Student reflections on proficiency with learning objectives: Early semester actions and plans

Students do not always engage in self-reflection when assessing their learning. This makes it difficult for students to plan and act to improve their ability to learn. Structured self-reflection was implemented in a first-year engineering course to provide students with an explicit opportunity to assess their learning. This approach was used in combination with a standards-based grading (SBG) strategy so that students could connect their abilities with clear and transparent learning objectives. A qualitative analysis of students' week 3 and 5 reflections was completed to generate a method (and codebook) for analysing students' reflections. This analysis revealed a variety of plans, actions, and connections to the course learning objectives self-reported by students. The SBG plus selfreflection structure shows promise as a transparent means of training students to self-regulate their learning.