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Critical Reflection of Experience

There are many theories of reflection including John Dewey's experiential learning and David Kolb's learning cycle. In terms of service-learning, Eyler, Giles, and Schmiede (1996) provide a framework called the four c's of reflection.

The Four C's of Reflection:

  1. Continuous - ongoing in education and during service involvement.
  2. Connected - links academic knowledge with real world knowledge and experiences; focuses on the "big picture".
  3. Challenging - challenges students to think in new ways through questions or discussions.
  4. Contextualized - the reflection is appropriate for the service-learning experience.