions e.g. The Hoya Wellness Wheel and Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS)
If the conversation leaves you concerned about the mental health of any of your students, consider reaching out to Georgetown’s Safety Net

Reinforce community strength and mutual trust

Positive interactions are often rooted in trust, and it can be helpful to remind students, after successful inquiry and engagement, that they made this possible by developing trust with one another.

Challenging class experiences, especially when they involve conflicts between community members, can shake trust, so it’s important to intentionally work to get back to a place of mutual respect and goodwill whenever possible, knowing the foundational importance of relationships in this work (Frisby and Martin, 2010; Frisby et al., 2014; Stanton, 2016)

Acknowledge that some tiredness or tension may remain for people as they leave the class or course and reinforce the importance of self-reflection and care.

Thank everyone for their participation (speaking, listening, upholding of community guidelines, moving learning forward, etc.)
Expressing gratitude with descriptive praise can encourage further participation (e.g., “Thank you for resurfacing that issue we had lost sight of;” or “That’s a great counterpoint, and I appreciate how you showed that you heard your classmate’s ideas”)
Offer office hours or, if possible, time after class if anyone wants to check in or chat further
Bring in some sort of “palate cleanser.” This can be literal food (e.g. individual chocolates, a high-five, a short humorous video on shaking off tension, or literal movement around shaking off tension)
If you feel comfortable, ask students to fistbump or high-five as as a whimsical reminder of communal identity and shared goals
If you want help reading your students’ mood and experience, you can schedule a Midsemester Teaching Feedback Session with CNDLS

Connect the process explicitly to civil discourse/global citizenship

The ability to engage in challenging but respectful discourse around the issues of our time, and of our fields, is perhaps the most important and transferable skill our students will use in their futures outside of Georgetown. Students may not automatically recognize those opportunities and connections and so it’s important to explicitly connect in-class dialogue work to these broader applications (Brammer & Woler, 2008).

Where possible, connect in-class conversations to news and events
- Example: Ijeoma Njaka assignments
- Example: MC Chan’s “A Tale of Extraordinary Scientists” assignment
Be explicit about how these skills and class activities apply to situations beyond class, at Georgetown, but also in a much broader and global context