UNIVERSITY of SAINT LOUIS Tuguegarao City Date Completed:

Tel No.: (078)-844-1872/1873/1822

Fax No. (078)-844-0889 Signature of Proponent/s

Proponents Last Name First Name MI

Besa John Benedict U.
Cambri Shaira Phoemela
Elizarde Via Marie A.
Malenab Jester Seth D.
Reynon Elijah Wyatt Immanuel N.
Field of Specialization Humanities and Social Sciences
Research Descriptive Quantitative
Method/Design

Research Topic Assessment of Students in Reflective Writing

Working Title:
(as proposed by the The Evaluation of Level of Reflective Journal Writing in English Subject
proponent) Competencies of Grade 12 Senior High School Students

Approved Title:
(as redirected by the
research consultant)
Bibliography/Reference Ahmed, M., & Saad, I. (2015). The Significance of Journal Writing in Improving
s Listening and Reading Comprehension in Modern Standard Arabic
(APA Style) (MSA). Universal Journal of Education Research, 3(11), 815-82. DOI:
(Alphabetically arranged) 10.13189/ujer.2015.031106
90% from refereed
journals and 10% from Al-Balushi, S.M., & Al-Rawahi, N.M. (2015). The Effect of Reflective Science
books and other resource Journal Writing on Students’ Self-Regulated Learning Strategies.
materials International Journal of Environmental & Science Education, 10(3),
367-379. Retrieved from: [Link]
Asemanyi, A.A. (2015). An Assessment of Students’ Performance in
Communication Skills A Case Study of the University of Education
Winneba. Journal of Education and Practice, 6(35), 1-7. Retrieved
from: [Link]
Azman, H., David, A. R., & Ming T. S. (2018). Investigating Online Dialogue
Journal Writing Impacts on Low Proficiency Students’ Writing Anxiety.
International Journal of Language Education and Applied Linguistics
(IJLEAL), 8(2), 71-81. Retrieved from:
[Link]
Barton, E., Foster, T., Grogan, J., Primeau, S., Pruchnic, J., Susak, C., Torok, J.,
& Trimble, T. (2018). Slouching Toward Sustainability: Mixed Methods
in the Direct Assessment of Student Writing. The Journal of Writing
Assessment, 11(1). RETRIEVED FROM:
[Link]

1
Foroutan, M., & Noordin M. (2012) Effect of Dialogue Journal Writing through the
Use of Conventional Tools and E-mail on Writing Anxiety in the ESL
Context. English Language Teaching, 5(1), 10-19. Retrieved from:
[Link]
Glogger, I., Holzäpfel, L., Nückles, M., Renkl, A., & Schwonke, R. (2012). Learning
strategies assessed by journal writing: Prediction of learning outcomes
by quantity, quality, and combinations of learning strategies. Journal of
educational psychology, 104(2), 452. doi: 10.1037/a0026683
Graham, S., Hawken, L. S., & Kiuhara, S. A. (2009). Teaching writing to high
school students: A national survey. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 101(1), 136. DOI: 10.1037/a0013097
Guce, I.K. (2018). The Role of Journal Writing in Senior High School Students’
Attitude toward Mathematics. International Journal of Evaluation and
Research in Education, 7(2), 132-141. Retrieved from:
[Link]
Hassaskhah, J., & Sharifa, A. (2011). The Role of Portfolio Assessment and
Reflection on Process Writing. The Asian EFL Journal Quarterly, 13(1).
Retrieved from:
[Link]
[Link]
Hülya, T., & Yonca, Ö. (2018). A Case Study on Assessing Reflectivity Levels of
Pre-Service Language Teachers through Journals. Novitas-ROYAL
(Research on Youth and Language), 12(2), 173-186. Retrieved from:
[Link]
Hussein, H. (2018). Examining the Effects of Reflective Journals on Students’
Growth Mindset: A Case Study of Tertiary Level EFL Students in the
United Arab Emirates. IAFOR Journal of Education, 6(2), 33-50.
Retrieved from: [Link]
Javed, M., Juan, W. X., & Nazli, S. (2013). A Study of Students' Assessment in
Writing Skills of the English Language. Online submission, 6(2), 129-
144. Retrieved from: [Link]
Lakshmi, B.S. (2014). Reflective Practice Through Journal Writing and Peer
Observation: A Case Study. Turkish Online Journal of Distance
Education, 15(4), 189-204. Retrieved from:
[Link]
McCallum, D.D. (2013). Journal Writing as an active learning tool in history
education. Caribbean Teaching Scholar, 3(1), 23–39. Retrieved from:
[Link]
Okari, F.M. (2016). The Writing Skill in the Contemporary Society: The Kenyan
Perspective. Journal of Education and Practice, 7(35), 65-69. Retrieved
from: [Link]
Shaarawy, H.Y. (2014). The Effect of Journal Writing on Students’
Cognitive Critical Thinking Skills: A Quasi-Experimental Research on an
2
 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Undergraduate Classroom in
Egypt. International Journal of Higher Education, 3(4), 120-128. doi:
10.543/ijhe.v3n4p120
Shumack, K. (2010). The conversational self: Structured reflection using
journal writings. Journal of Research Practice, 6(2), Article M17.
Retrieved from: [Link]
Tuan, L.T (2010). Enhancing EFL Learners’ Writing Skill via Journal Writing.
Canadian Center of Science and Education, 3(3), 81-88. Retrieved from:
[Link]
Yi, Jyi-yeon. (2009). Defining writing ability for classroom writing assessment in
high schools. Journal of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics,
13(1), 53-69. Retrieved from:
[Link]

