Graduation Term
Spring 2025
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Department of English
Committee Chair
Danielle Lillge
Committee Co-Chair
Shelby Boehm
Abstract
This practitioner research study explores strategies for inviting high school students into meaningful sustained reflection during a semester-long civic inquiry project in the ELA classroom. The study examines how engaging students in a structured, inquiry-based reflection process can foster deeper, more meaningful reflection outcomes. Specifically, the study explores a process for facilitating student engagement in critical reflection, considers how students respond to process-oriented reflection prompts, and analyzes their reflective engagement across both written and verbal mediums.
Through a qualitative research design incorporating student reflections, classroom observations, and teacher-researcher analysis, the study identifies key patterns in how students navigate and articulate their learning experiences. I collect student data from this sustained semester-long project and analyze the data using open coding and thematic analysis in order to track patterns in how students engage with their reflective process.
The study highlights the ways in which process-oriented reflection prompts encourage students to move beyond surface-level responses, demonstrating greater depth in their analysis of personal and academic growth. Findings reveal that students might benefit from a scaffolded process of interconnected reflective skills. Data also highlights how students reflect in highly individualized and contextualized ways to make sense of their civic inquiry project development. Additionally, the research considers the opportunities and limitations of different mediums for student reflection, exploring how written and verbal reflection function uniquely in maintaining student agency over their reflective process.
The study also explores the importance of reflecting with students – not only inviting them into reflection but also engaging in ongoing analysis of their reflective work to adapt instruction in real time. The study concludes by offering considerations for fostering a classroom environment that positions reflection as integral and student-centered in order to honor student voices and cultivate more responsive, transformative learning environments.
Ultimately, this study contributes to scholarship on reflective practice in secondary English education by offering insights into cultivating a classroom culture of meaningful student reflection. Implications for teaching practice include considerations for designing reflection prompts that scaffold student thinking, integrating multiple mediums for reflection, and fostering a classroom environment that values student voice and inquiry.
Access Type
Thesis-Open Access
Recommended Citation
Hillary, Brandon, "Investigating Meaningful Reflection through Teacher Research" (2025). Theses and Dissertations. 2066.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/2066
