“What’s the point of this reflection?” “Why do we have to do this?” Common questions that I’m sure that many teachers hear on a daily basis. One term that was reoccurring in my mind following last week’s session was that of “reflection.” Interestingly, I ended up having a conversation with one of my Grade 11 students this week about the “purpose/value” of reflection and how it relates to authentic learning. As a Visual Arts teacher, I have always used reflective pieces/artist statements, etc. as a means of gathering additional insight into a student’s journey using The Creative Process. In Photography in particular, I feel that by having students reflect on, justify, explain their creative decisions/motivations/reasoning, I can obtain additional data when evaluating their work. However, this week, when asked by a student “why do we reflect?,” I had to take a minute before I delivered my answer.
I wanted to bring this back to the C21 hive brain. Why do learners need to reflect? What is the benefit of proposing “next steps?” Why should we hypothesize as to “what we would have done differently?” Truthfully, I found that throughout last weekend’s face to face session, I spent a lot of time reflecting on similar questions. And coincidentally, following the session, I felt energized, fulfilled and confident that I had actually learned something along the way. While my response to my student centred around the fact that “reflecting is a core component in the process of learning,” this interaction prompted me to think more about what actually happens in our brains when reflecting on what we do/are doing. I’ve attached a quotation that resurfaced from my days teaching philosophy. 
Happy Saturday, everyone!
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