¶ … Langer, A. (2002). Reflecting on Practice: using learning journals in higher and continuing education. Teaching in Higher Education 7(3): 337-51.
This qualitative study examined the nature and role of "learning journals as they were utilized by different populations of students, with the author's primary area of investigation consisting of the differences between traditional and "non-traditional" students (especially older adults enrolled in classes) and their utilization of learning journals as tools for critical reflection. By examining the learning journals completed and turned in by both traditional and non-traditional students as part of the requirements for a technical computer class, as well as through interviews with a few selected students, the researcher probed the degree to which critical reflection was demonstrated in the journals...
The researcher found that non-traditional students were more skeptical than traditional students when it came to the learning journals, and were more likely to use them as simple study tools rather than means of achieving reflection on their past learning.
The information presented seems highly credible and rigorously collected, however the population studied is so small that the results cannot be considered reliable. This information is a useful stepping stone, but in and of itself provides no trustworthy answers. It also is not directly relevant to the issue of the availability of training programs, though the degree to which certain elements of training programs are perceived as valuable is addressed. This could in turn be interpreted as a commentary…
