Mpf Resources Using Journal Writing to Enhance Reflective Practice

Boud, D. (2001). Using journal writing to enhance reflective practice. In English, L. M. and Gillen, M. A. (Eds.) Promoting Journal Writing in Adult Education. New Directions in Adult and Continuing Education No. 90. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 9-18.

Using journal writing to enhance reflective practice David Boud University of Technology, Sydney We write journals for many different reasons prompted by many different purposes. We may want to capture an experience, record an event, explore our feelings or make sense of what we know. We may want to narrate something of importance so that others can see what we saw in it. Sometimes we write primarily for ourselves, sometimes for other people. Journal writing is as varied as those who engage in it. Journal writing can be viewed through many different lenses: as a form of selfexpression, as a record of events or as a form of therapy. It can be a combination of these and other purposes. In this chapter I want to examine journal writing through the lens of learning. This perspective views the varieties of journal writing as ways of making sense of the world and how we operate within it. It looks at journal writing as a form of reflective practice, that is, as a device for working with events and experiences in order to extract meaning from them. Writing can be used to enhance what we do and how we do it. It may relate to learning in formal courses, to our professional practice or to any aspect of informal learning. In her discussion of using journals in learning through reflection, Jenny Moon (1999a) identifies many purposes of writing journals in addition to those already mentioned (pp188-194). These include: • To deepen the quality of learning, in the form of critical thinking or developing a questioning attitude • To enable learners to understand their own learning process • To increase active involvement in learning and personal ownership of learning • To enhance professional practice or the professional self in...