4. Opportunities for Reflection

The fourth element that the lecturer suggested fior a learning classroom is the provision for opportunities of reflection. He discussed three stages of reflection relevent to education; descriptive reflection, self-reflexive reflection and critical reflection.

Descriptive reflection : Students capable of reflecting descriptively are able to source and repeat bodies of information in a summary fashion.

Self-reflexive reflection: Students having a capacity for self-reflexive awareness are able to draw upon their own lived experience to aid them in exploring, evaluating and interpreting new bodies of information.

Critical reflection: Students with critical awareness are able to contrast and explore novel experiences or bodies of information via separate areas of their existing knowledge.

In a learning classroom, a constructivist education approach would presumably nurture learners' capacities for self-reflexive and critical reflection. Learning tasks would emphasise and stimulate the learner's capacities for self-flexive and critical reflection, rather than simply have students repeat vast swathes of 'information'.