To effectively meet the challenges of a changing society and future work roles, educators need to develop reflective thinking students who are confident, independent, flexible and able to adapt to change. Self-reflection is a central dynamic to self regulated learning, critical thinking and the effective transfer of knowledge and skills to situations in the workplace. Not only is it crucial to encouraging more open minded, critical and creative thinkers but it also develops for them, from within, an awareness of themselves as learners. This paper focuses on identifying and defining three strategies that can be used to encourage students to be more critical and reflective in their thinking. These strategies include an emphasis on teaching students how to reflect on self through the application of affective role-taking exercises, the engagement in metacognitive processes in an individual, collaborative and scaffolded environment and the development of self reflective questions to empower individuals to deal with the complexities of a rapidly changing, technological society by critically evaluating information, and understanding the interconnectedness of different fields of knowledge. Effective implementation of these strategies which are drawn equally from the affective and cognitive domains will aid in developing reflective, creative and critical thinkers whose thinking is more efficient, flexible and transferable.
INTRODUCTION
STRUCTURED QUESTIONING TO DEVELOP AFFECTIVE THINKING
STUDENT-GENERATED QUESTIONS USING A JOURNALISING PROCESS
METACOGNITIVE AWARENESS AS A SCAFFOLD FOR REFLECTIVE LEARNING IN A COLLABORATIVE CONTEXT
CONCLUSION
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