Reflective journals and critical thinking

Abstract

This paper considers the efficacy of using reflective learning journals to encourage critical thinking, both for English speaking background and non-English speaking background students. The paper is a preliminary study into 122 journals based on qualitative research into some 750 learning journals completed over the past seven years for the first year Faculty of Economics and Business unit of study ‘Communication and Critical Analysis’, which has both English and non-English speaking background streams. It was found that the use of learning journals very much enhanced the understanding of critical thinking in a course centred on critical analysis from the perspective of history and philosophy of science and the language used to express such analysis in English.