研究ノート

Change Through Reﬂection: A Qualitative Aanalysisof Student Reﬂections on the Classroom Experience
SAKURAI Yoko
要

旨

前稿では，半期選択科目である TOEIC クラスにおいて，自律学習を促す
ため実施されたリフレクション活動を紹介した（櫻井 2015）。学期の最後に行われたアンケートによると，程度に差は見られたものの，ほとんどの学生がリフレクション活動を通して何らかの肯定的な変化を感じていた。また，どのような変化が起こったかという質問に対しては，新しい気づきを得た，語学学習に対して肯定的な態度が育った，自身の学習過程を客観的に観察する方法を学んだ，モチベーションが向上したなどが多岐にわたり挙げられていた。本稿では，わずかに修正されたリフレクション活動を半期必須科目である TOEIC クラスで実施し，活動を通して学生がどの程度の変化を感じ，どの様な学習効果を認識していたのかを質的に分析し報告する。本研究は，大学の語学授業における自律学習の促進をテーマに更なる研究を進めるための探索的研究である。

Abstract
This study builds on the research began in a previous article, which introduced areﬂection activity that was designed and implemented by the author to promotelearner autonomy in semester-long elective university TOEIC preparation classes(Sakurai, 2015). Although the degree of change varied, student surveys on theactivity showed that most students perceived a wide range of positive changes,
such as gaining new awareness, developing an improved attitude toward language
learning, increased motivation, and the ability to self-monitor their own learning.
In this project, students in a compulsory TOEIC preparation course participated ina slightly modified version of the activity. This exploratory study aimed to
examine how well students responded to the reﬂection activity and to investigate
the learning effects perceived by students. This study is designed to be a basis forfurther studies that investigate the effectiveness of the activity with regard topromoting learner autonomy at university language classes.
Key words: reﬂections（リフレクション），
autonomous learners（自律学習者），
learner autonomy（ 学 習 者 オ ー ト ノ ミ ー）
，TOEIC preparation
class（TOEIC 対策クラス），exploratory study（探索的研究）― 213 ―

愛知大学

言語と文化 No. 36

Introduction
Nowadays many Japanese universities offer TOEIC preparation courses to help students
improve their scores. Although having a good TOEIC score may give students an advantage
when they search for a job, a TOEIC class runs the risk of being teacher-centered, heavily
focused on daunting repeated exercises and transmission of information. To address thisissue, a reﬂection activity was designed to promote more active learner involvement in a test
preparation class. This is an exploratory study, and it qualitatively analyzes what students
believed they learned from the activity and inductively explores different learning effects
perceived by students. The article ﬁrst introduces the reﬂection activity. Results of the study
are shared next, followed by a brief discussion of the potential of the activity and possible
future research topics.

Reﬂection Activity
The reﬂection activity consists of two major components. The ﬁrst is reﬂection journal entries
that students made during the last 5 to 15 minutes of each class throughout the semester.
Questions for reﬂection were created with reference to Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle(1983), and students were told to write each entry by answering the questions, which can befound in Appendix A. This phase of the activity is designed to allow students to objectively
observe and describe their learning experience in each class. It also attempts to encouragethem to analyze their experience based on that description, to make a speciﬁc learning planor goal based on the analysis, and to self-monitor the progress of their learning and/or
fulﬁllment of their plan or goal. The other component is a ﬁnal reﬂection assignment wherestudents were required to revisit all the past journal entries and answer open-ended questions
reﬂecting on their learning experience during the entire semester (Appendix B). The version
used for this project had a few minor changes in the phrasing of the reﬂection questions. As
discussed in Sakurai (2015), these changes were meant to encourage more in-depth reﬂection
by students through adjustment of the amount of scaffolding built into the question.
All the reflection questions were given in Japanese, and the students answered them inJapanese. The English translations in the appendices are provided only for the purpose ofthis article. The students were reminded on a regular basis that their work on the journal― 214 ―

Change Through Reﬂection

entries would be graded for how thoughtfully and meticulously they reﬂected and never for
how much they improved their skills or test scores. Final reflection assignments werecollected together with all the journal entries on the very last day of the course.

