Abstract

One component of self-regulated learning is a learner's ability to reflect on her/his learning process. This study examined: (a) the development of reflective language grade two students used when describing their learning, and (b) instructional activities and interactions that supported this development. A grounded theory framework was used to collect data from six grade two students, and their teacher in the context of a portfolio activity. Data sets included student portfolios, a student-led portfolio conference, classroom observations and interviews with the classroom teacher. Single case and cross-case analyses were used to respond to the research questions guiding this study. Findings indicated that these students express metacognitive thoughts under six topics of reflective language such as affect, task-understanding and judgment. In addition, students' reflection strategies evolved throughout the school year and included tactics such as echoing classroom language and providing rationales within their reflections. Teacher scaffolds were many and varied over the course of the school year and fell into two broad categories: structural and procedural. Structural scaffolds included environmental conditions, prompting and questioning. The most common reflection scaffold in the portfolio was the use of prompts and questions, which varied in degree from structured to open-ended. Whereas procedural scaffolds involved peer and teacher modeling, discussion as well as large group and individual conferencing. The combination of structural and procedural scaffolds point to a need for redefining the scaffolding metaphor in order to capture the complex dynamics involved in supporting young students in their reflection process. This study concludes by offering a metaphor that captures the complexity of supporting student reflection.