The Use of Photos in Making Reflective Essays

In Partial Fulfillment

Of the Requirements of the Course

EDU 601 Participation and Teaching Assistantship

By

Jazel M. Roble

BSED - IV

OCTOBER 2022

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 INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Writing abilities are one of the four macro skills that are typically linked to
the English language. Nowadays, some people are fond of writing especially
when they write about their own thoughts like journaling and diary. A lot of people
improve their writing skills when they express their ideas and feelings. But when
it comes to writing in a reflective essay way by criticizing the photo provided by
the person, you will start to create a meaning and start to construct your own
idea. You can examine your progress at education and build academic abilities,
as well as better grasp the subject of your studies, by writing a reflective essay.
You might be required to write some reflectively as part of a course assignment.
The objective of this study is to know if the students will create a meaningful
photo in making a reflective essay. According to research, encouraging reflective
practices in health professional education might help students become more
adept at making clinical decisions and do better in class. Improving reflective
writing in health education has been at the forefront of published literature. All
health practitioners would benefit from having the capacity to reflect more deeply.
To improve future clinical practice and clinical reasoning, reflective capacity is
seen as an ability to promote learning from prior information and experience.
Writing reflectively in particular can be a strategy for improving reflective ability.

A reflective essay is a chance to learn about oneself. A means of

increasing your understanding and clarity of the material you are learning. A
chance to improve and strengthen writing abilities. A strategy for giving the
material you learn the meaning. Writing reflectively is a crucial tool for enhancing
your learning power. For learning to reflect who we are as a whole rather than
just a segment of who we are, it helps to integrate our cognition, and logical
reasoning by how we think and how we behave. According to Tsingos-Lucas C,
Bosnic-Anticevich S, Schneider CR, and Smith L. an author and journalist for the
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American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education that despite the value put on the
acquisition of reflective-writing skills in health professional education, some
researchers have found "conflict" between what students will write when asked to
write honestly about their experiences and what they will write if a grade is
attached to the task.

Therefore, it may be argued that having strong reflective writing abilities

can be a tool for encouraging deeper comprehension and learning, which in turn
improves clinical decision-making abilities and academic success. According to
research, the capacity for reflection can be learned via a variety of tactics, role
models, and principles. Additionally, it has been stated that the growth of
reflective ability is essential for active learning in the practice environment. Thus,
in both undergraduate and graduate health professions educational programs,
establishing and evaluating this core skill should be a concern, and further
fostering these skills in practical settings may help both immediate and long-term
reflective learning.

With the established background and research gap, the present

researcher would like to determine the use of photos in making reflective essays
for students currently enrolled in PHINMA Cagayan de Oro College, at least the
perception of the students towards the aspect mentioned. 

Theoretical/ Conceptual Framework

The three regarding constructing meaningful sentences; Second,

Cognitive Development emphasizes thinking logically in creating a reflective
essay; lastly, the learning theories serve as the foundation for this research
investigation. First, the Active Learning Theory stresses the importance of
experiential learning Behaviorism Learning Theory the feedback of the students
in constructing their essay if it is good or bad. 

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Active Learning Theory

The Sociocultural theory of development, which Lev Vygotsky developed

to explain the connection between cognitive processes and social activities,
contends that learning occurs when learners address problems above their
current developmental level with the assistance of their teacher or their peers.
The active learning theory holds that people learn through making connections
between new information and what they already know. Active learning expands
on this idea. This is a broad term, and Bonwell and Eison explicitly acknowledge
that a variety of activities might be included within it. They recommend a range of
techniques to encourage active learning, from the most straightforward (such as
interrupting lectures to let students discuss their thoughts with neighbors) to the
most difficult (e.g., using case studies as a focal point for decision-making). The
distinction between active learning and formative assessment is hazy and difficult
to draw, according to Handelsman, Miller, and Pfund in their book Scientific
Teaching. After all, instruction that encourages students to engage in active
learning requires them to do or produce something, which can then be used to
gauge their understanding (2007).

Cognitive Development

The cognitive development idea put out by psychologist Jean Piaget is a

significant one. This hypothesis is frequently used in child development and
psychology. The core tenet of Piaget's theory is that children experience many
phases of cognitive development, each of which is unique and is impacted by
both nature and nurture. A person’s brain will explore a lot of things that will help
to think logically and create a better understanding of learning. There are four
stages of cognitive development that contribute to a person's development,
especially how to think and solve problems. According to the researchers namely
Robert M. Kliegman MD, in Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics, The process by which

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individuals accumulate, categorize, and acquire to use knowledge is known as
cognitive development. The two topics discussed in this article are "what
develops," or the content of knowledge, and "how knowledge develops." The
discussion of "what develops" focuses on concepts, the mental groupings of
similar objects and other entities that serve as the foundation for organizing
knowledge of experience. Knowledge development is referred to using the
processes of memory, problem solving, reasoning, and executive function. The
focus of the article is on the critical developmental period for cognition, which is
from infancy to middle childhood (2020).

Behaviorism Learning Theory

A field of thinking known as behaviorist learning theory is founded on the

premise that behavior may be studied scientifically without taking cognition into
account. The main premise is that only physical factors, such as reinforcement
from the environment or from specific materials, have any impact on learning.
Behaviorist views contend that reactions can be predetermined and conditioned
and that the role of mental factors should be discounted. Ivan Pavlov, John B.
Watson, and B. were important individuals who contributed to the development of
these theories. F. Skinner. The central tenet of behaviorism is that all actions are
acquired through interactions with the environment. According to this learning
theory, environmental circumstances have a much greater impact on behavior
than innate or inherited traits.

Statement of the problems

Most of the students nowadays are losing interest in writing. With the help
of photos in making a reflective essay they will express their own ideas and their
own perspective on what their insight on that photo is. Particularly, this study
aims to answer the question:

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  Do the use of photos in making reflective essays benefit students?
 What are the things that benefit students in terms of making a reflective
essays?

Scope and Delimitation of the Study

The research study will focus on the area of the student’s writing skills
using a photo in making a reflective essay. It tackles the way students’ writing
skills in constructing meaningful sentences. With the given problem by the
knowledgeable, the mind of the person will start to construct and start to react to
what they feel about the activity. The target participants of this study are the
Grade 11 General Academic Strand (GAS) students who are currently enrolled in
the first semester of the academic year 2022-2023 at PHINMA Cagayan de Oro
College only from Puerto Campus. 

The researcher identified this particular group of students as their

research respondents for the reason that they were able to take subjects that
related to English connected in making a reflective essay, especially that this
strand has lots of tasks to do in writing. These students have also utilized in
making a reflective essay enhancing their writing skills, to showcase their talent
in journaling. This study is limited to the Grade 11 GAS students only and does
not include the other year levels and other strands. 

Significance of the study

Students can express themselves, justify their arguments, and share their
knowledge through writing, which could be evaluated. Writing is the key to
making this feasible since there is an essential need for educators to work to
combine core and optional courses and to let students explain their knowledge in
different perspectives. The findings of this research study could particularly
become beneficial especially to the following:

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 Teacher, as a facilitator of learning, we encourage the students to learn
especially in writing skills. There is a lot of process in writing but with the help of
teachers the learners will be able to learn and benefit. Teaching facilitates
learners in acquiring critical social and emotional learning abilities. With the
teachers encouragement and provide information especially in writing skills on
how to create an essay that is better quality and organized well.

Students, as a center of learning, we will be able to benefit from the

teachers' assistance in the process of writing. The progress of the learners
comes from the teaching of the teachers. This learning will give them insights
that the use of photos in making reflective essays is the guide for them to be able
to create a better quality of essay where their own ideas and own perspective
they understand in that photo is given. 

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 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This study by the researchers namely Tsingos-Lucas C, Bosnic-Anticevich

S, Schneider CR, Smith L. to discover if academic achievement is related to
reflective writing abilities. Reflective comments were completed by 236 students
participating in a pharmacy practice course. In order to ascertain whether
reflective-writing abilities were linked to academic success in various assessment
forms, including written, oral, and video assignments, regression approaches
were used. Reflective-writing abilities were discovered to be a predictor of
academic achievement in certain assessment forms, including written exams,
oral assessment tasks, and total unit scores (UoS). In the video assessment
assignment, academic performance was not found to be predicted by reflective
writing abilities. . Good reflective-writing abilities were linked to better academic
performance. It is advised that more research be done to determine how
reflective skill development affects academic performance standards in other
health education.