ParticipantsParticipants in this project included 27 male and 10 female Japanese university students in acompulsory TOEIC preparation class. They were in the law department; 33 were second
year students, and there were four repeaters in their third year. The students’ scores on the
TOEIC IP test as of the end of the semester ranged from 205 to 570, with an average of 392.

Data Collection and Analysis
The data for analysis was collected from students’ ﬁnal reﬂection assignments and a survey
on their semester-long reﬂection experience (Appendices B & C). The ﬁrst question of thesurvey asked if students perceived any change by doing reﬂections, and their answers weretallied and organized in comparison with the results of the previous project (Table 1). Mostof the data for qualitative analysis was from students’ responses to the open-ended questionin the survey. Some information from the ﬁnal reﬂection assignments was also considered
as data for analysis when a student mentioned a reflection-related comment that did not
overlap with what was written in the survey. The data was ﬁrst open-coded phrase by phrase
in relation to changes and learnings that could have been enhanced through the reﬂection
experience. The codes were then grouped into larger categories. Finally, possible key
concepts, patterns or relationships between those categories were inductively explored.
Table 1. Degree of Change Perceived by Students through Reﬂection
Don’t
Agree
Strongly
I don’tagree
Strongly
Year
very
Agree
Disagree
Total (n=)
agree
know
that
disagree
much
much
2014
11
20
12
3
0
0
1
47
(n=47)
2015
7
19
10
0
0
0
0
36
(n=36)― 215 ―

言語と文化 No. 36

愛知大学

Results
According to Table 1, there is no signiﬁcant difference between the results of the 2014 and2015 cohorts, indicating that both groups recognized positive changes in the self as a resultof the reﬂection activity. During the process of coding and sorting the data, there emerged
six categories that described aspects of learning promoted through the activity: awareness ofthe self as a language learner, strategies for more efficient learning, the development of
reﬂection skills, improved engagement in class, increase in intrinsic motivation, and positive
attitudes toward using the reﬂection journal and studying outside the class. These aspects
are not considered as separate entities; rather they appear to inﬂuence each other, reinforcing
and enhancing each other through the course of the reﬂection process.
(1) Awareness of Themselves as Language Learners
Among the aspects of learning, the most commonly mentioned aspect was the students’development of self-awareness as language learners. Keeping track of the process andprogress of their own learning and having the record at hand seemed to help students
develop a deeper understanding of who and where they were as English learners. This
includes the awareness of several features, such as one’s own weaknesses and strengths,
improvement in language skills, habits when choosing the answer options, learningtendencies, and areas for improvement. One student commented, “Looking back on my past
English study habits, I often felt I didn’t even know what I didn’t understand. Although I
knew I didn’t understand (why I got answers incorrect), I didn’t have the habit of reviewing
mistakes. However, I have gained a clearer understanding of what I don’t know and what I
am not good at through writing reﬂections …” Other statements included, “I’ve got to beable to understand clearly what I couldn’t do, what I could do, and what I couldn’t do ﬁrst
but I can now. With the new awareness (I gained), I tried to tackle (TOEIC) exercises,”“(Reﬂection) gave me a wonderful opportunity to actively explore and discover my English
learning tendencies,” and “I have changed my approach to studying for TOEIC. That was
the biggest change for me.”(2) Strategies for More Efficient Learning
Many of the students also seem to have gained the awareness that a reﬂection journal is aneffective study tool and began using it as such. Some students felt that reflection helped― 216 ―

