Reflection and Self-Assessment in Smart Education

Introduction

The goal of academic and professional reflection and self-assessment is to develop both an intellectual and emotional understanding how to be able to move between theories and practice, and critical review these experienced based knowledge, as well as the self-regulated and self-directed learning to achieve the highest level of reflection (Colomer, Pallisera, Fullana, Burriel & Fernández, 2013; Tomkins, 2009). The teaching and learning in smart higher education can with advantageous technology be designed with blended learning activities, i.e. a mix between campus and mobile at distance, which allows the students to practise self-directed and self-regulated learning, take a step back, reflect and self-assess professional practice and theories in a critical way (Broadbent & Poon, 2015; Marin, Jääskelä, Häkkinen, Juntunen, Rasku-Puttonen & Vesisenaho, 2016; Mirriahi, Liaqat, Dawson & Gašević, 2016). The word ‘smart’ is defined as self-directed, motivated, adaptive, resource-enriched, and technology-embedded and refers to wisdom as bounding together the ability of using and motivating knowledge building, problem solving, critically reflections on professional experiences, collaborating and evaluating different circumstances with resource-enriched, and technology-embedded learning environment.

Frequently, reflection and self-assessment are used in both theoretical and practical courses in higher education professions, but reflective methods are not often used (Fullana, Pallisera, Colomer, Fernández Peña & Pérez-Burriel, 2016; Jordi, 2011; McIntosh, 2010). Reflective methods can be understood as the activity in which students recapture their experience, think about it, consider it over and assess it. However, the common use of the concepts of reflection and self-assessment is problematic, when little or no agreement on the meaning of these concepts exists among teachers or students (Ryan, 2013). The value of reflection as a learning tool is also doubtful and tend not to equip students well for these processes in a learning society (Boud, 2000). Self-assessment studies show a mixed result without clear reasons or conclusions, often with a focus on grade or rating (Boud & Falchikov, 1989; González-Betancor, Bolívar-Cruz & Verano-Tacoronte, 2017). Moreover, the concepts are often unclear and used loosely to embrace a wide range of conceptions and strategies, because of a lack of educational training in reflection and self-assessment methods (Bain, Ballantyne, Mills & Lester, 2002; Hatton & Smith, 1995). Often, it is taken for granted that students know how to think critical and write reflectively on their own way and can realise the value of it. The key process is derived from both the dominant constructivist approach to experiential learning, and the cognitive reflection approach as through which individuals extract knowledge from their concrete experiences (Illeris, 2009). Basic components, such as inductive and deductive inference are involved, but it goes beyond the second-order reflection and evaluation of one's own or another's thinking (Kuhn, 2016).

This chapter highlights different focus and common terms of reflection and related ideas from theories about reflection and self-assessment, and how these processes can be a tool for student-centered learning in a self-directed and motivated learning environment in smart higher education. Researchers emphasize the importance of using reflection and self-assessment of different circumstances and contexts, which new media forms can easily integrate and made possible by resource-enriched and technology-embedded enhanced mobile devices (e.g. Amhag, 2016a; 2016b; 2017; Zhu, Yu & Riezebos, 2016). The following questions are addressed: