Few question types provoke more frustration and hatred from students than reflective questions.
Many of my assignments have included an additional question asking me to reflect upon either how I tackled the assignment or something I learned on the module as a whole. As my rather sarcastic draft response to one of them indicates, it's often difficult to know just what to put in them, leading to much staring and frustration. (And don't worry, I didn't submit that. Instead, I wrote a more serious one.)
Officially the questions are there "to assist you with your personal development planning (PDP)". However, many students find them awkward and question the need for it. This has come up in feedback before - for example this consultation in 2021 found:
Reflective questions also attracted a lot of comment and debate. Many students did not enjoy reflection and thought it was a "box ticking exercise" or not a sufficiently academic skill. Others recognised that reflection is an employability skill and that reflective practice is useful in the workplace.
So the criticism is not new. It's part of a broader debate over what should be formally assessed and whether personal development should be part of academic assessment. People have many different reasons for taking a degree, especially with the Open University, and not all are seeking personal development planning. In addition, the range of backgrounds is such that whilst some students on a module are exploring a new skill for the first time, others have lengthy experience of it and so find it harder to reflect on what a specific module has taught them.
It looks like reflective questions are here to stay with the Open University for now. But that doesn't make them any more popular.
(Image created with Microsoft 365 Copilot.)
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