The work-reflection-learning cycle - Department of Computer and ...

A Model of Retrospective Reflection in Project Based Learning 425
worthwhile examining retrospectively depends on what the team considers important
issues. These might have been identified prior to retrospective reflection, but may also
emerge from the examination of the historical data as seen in [11] and Fig.2.
Synchronous, distributed work among pairs of SD team members is frequently
supported by instant messaging chat. Such conversation has an oral flavor, often
combining there-and-then problem resolution with social chit-chat. Instant messaging
logs exemplify historical data that for privacy reasons may be inadequate for retrospective
reflection even if the contents are of potential interest to the team.
The social distribution of retrospective reflection is also about which participants
are involved, e.g. whether reflection is done individually or by the whole team
together. In the SD teams, recall of events was essential in the construction of individual
and shared timelines [10, 11]. Research on transactive memory, “a set of individual
memory systems in combination with the communication that takes place between
individuals” [34], shows that in collaborative remembering, comparing groups
of people who have a history of remembering together (e.g. as colleagues or as family
members) with groups people who have not, those who are used to repeatedly remembering
together have the most efficient systems for doing so [35, 36]. In close
relationships, responsibility for knowing is distributed, with the effect that some information
is differentiated and non-redundant whereas other is shared. However,
research indicates that the collective remembering skills that a group of people has
developed through experience are only an advantage in a situation of remembering if
the group is allowed to use these skills [37]. Translated to the context of project based
learning, we may take these results to indicate that recall of project events benefits if
project members can draw on the collaboration expertise developed through their
project work. The retrospective use of collaborative tools well known from day-today
work may be part of this.
Findings from the research field of social contagion of memory indicate that there
is a tendency for participants in collaborative remembering to be influenced by others
in the remembering process, individual memory thus being distorted [38, 39]. This
research is however based on experiments far from real-life work. Recent research on
memory of events that are real, complex and significant in people’s lives show that
collective memory is qualitatively different from individual memory in these settings
[40, 41]. In project based learning, the inclusion of individual as well as collective
steps of recall and reflection may serve as a way of exploiting the positive effects of
recalling alone as well as those of doing it in concert.
The empirical research on SD student projects outlined in Section 2 indicated that
creating a shared representation based on individual ones results in more knowledge
than that found in the individual, external representations [10]. However, those who
had the most expertise with a certain aspect of work tended to dominate the team’s
shared, externalized view of that aspect of work [11]. Research stating that expertise
is a combination of the expert, his environment and the tools he uses [23] underpin
these findings. Apart from being a source of power differences, however, expertise is
an important resource for using collaborative tools as cognitive tools for reflection.
We conclude from this section that the historical data in collaborative tools are important
resources in unveiling different aspects of project work involving different
team members, although the value of using a particular tool in a specific case must be
considered. A combination of individual and collective reflection seems feasible.
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