Variable/ Conceptual
Tags/Synthesis Tally
(optional)

Theoretical/Conceptual John Dewey is thought to be the founder of reflection as it relates to

Framework personal learning. Dewey highlighted that reflection in a learning context is not just
a passive recall of an event. Reflection is a deliberate and active process. It is
about thinking to learn. In Dewey’s words it is an “active, persistent and careful
consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the
grounds that support it and further conclusion to which it leads”.
Dewey believed that reflection could be really useful for making sense of
situations or events that we found puzzling or hard to explain. He suggested that
reflection for learning should include recalling the event and then posing questions
to explore why things turned out the way they did and what possible actions could
have given a different outcome. Since Dewey’s initial work a variety of models
have been proposed to capture the components of reflection within learning.
Review of Literature Writing Skill

Tuan (2010) investigates if learners can grow out of the writing difficulties
by engaging in journal writing activity. Through that investigation, the teachers can
measure each learner’s competence, understand their needs, thoughts and feeling
which help them to adjust their ways to learners’ preference and give them
appropriate assistance. The researcher also describes the student statistics on
how they build up their fluency of writing. Journal writing plays an important role in
developing students’ critical thinking skills, and they showed that journal writing
prevented the regression of students’ cognitive skills (Shaarawy, 2014). Examining
the relationship between journal writing and the listening and reading skills, journal
writing started having an impact on enhancing reading and listening
comprehension in the experimental classes; the control class had the lower
percentage of students who passed in the two skills (Saad & Ahmed, 2015).

Reflective Journal and Assessment

Knowing if reflective journals can reveal students’ conceptual development

and if reflective journal does foster growth mindset, journal writing positively
improved students’ learning of the concepts. It clearly indicated those who

3
understood the concepts and gave an opportunity for the others to review the
concept. These results have important implications for the EFL student in a
content classroom as it contributes to the development of learners’ skills in
understanding concepts and their growth mindset (Hussein, 2018). As per Lakshmi
(2014) which attempted an investigation of the role of reflective practice in
enhancing ESL teachers’ awareness of their own classroom, found themselves
(teachers) gaining a deeper understanding of several classroom issues that led
them to try out the alternative ideas in their classrooms and they describe the
experience empowering and transformative in their personal growth and
professional development.

Conducting a portfolio assessment and reflection on process writing, help

students to enhance their reflective skills and to develop a sense of responsibility
for their own professional development (Hassaskhah & Sharifa, 2011).

Assessing the reflectivity levels of pre-service language teachers through

journal suggests the integration and use of such reflective tools at prior levels at
teacher education programs would be beneficial since familiarity and awareness of
such tools would probably enhance their critical and reflective thinking skills, which
is one of the major components of being an effective practitioner (Hülya & Yonca,
2018).

