Learning Journals

Citation

Mumford, A. (2001), "Learning Journals", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 33 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict.2001.03733aae.001

Learning Journals

Learning Journals

Jennifer MoonKogan Page1999£15.99ISBN 0749430451

Keywords: Learning, Training techniques, Record-keeping

The idea of keeping a learning journal, learning log, learning diary has become more popular in training and education, particularly over the last 20 years. As Moon points out, its popularity as a process is associated with a growing recognition of the need for reflection in any effective learning process. This book would prove a useful guide for any facilitator considering the introduction of learning journals for the first time, but would also provide, as in my own case, a helpful means of checking what a facilitator already provides in this field. I was struck, for example, by the author's description of "dialogue journals" – "a conversation between two or more people, each responding to the other's entries". The idea implicit here of converting e-mails from merely an exchange of knowledge or comment into a more effective learning process will be an important development for some facilitators.

Moon provides direct and helpful guidance on the processes involved in "writing reflectively" and moves to a description of the 18 different purposes she has found for learning journals. She gives useful illustrations of different forms of journal writing, and sets out the different contexts, particularly of education and professional development, in which learning journals might have a strong role. Of the practical chapters, perhaps the most useful is "Starting to write a learning journal", which sets out the variety of issues which need to be considered before individuals are set on the way. Particularly significant are issues of trust and confidentiality, and the associated point of the audience for the learning journal.

While I recommend the purchase of this book, for the reasons given at the beginning of this review, there are some questionable features. It is full of academic references, as if the author felt the need to justify some common tutorial experience by emphasizing that academics have come to the same point of view. I felt that this might be rather off-putting to, for example, trainers. As an associated point, the number of references to her own earlier work on reflection were unnecessary – as if she needed to defend herself against a charge of self-plagiarism. This point about academic references is more important in the lack of provision of specific cases of examples of learning journals, after the first chapter. Specific illustrations would have been helpful, as would some attention to the issue of how to encourage people to keep learning journals at the workplace, rather than in the formal education and training settings which the author primarily describes.

The final problem about the resource is expressed in her comment: "Some learners will have no difficulty in getting started on writing a journal but others will seem perhaps not to understand the task". Her reasons for this include not seeing the relevance of it, the lack of time, or an inability to focus on the task. While she refers to the possible use of Kolb's learning cycle or a learning styles instrument as a means of introducing people to learning journals, she has not in the book recognised the crucial significance of both of these in helping to explain why some learners will not want to undertake learning journals. Understanding of the learning cycle would also have encouraged her to include a serious discussion, and presentation, of ways of achieving action plans resulting from learning journal entries.

Alan Mumford