Using Blogs to Stimulate Reflective Thinking in a Human Behavior Course

Abstract

This paper reports results of a study that examined whether participation in a blog assignment promoted the development of reflective thinking skills in a human behavior course. Weekly blog entries completed by 14 students over a semester, self-analysis papers, and a survey that was designed to evaluate the blog assignment were analyzed. Descriptive statistics were used to identify levels of reflective thinking represented in the transformed blog entry scores and to summarize select survey items. In addition, paired samples t-test was used to assess change in blog entry scores. Qualitative content analysis was used to identify factors that facilitated or hindered theory integration as reported in the students' self-analysis papers. The results suggested that the percentage of students with blog entries that demonstrated reflection increased from 21% to 57% when scores from the first and last entries were compared. Paired samples t-test results showed statistically significant changes in students' reflection scores at Time 1 and Time 2, t (13) = 2.280, p = .04. As instructional methods for stimulating reflective thinking skills in social work education and practice continue to advance, blogs can play an instrumental role in fostering this development.