To maximize the validity of our findings, we did not rely on the reflection journals of a selected, small group of students.
To that end, the reflection journals of 690 first-year applied science students at a local polytechnic were studied by means of an automated coding procedures using software.
A shortcoming of the present study is the partial overlap of the instruments used: reflection journal, tutor judgment and knowledge acquisition test, which may have produced, in part, the weak to moderate correlations between the coding categories and academic grades.
The final, seventh study, deals with the role of reflection journal writing.
The findings by Selfe and colleagues were mirrored in the study by Moon (1999), where she summarized a number of studies which examined the effects of reflection journal writing on student academic achievement across a variety of disciplines.
Moon (1999) and Selfe et al. (1986) contended that the influence of reflection journal keeping on student academic performance as being subtle, and did not seem to assist students in attaining better academic achievement.
In their study, McCrindle and Christensen (1995) explored the impact of reflection journal writing on cognitive processes and academic performances of forty undergraduates in a first-year biology course.
The evidence to support and inform the curricular intervention of reflection journal writing as a means to improve students' self-reflection and thus academic achievement remains largely theoretical.
