Student journals : a window to metacognitive development
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Date
1994
Authors
Graham, Betty
University of Lethbridge. Faculty of Education
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Lethbridge, Alta. : University of Lethbridge, Faculty of Education, 1994
Abstract
A twelve week clinical practicum with a group of five first year nursing students
provided an opportunity to introduce journal writing as a means of reflection on
practice. The journals evolved into an on going dialogue between instructor and
student. Although each student used the journal with varying degrees of comfort,
evidence of developing metacognitive awareness was apparent in all five journals.
As the students examined the thinking behind the decisions they made it was
apparent to the reader that they used past experiences as well as previous and
concurrent learning to create meaning and to fmd solutions to clinical challenges.
This recognition of thinking processes translated into the students'
acknowledgment of increasing comfort with nursing skills and with problemsolving
challenges. Even though there had been no formal instruction in
metacognitive processes, the students were demonstrating metacognitive growth
in their journal entries. Metacognition, a means of shaping, clarifYing, and
discovering one's ideas, involves self-knowledge, theoretical knowledge, skill
knowledge, and self-monitoring. The fact that metacognitive awareness was
evident, even in the entries of learners new to the idea of keeping a learning
journal, adds strength to the case in favor of journals -- as a teaching strategy, a
diagnostic tool, an evaluation tool, a research method, and a tool for personal and
professional development.
Description
vi, 79 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm.
Keywords
Nursing students -- Diaries , Metacognition , Nursing -- Study and teaching