Learning Journals. All the characte

Learning Journals. All the characteristics of narrative learning are caught up in the writing of learning journals. In this assignment, students are asked to articulate what they are learning in a course and to do so in a sustained, regular way. It is this sustained element of journaling that creates the opportunity for students to watch their understanding of the topic grow over time. Because the journal is a personal learning tool for the student, the structure is usually open, allowing the student to craft it in a way that works best. In it the students create a conversation between themselves and the material they’re learning, and they construct a text which itself becomes an object of reflection that enables them to examine their own learning process. The openness of the journal encourages students to engage with the material not only cognitively but also affectively. It becomes an iterative process of construction in which students weave old and new ideas together, connect what they’re learning to prior experience and with personal beliefs and assumptions, and through all this generate new questions that stimulate further learning.