Change Through Reﬂection

them retain or remember the information given in class more efficiently. One student
mentioned, “Writing in my own words helped make lessons more memorable,” while
another said, “Writing a reflection entry at the end of each class allowed me to retain
information. This is because I can remember better when I actually write by myself.”
Reﬂection also contributed to improving students’ academic efﬁciency in respect to a deeper
understanding of the subject matter, improved readiness for subsequent classes, andestablishment of personal learning goals. One student commented, “(By writing reﬂections)
I was able to understand test-taking skills for each part of the TOEIC test more in detail.”
Others indicated, “By writing a reﬂection at the end of each class, I was able to organize anddigest what I learned in class, so I felt better prepared for the next class,” and “(Throughreflection) I can analyze what is taught each class in detail, and this makes areas for
improvement clearly seen, and then I can effectively take the next measures. That is, interms of increase in study efﬁciency, reﬂection has greatly changed my way of learning.”
Finally, one student felt that using reflection when studying helped achieve the course
objective, stating, “I have improved my scores on online TOEIC practice tests.”(3) The Development of Reflection Skills
The next aspect of learning relates to developing reﬂection skills and the habit of reﬂection.
Students’ comments include, “I have learned to think about ‘why’ both when I get answers
right and when I don’t get answers right,” “I got to reﬂect objectively, and I looked back on
my reﬂection entries many times throughout the semester,” and “ I think I have developed
the habit of observing and reﬂecting.” A few students seemed to achieve a deeper level ofawareness. For instance, one student realized the signiﬁcance of reﬂection through his own
experience, and mentioned, “The big change for me would be getting into the habit ofreflecting on each class on the same day. (…) I think, though, it defeats the purpose of
reﬂection if you don’t take it seriously and commit to it. By looking back (on the wholesemester through the ﬁnal reﬂection assignment), I felt so glad that I made an effort and kept
a record every class.” Furthermore, a few students considered adopting the acquired
reﬂection skills in their future English learning or other university courses. One example is:“It wouldn’t have occurred to me that I would do something like this (keeping a reﬂection
journal in each class). I think I have developed a good habit. I feel this could be used inother classes, too.”― 217 ―

愛知大学

言語と文化 No. 36(4) Improved Engagement in Class
Reflection also appears to have promoted some positive changes in terms of students’
engagement in class. Some students suggested that they were more focused in class, stating“I think I stayed focused and worked on assigned tasks more than ever during class because
I had to remember what I learned in class so that I could write a reﬂection,” and “Writing
reﬂections enabled me to process and organize information given in each class. This allowed
me to understand the skills necessary to improve my English and face the challenges I
should deal with. Thus, I focused better in every class.” In addition, some students worked
on in-class assignments and tasks with clear purposes and goals that they established on
their own. Two students commented: “I ran over my reﬂection entries after class to review
what I should have been careful about or what I should keep in mind (when I work on
TOEIC exercises). I made good use of them in the next class,” and “The biggest change forme is ‘awareness.’(…) When I was in class, I was aware of things that had become clear
through reﬂections.”(5) Increase in Intrinsic Motivation
Another change observed was an increase in intrinsic motivation, which seemed to have
happened on different levels depending on the student. The following shows why and how
reﬂections improved intrinsic motivation: “I think being able to see what I’m good at andwhat I’ve learned to do would lead to an increase in motivation,” “I have come to review
mistakes more carefully. (…) Analyzing why I couldn’t do something, I can see what I needto do to be able to do it. I’ve developed the will to work of my own volition, rather thanhaving someone else tell me what to do. This was a big change for me,” and “Whilereviewing my reflections, my mistakes and the things I had been unable to do became asource of motivation for me. When I was able to write about getting more questions rightand improving myself, I think that it made me want to work even harder. Because I was able
to see my growth over time, I believe these reﬂections had a big effect on my motivation to
study for the TOEIC test.” By setting up small goals based on the reﬂection journal, anotherstudent felt, “I’ve learned to motivate myself and keep my motivation level high.”
Furthermore, an increase in intrinsic motivation resulted in changes in behavior such as anincrease in study time outside the class. Two examples would be: “Writing reﬂections has
fostered my willingness to overcome weaknesses, and I feel I have come to spend more time

