Student perceptions of reflection and the acquisition of higher-order thinking skills in a university sustainability course

Sustainability challenges are complex and call for the effective development of knowledge, skills, and abilities in current and new leaders. New offerings in higher education provide sustainability training to complement studies in geography, engineering, science, and other disciplines, in many cases including innovative experiential learning components – including the use of reflection. Although reflection in education is not a new concept, how to assess reflection has remained challenging. Recent research on the Reflective Learning Framework (RLF) aims to address many of the challenges associated with guiding, assessing, and evaluating student learning through reflections. The objective of this research was to investigate the perceptions of students who use the RLF about their experience using reflection in a sustainability course. Semi-structured interviews with students provide a valuable perspective on the use of reflection. Particularly, findings from this research indicate that students see reflection as a tool to develop and use cognitive and metacognitive skills, and also as a tool to support knowledge retention and transfer. Accordingly, student perspectives on reflection show that this practice contributes to the acquisition of higher-order thinking skills required to address the complex challenges of sustainability.