Reflective Journal Writing as Learning Assessment

Glogger et al. (2012) said that learning strategies assessed by learning

journals predicted learning outcomes. The more elaborative and organizational
strategies students used during writing and the higher the quality of these
strategies, the better their learning outcomes were. It is however suggested for
future research discerning the measures quantity and quality of strategies as well
as looking at different combinations of learning strategies.

There are different learning strategies that can affect the student’s learning
process. Al-Balushi and Al-Rawahi (2015) a research on the effect of reflective
science journal writing on students’ self-regulated learning strategies with the
purpose of exploring the effect of tenth grade science students’ journal writing on
their self-regulation strategies showed that journal writing can improve self-
regulation strategies if it is structured around self-reflections in terms of learning
goals, learning strategies, observations, understanding, feeling, and dialogues with
oneself and others.

Guce (2018) investigates on the influence of journal writing on the Senior

High School students’ attitude towards mathematics. As stated in the findings,
journal writing in a mathematics class activity, showed evidence that benefits to
both the teacher and the students. The students’ take on the usefulness of the
activity tackles two things that journal provides: communication and reflection.
Indeed, journal writing served as an indirect communication between them and the
teacher. In this study, journals were used by the teacher to identify the problems
that the students may have and then eventually improve their attitude toward
mathematics.

It is a great idea for a better observation upon the student’s learning

capacities. Through the suggestion of the study of McCallum (2013), journal
writing can foster active learning in history education and students showed some
evidence of the personal benefits of engaging actively in their learning.

4
Background of the Many students, at one point or another, struggle with writing. One of the
Study most effective ways to help improve your writing skills is reflective journal writing.
Journal writing is an instructional and learning tool which is used in various
ways in teaching. Many educators use reflective journal writing for enhancing
learning and language fluency development. There are several potential benefits
for learners in reflective journal writing such as enhancing students’ intellectual
growth and knowledge through research. In the field of teaching, writing has long
been considered a supporting skill for reinforcing new grammatical concepts and
recycling vocabulary at the sentence level, (Kepner, 2011).
Reflective journals have also been found to enhance the learning process
as this practice bridges the gap between what the learners are doing and what
they should be doing (Cathro, O'Kane, & Gilbertson, 2017). Studies have shown
that learning while reflecting on the metacognitive process is an important way of
learning, however, it is not spontaneously learned and it must be taught (Wallin &
Adawi, 2017).
This study needs to devote more time to the experiment and to apply it to
other disciplines in order to be able to measure the effect of reflective journal
writing on the development of students. The sample size was small; therefore,
future similar research should be done on a larger sample.
Research Questions/ The main purpose of the study is to assess the writing competency of the students
Objective particularly the Grade 12 students.
Specifically, it aims to answer the following questions:
1. What are the factors that affect the writing competency of the students?
2. How can reflective journal writing improve the thinking skill of the students?

Significance of the The study will be of significance to the students, teachers and future
Proposed Study researchers. Reflective writing can benefit students by enhancing reflection,
facilitating critical thought, expressing feelings, and writing focused arguments.
The teachers will reflect on how they would improve their teaching strategy
through reflective writing. It’s great for reflecting on teaching practice and noting
things that have worked well and noting things that simply haven’t worked and
ended up being a complete waste of time. Therefore, they don’t need to repeat
them.
It gives way to wider understanding and gives help and guidance to the
future researchers which will attempt to widen the coverage of this study.

Research Simulacrum/
Research Paradigm
Methods Research Design: Descriptive Quantitative research design will be used. This
involves description, interpretation and numerical analysis.

Locale of the Study: The research is to be conducted in the University of Saint

Louis, Tuguegarao City in the Senior High School department particularly the
Grade 12 students.

Subjects/Participants: The respondents of the study are the Grade 12 students

enrolled in the school year 2018-2019.
5
 Instrument (Including Data Measures): The researchers will let the respondents
do reflective journal writing prompts. This is to assess the writing competency of
the students.

Data Gathering Procedure: The selected respondents from the random sample
will make reflective journal writing prompts following the rubrics given to them.

Data Analyses

APPENDICES: 1. Literature Matrix