CBE182: Summer Edition - Stephan Wiebe, Curriculum Specialist, Ed Centre

​Reflection, Documentation and Self-Regulated Learning

The summer break is an important part of the cycle of a school year. Each phase of the year brings it’s own excitement, challenges and opportunities. For me, summer is a time to reflect and consider ways to grow during the next school year. This year I’ve found there is something significant missing from my professional practice, which is supporting my own learning with artifacts and documentation. Just as we ask students to make their learning and thinking visible, this is important for professional learning as well.

If learning is an iterative process with many imperfect attempts along the way, but with many opportunities to try again, it is essential to document our efforts. Without this, the evidence for deeper reflection and to guide our adjustments is missing. In Barry Zimmerman’s model of self-regulated learning there are three phases: forethought, performance, and reflection. A key component of the performance phase is monitoring to allow for later reflection. In learning this, I’ve come to see that the spinning wheel of my iterative process is missing a spoke. I can roll along ok, but I’ll run into trouble if I try to climb a steep hill or need to take a sharp turn.  Luckily there are lots tools for documentation to explore and many colleagues who can help guide me with this new goal.


Stephan Wiebe is currently a curriculum specialist, but an artist and art teacher at heart