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Learning Journals:  by Jenny Moon (2006)

 

Jenny Moon  has written a number of books.  Her focus of interest is on the process of human learning, in particular, learning journals, critical thinking and learning outcomes in programme development.  She has not only worked in most sectors of education but also in the health service and sports coaching.  

 

It has been some time since Moon wrote her handbook on learning journals.  At that time she stated that the term 'learning journal' was not used consistently.  Moon defines the learning journal in the following way and provides us with a definition which will aid our confidence as we produce our own learning journal for our visual arts practice.

 

'Learning journals come in all shapes and sizes.  They are for public and private reading.  They include versions on paper, tape, video, graphic ‘notebooks’, and electronic forms where something that is in effect a journal might be called a blog.' 

 

Moon stresses that a learning journal will be written over a period of time and is not a one–off effort.   The aim will be to learn from it or (I would use 'and' here) reflect on ideas generated in it.  These are the factors which make learning journal writing different from other kinds of writing. 

 

There are several questions that arise in my mind as I consider the aims of the learning journal.  Firstly, how do we know we are learning through using it and secondly how do we reflect on our ideas generated in it.  The latter question is the most important for me as this is a difficult task.  Learning from the work in your journal will take time but how do we measure this learning and who will measure it?   These are questions I look forward to being answered as I read on.

(Work in progress.)

 

References

Moon, Jenny. (2006). Using Learning Journals with students:  some guidance materials for tutors or those writing journals.  [Accessed: 22nd November, 2014]

 

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