Additionally, the current study set out to determine whether reflection

journal writing was helpful in encouraging self-reflection and learning and
whether students would improve their capacity for self-reflection if they wrote in
their journals on a regular basis. In order to achieve this, the reflection journals of
690 first-year applied science students at a nearby polytechnic were analyzed
using automated coding techniques. Data was gathered twice: first at the start of
the school year and again toward the end. The results of the textual content
analyses showed that students had thought critically about both the process and
the subject matter of their learning, including instructional practices and
reflections of what had been learnt. Strong to moderate correlations between the
textual categories and the students' test scores on knowledge acquisition and

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classroom performance were revealed by correlational analyses. When
considered as a whole, the results show that, if only partially, self-reflection on
both how and what students have learnt does increase academic achievement
(Lew MD, Schmidt HG, 2011).

The aim of the current study was to assess whether there was indication
of reflection in student-written diaries and to find out if students' reflective abilities
have improved as a result of journals. To that goal, an automatic coding process
was used to analyze the reflection diaries of 3460 first-year students enrolled in a
polytechnic. Students' journals for a full week, which were gathered once at the
start of the academic year and once more at the conclusion, served as the data
for the analyses. According to the results of the content analyses, there is
evidence of reflection in students' journals, and they appear to have reflected on
three major areas of their learning: critical evaluations of prior learning
experiences, cognitive learning strategies, and summaries of what was learned.
Nevertheless, according to the results, students' reflective abilities grew
throughout the course of the school year. When the research is considered as a
whole, it suggests that students' learning and self-reflection can be encouraged
by using reflection journals (Duan Ning Magdeleine Lew & Henk G. Schmidt,
2011)

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 RESEARCH METHOD

Research Design

This study will make use of the descriptive research design because it
attempts to describe the use of photos in making reflective essays, especially in
the field of writing in macro skills. Descriptive research, according to Calderon
(2006), is a purposeful process of collecting, examining, categorizing, and
collating data about current conditions, practices, trends, and cause-and-effect
relationship issues and then providing a complete and accurate interpretation of
such data, either with or without other information. The aim of this study strategy
is to respond to and address "what inquiries," not "why" and "how" ones. In this
study the researcher is aiming to answer the questions “Do the use of photos in
making reflective essays benefit students?” and “What are the things that benefit
students in terms of making reflective essays?” Thus, it is appropriate to use the
descriptive research design.

Research Participants

The research study will concentrate on the area of the student's writing
abilities when creating a reflective essay utilizing a photo. It deals with how
students can build meaningful sentences using their writing abilities. The
intelligent individual will pose a dilemma, and the person's mind will immediately
begin to construct and begin to react to how they feel about the task. The
students in Grade 11 General Academic Strand (GAS) who are currently enrolled
in the first semester of the academic year 2022–2023 at PHINMA Cagayan de
Oro College only from Puerto Campus are the study's target participants. This
specific group of students was chosen by the researcher as the research

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participants because they were able to take classes that were connected to
English and create reflective essays, particularly given that this strand offers
many writing-intensive assignments. These students have also used a reflective
essay to demonstrate their writing prowess and writing skills. The other year
levels and strands are not included in this study, which is just for Grade 11 GAS
students.

Research Instrument

In order to gather the needed data, the researcher have adapted the
survey research instrument used by the researchers namely Tsingos-Lucas C,
Bosnic-Anticevich S, Schneider CR, Smith L. (2017) in their study entitled “Using
Reflective Writing as a Predictor of Academic Success in Different Assessment
Formats.” The purpose of this study is to further our understanding of reflective
learning and the significance of taking into account the implementation of
reflective-writing skills into curriculum for education. The study’s questionnaire
will be in Likert-scale format that would be decided by the target participants. The
research respondents will have to decide whether they strongly agree = 4, agree
= 3, disagree = 2, or strongly disagree = 1 with each statement in the
questionnaire. 

Data Gathering Procedure and Ethical Considerations

This study will be conducted at PHINMA COC only for Puerto Campus
students who are currently enrolled in academic year 2022-2023 specifically
Grade 11 GAS students. The privacy of the respondents participation will be
confidential and not forcing them to answer the survey questionnaire. The
researcher will make sure that the privacy of those who voluntarily agree to
participate in research will be safe.

Administration of the Intervention

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 This study is developing a better quality of writing skills in making a
reflective essay will enhance the student’s ability to write and think critically
based on what they reflect and learn. Also to improve student’s critical thinking
skills. 

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