Think, Make, Innovate: Reflection

“We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.”― John Dewey

Reflection is a key part of processing and allowing ourselves the pause to think about what just happened. This Think, Make, Innovate focuses on the often overlooked piece of reflection.

Personal Reflection

Start by offering a focused reflection question to students to have them narrow their thoughts around skills and experiences that they had. So instead of, "What did you like about what you created?" Try out "What problems did you encounter and how did you solve them?"

Also, consider the mode that students will use to process and the audience that students will share this reflection with. It could be a personal reflection in a notebook, just for themselves or it could be a video reflection that is shared with the rest of the class of a Flipgrid. It could be reflection circle with just a few students or it could be a 1:1 conference with the teacher. Are there some digital tools that you currently use that could help students to share their reflections outside of the classroom?

​The opportunities are endless, just consider how you scaffold students for this different types of sharing opportunities to help prepare them for success.

Journey Maps

A journey map is a technique used in Design Thinking to visualize the process that a person goes through to accomplish a goal. If we twist this to our maker experience, you can have students record highs and lows of their process of creating.

To use with students, like suggested earlier, have students focus on three memorable moments in their making process and have them reflect what they learned from those moments. Was it a moment that they didn't think their project would ever come together? Was a it moment that they collaborated with someone else that helped them to realize a break through?

Curious to learn more about Journey Maps? Click Here

We'd love to see how you reflect!

We'd love to see the questions and prompts or you share with your students or the experiences that you create to help them reflect! Please share them with us @DLGWAEA on social media or email us at makerspace@gwaea.org

And as always...

#HaveFunMaking
~Amber & Mindy