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Change Through Reﬂection

studying at home. I had hardly ever studied outside the class except for the quizzes or theﬁnal exam, but I now try to study for at least one hour a week,” and “My reﬂection entries
suggested I should work particularly to improve vocabulary, so I independently studied
vocabulary, spending more time studying English outside the class.” Finally, for thisparticular aspect, a distinct connection between awareness of either weaknesses or
improvement and positive motivational transformation was observed; all of the students
who believed that reﬂection improved their motivation indicated one or both factors as thecause of their increased motivation.
(6) Positive Attitudes Toward Using the Reflection Journal and Studying Outside the Class
Students appear to have voluntarily utilized their reﬂection journal outside the class in theirown ways to meet their learning needs. In some cases, it served as a reminder to briefly
review weaknesses or areas for improvement before class, studying at home, and/or doing
the online TOEIC practice tests assigned as homework. One student mentioned, “I gained
the habit of checking how I did in the last class (before the following class or before I
started studying at home).” Another stated, “The reﬂection journal helped me prioritize what
I should work on. I used it more often when I studied for TOEIC at home.” One student feltthat the convenience of being able to review her written reflections increased her will to
study: “Because I could see what needed to be studied at a glance, (the reﬂection journal)
increased not only the efﬁciency of my learning, but it actually increased my studying time.”
According to another student, the reﬂection journal was a way to monitor and analyze his
progress. He commented, “When I studied for TOEIC on my own, I compared how I did inclass and how I did at home. This allowed me to recognize areas where I put enough effort
and did well, and areas where I didn’t work hard.”
Finally, one student reﬂected on the entire experience and commented, “I started to feel that
I should take advantage of the opportunity to review the things I couldn’t do this week
before next week’s class, so I wanted to study, even just a little bit. When I realized that I
was gradually becoming faster at answering TOEIC questions, my interest in the TOEIC test
increased, so I think it had an increasingly positive effect, creating a virtuous cycle oflearning.” For this student, it appears that all the aspects of learning were promoted,
integrated, and inﬂuenced by each other, creating a continuous positive learning cycle.

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言語と文化 No. 36

Discussion
The results of the 2014 and 2015 studies suggest that most of the students perceived positivechange through the reﬂection activity regardless of the majors of the students, the type ofclass (compulsory or elective), or their year in school. In many cases, students in an elective
TOEIC class choose to take the class of their own will, for their own good, and have morecommitment to their language learning. On the other hand, some students in a compulsory
English class may have less interest in English and/or be reluctant to be in the class. As far
as the students in the previous and current project are concerned, however, these factors did
not seem to have any particular inﬂuence on the degree of perceived change.
Regarding learning outcomes, the reflection activity appears to have enhanced various
aspects of learning, including an increased knowledge of the subject matter, the developmentof awareness of the learning process that improved motivation, and the acquisition of skills
that could help students in their future studies. However, the type and amount of learningthat occurred seemed to vary between individuals. It is possible that learning occurred more
independently for students who were actively engaged in the reﬂection process, whereas it
occurred more passively for students who were dependent on the teacher’s instructions and/or scaffolding. Furthermore, a few students started taking initiative and managing theirlearning, which is a fundamental quality of an autonomous learner.
Practically speaking, the signiﬁcance of the study stems from the potential of the reﬂection
activity to be used as a tool to incorporate learner autonomy into a university class. The
activity does not require a lot of class time, and more importantly, it can address many skills
and traits that autonomous learners need to develop. Murphey (2003) states that autonomy
is not the same for each person, commenting, “People need to be trusted to generate andmanage the kinds of autonomy that best ﬁt their needs at particular points in time” (p.7). As
the ﬁndings of the current study demonstrate, the reﬂection activity could provide a freedom
and ﬂexibility that allows students to take control over what to learn, how to learn, and how
much effort and time to put into learning, according to their needs. Finally, Scharle and
Szabó (2000) outline the importance of shifting the teacher’s role from the traditional one tothat of a facilitator in order to help students take more responsibility in their learning as they
progress in autonomy. From the teacher’s perspective, this activity could give the teacher
the room to shift roles depending on each individual student’s needs.

