SPCC ePortfolio
Reflection
Reflection is a thought process that uses past learning to create new learning. By comparing our past thoughts and experiences to those in the present, we can gain new insights that help us to understand our personal and intellectual experiences. You may think of these conclusions as “aha” moments, bursts of sudden knowing that can delight and surprise you. The process leading up to the “aha” allows you to discover how your experiences have made you the student and person that you are today.
In the ePortfolio, reflection will lead you to new understanding about your intellectual abilities. You will think about the Core Skills and Program Outcomes to decide what you have learned in each area and how each area relates to your overall learning. You will make interdisciplinary connections between courses that will show your ability to synthesize experience. How could biology be related to poetry? How could religion be related to art? Could you find relationships between all four disciplines and more? These are interdisciplinary connections.
The School of Arts and Sciences includes a variety of disciplines that work together to form SPCC’s General Education program. Math, natural sciences, social sciences, and the arts and humanities come together to form the foundation of your college education. The Associate in Arts, Associate in Science, Associate in Fine Arts, and the Associate in Engineering degrees share common courses from the disciplines. The skills and knowledge that you learn in both the arts and sciences provide a foundation that will serve you as you transfer and start your career. In your reflections, you will be demonstrating your ability to see the relationships between areas of knowledge.
Writing your thoughts down allows you to contemplate your learning in depth and wrestle with what happened, how it happened, and why it happened. Your observations, impressions, opinions, memories, and feelings are central to the writing because they demonstrate your thought process. Sprinkling in sentences that begin with "I thought," "I considered," "I reflected," "I contemplated," "I recalled," "I remembered," "I felt," and "I observed" signal reflection. Unlike formal academic writing, you are free to "think out loud" on the page and reveal your thoughts.
Resources