Learning from Learning Journals

There are many additional resources available online which will address this topic in a more academic tone of voice, covering the current research on the need of reflection and using a learning journal.

Moon (2003) suggests four different methods to learn from learning journals.

1. “Firstly, we learn because journal writing is a process that accentuates favorable conditions for learning.
   

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   • It produces intellectual space in which we can think.
   • It also encourages independent learning – you have to write your own journal and because you ‘own’ the learning, it is likely that it will be more meaningful to you.
   • Writing a journal also provides a focusing point, an opportunity to order thoughts and to make sense of a situation or of information.
   • Learning from a journal enhances learning skills because it forces the learner to cope with ‘messy information’: ideas that are not straight forward.
   • It counteracts what might be seen as spoon-feeding with handouts and lecture notes on the www.

Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.

~Leonardo Da Vinci

2. “Secondly journal writing encourages reflection and reflection is associated with deep approaches to learning, or with deep learning.

3. “Thirdly, writing in a journal encourages metacognition.

4. “Lastly, the act of writing is associated with learning or the enhancement of learning. There is a considerable literature on the relationship of writing to learning, how it forces a learner to clarify her thoughts, how it is a powerful form of feedback to the learner, how it focuses attention and tells the learner if s/he does or does not understand.”

He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.

~Leonardo Da Vinci

By Tracy Atkinson

Tracy Atkinson, mother of six, lives in the Midwest with her husband. She is a teacher, having taught elementary school to higher education, holding degrees in elementary education and a master’s in higher education. Her passion is researching, studying and investigating the attributes related to self-directed learners. She has published several titles, including Calais: The Annals of the Hidden, Lemosa: The Annals of the Hidden, Book Two, Rachel’s 8 and Securing Your Tent. She is currently working on a non-fiction text exploring the attributes of self-directed learners: The Five Characteristics of Self-directed Learners.