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Change Through Reﬂection

Closing
It is important to note that the goal of this study is not to draw any ﬁnal conclusions, as it isintended to be an exploratory study. Based on the results, more in-depth research, including
individual interviews with students, will be conducted. The research will further examine
aspects of learning enhanced by the reflection activity as well as their connections andinterrelations. Another issue of interest that emerged during this study was the possibility offactors that could inﬂuence the quality of a student’s reﬂections. It appears some students
took more initiative to reﬂect on their own learning and did more quality reﬂection, whileothers rather passively answered the given reﬂection question(s) without developing muchinsight into their learning experience. Exploring how students approach reﬂections and thefactors that lead to differences in reflection quality would contribute to a deeper
understanding of learner autonomy.

References
David, K. (2015). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development (2ndedition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Murphey, T. (2003). Learning to surf: Structuring, negotiating, and owing autonomy. Learner andTeacher Autonomy in Japan 1: Autonomy You Ask!, 1, 1-10. Retrieved from http://ld-sig.org/
autonomy-you-ask/
Scharle, Á. & Szabó, A. (2000). Learner autonomy: A guide to developing learner responsibility.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University.
櫻井陽子（2015）．「自律的学習者を育てる授業アイディア①−リフレクションを取り入れた TOEIC 授
業の実践報」『愛知大学紀要言語と文化』，32，91-100．

Appendix A
Questions for Reflection Journal Entries
Part 1. What have you learned in today’s class? What techniques did you practice? What
have you realized about study skills, TOEIC test-taking strategies, and/or strengths andweaknesses as an English learner?
Part 2. How would you like to make use of what you have written in Part 1? What do you
need to study by the next class? What is your next goal? Have you noticed anything while
reading back your past journal entries?

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Part 1. 今日の授業で学んだ事，今日練習したテクニックはどんなものですか？

TOEIC 受検

テクニック，勉強方法，自分の弱点や強みなど自分自身の英語学習において気が付いた事は何ですか？
Part 2. Part 1で記入した事を今後どのように活用していきたいですか？次回の授業までに何を勉強するとよいと思いますか？今後の課題はどんな事だと思いますか？以前に書いた事を読み返して何か気づいた事はありますか？

Appendix B
Open-Ended Questions in the Final Reflection Assignment
Part 1. Please read all your journal entries. 1) What kind of things did you notice whilelooking back at the whole semester? 2) What attitude toward learning do you think you
have developed? What skills or knowledge do you think you have gained? 3) Is there any
area in which you feel you have improved? Please write anything you have noticed, andsupport your answers with reasons.
Part 2. Please look back over all your reﬂection entries. How do you feel your TOEIC and/or English study will change in the future? What do you plan to concentrate on from now
on? Please explain in detail.
Part 1. 全てのリフレクションのエントリーに目を通してください。
どんな事に気づきましたか？

1 ）この講義を通して，

2 ）どのような学習態度が身についたと感じますか？

なスキルや知識が得られたと思いますか？

3 ）上達したと感じた事はありますか？

どん
どん

な事でもいいので，しっかりと理由を書いて説明してください。
Part 2. 全てのリフレクションのエントリーに目を通してください。TOEIC や英語学習において，今後の課題は何だと感じますか？今後はどのような事に取り組んで行きたいですか？
具体的に書いてください。

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Change Through Reﬂection

Appendix C
Students’ Survey on Their Reflection Experience
Throughout the semester you reﬂected on each class and wrote reﬂections.
a)Have you noticed any change through the entire process of reﬂection? Please circle themost appropriate option.
I totally agree
I disagree

I agree very much I agree I don’t know I don’t agree very much

I strongly disagreeb) If you feel that change(s) occurred, please explain the change(s) with speciﬁc reasons.
If you feel that no change has occurred, please explain why, stating speciﬁc reasons.
本講義では，毎回の授業最後にリフレクションを行ってきました。
a） この授業でリフレクションをすることにより，何か変化はあったと思いますか？答えを○で囲んでください。

非常にそう思う。 結構そう思う。 そう思う。
そう思わない。

分からない。

あまりそう思わない。

全くそう思わない。

b） 変化が起こったと感じた場合はどんな変化か，起こっていないと感じた場合はその理由を，具体的に書いてください― 223 ―