I interpret this lack of correlation as a positive outcome for the students. For those who were not great essay writers, this triangulation of assessment was particularly helpful. Generally, the students performed outstanding volunteer service and learned much about their roles in their communities. For these efforts, they earned high scores for participation and from their supervisors, which constituted two of the assessment methods. These three methods of evaluation complemented each other to yield overall balanced grades for the students' service learning activities.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the reflective essay itself was a valuable learning experience.
A large body of literature explores the utility of writing as a learning tool across the curriculum. The experience of the students in my section of UNIV 100B supports the value of such writing. The students were given a standard evaluation to complete after their service learning, and on that evaluation a number of them wrote that the reflective essay was a very useful tool for them to process what they had learned from their volunteer efforts. Just as students learn in different ways, so should different ways of assessing their learning be employed. I believe that evaluating the students' performance from this triangulated approach resulted in fairer, more balanced grades than a single method of assessment would have yielded.