Reflecting
Reflecting is a significant part of the learning process. By reflecting on what you have done, you strengthen your sense of responsibility for your learning and awareness of your meta-cognitive processes. Evidence shows that seeing the link you are putting into learning and what you are getting out of it increases your ability to learn and retain information.
Each sprint has two reflection files. Complete the questions in the my-reflections-sprint-#.md file. Do this as you complete exercises throughout the sprint. Reflect on the prompts in the end-of-sprint-#.md file at the end of the sprint.
Tips on reflecting
- Write it / speak it for a lay audience
- Use visual language
- Attach it to something you already know
When writing your reflection, write it for an audience. Tell a story of what you tried and what you learned. Task yourself with explaining a concept to someone who has never heard of it before. How would that person relate to it? Can you think of an analogy to explain it?
How to reflect each sprint
Reflecting requires you to take a moment and think about what you've learned, what is confusing, and where you need to go. It documents your learning process.
Reflections are mandatory for each challenge.
When writing your reflection, write it for an audience. Tell a story of what you tried and what you learned. It will make it easier for you to go back and re-teach yourself or know what you were thinking.
Answer the following questions (in addition to the challenge-specific questions) in your reflection:
- What parts of your strategy worked? What problems did you face?
- What questions did you have while coding? What resources did you find to help you answer them?
- What concepts are you having trouble with, or did you figure something out? If so, what?
- Did you learn any new skills or tricks?
- How confident are you with each of the Learning Competencies?
- Which parts of the challenge did you enjoy?
- Which parts of the challenge did you find tedious?
Why is this so important?
"Reflection is the most important part of the learning process. We do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience" - John Dewey, philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer
There is an increasing amount of evidence that reflection is the most important aspect of learning within the learning domain. However you learn best, you'll reap the most rewards by spending time reflecting on your experiences.
We know that we learn by experience and learn from our mistakes. But research is increasingly telling us that without the process of actively thinking about those experiences and questioning ourselves about what they mean, learning doesn't happen. What gets us from experience to understanding is reflection. We can make small but cumulative steps to do things better with a simple question like "what did I do well in that situation?" or "what could I do differently?".
At a simpler level, creating learning logs and writing down experiences helps clarify what happened, understand one's interpretations of those events, and then put a meaning to them. And even five minutes to yourself at the end of your working day can help put what you've done into context. It's easy to remember what's just happened, and so it's an excellent opportunity to think about what's worked, what hasn't and what you can do differently (or more of) tomorrow.
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