Pushing the Boundaries of Reflection: The Answer’s on a postcard

Abstract

This article presents a correspondence project completed during the 2019-2020 academic year. To encourage reflection and create divergent modes of expression, teaching staff paired undergraduate students across modules and gave them a blank postcard each week. The students’ brief was an open one - to reflect on their educational experience surrounding the modules with textual and visual representations. The emotionality and expressions of identity that flowed through the postcards were striking. This lent itself to a personally impassioned criticality, meaningful dialogue and more holistic observations on how learning took place.

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Pushing the Boundaries of Reflection: The
Answer’s on a postcard
Mark Pope1, Elizabeth Hauke2, Nadia Davis3, Rasika Kale4,
Anastasia Kolesnikova5 & Ting Lee6
Centre for Languages, Culture and Communications, Imperial College London,
UK
Correspondence: 1mark.pope@imperial.ac.uk, 2e.hauke@imperial.ac.uk,
3ak5g21@soton.ac.uk, 4NadiaDavisx@outlook.com, 5rkale2@alumni.jh.edu,
6leetingan99@gmail.com
Twitter/X: 5@natplantsci,
ORCID: 20000-0001-6397-9103, 50000-0003-1227-1580, 0000-0001-9403-9069
Abstract
This article presents a correspondence project completed during the 2019-
2020 academic year. To encourage reflection and create divergent modes
of expression, teaching staff paired undergraduate students across
modules and gave them a blank postcard each week. The students’ brief
was an open one - to reflect on their educational experience surrounding
the modules with textual and visual representations. The emotionality and
expressions of identity that flowed through the postcards were striking.
This lent itself to a personally impassioned criticality, meaningful dialogue
and more holistic observations on how learning took place.
Keywords: reflection; reflective practitioners; arts-based research; co-
operative inquiry; multi-modal communications
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The importance of reflection has long been recognized in educational
literature (Dewey, 1933; Kolb, 1984; Schon, 1991), including literature on
Higher Education (see Ryan and Ryan 2012; Tan, 2021). Now, in the 21st
century and in the context of fast-paced societal change (Schwab, 2016),
Lifelong Education, as education that continues beyond any classroom or
workplace (Faure et al., 1972), is more relevant than ever. Universities do
recognise the corresponding need to equip students with skills to enable
their learning beyond official education institutions - see for example, the
Learning and Teaching Strategy of the university in which this project was
based (Imperial College, 2018). Therefore, how we can further develop
students’ aptitude to reflect on their learning and develop their meta-
learning skills – their ability to understand how they themselves learn - is
a valid focus of attention for this article.
In the pages below, we use our project to draw attention to how
approaches to reflective practice could be added to with a new method.
Ironically, we turned to the postcard, as a medium popular in a bygone era
to offer insight. Our method required students to exchange postcards
reflecting on their educational experience, where they created both the
text and image on the different sides of the postcard. It was therefore a
multi-modal activity that benefited from the potential of arts-based
research, combined with an interactive peer-to-peer dialogue.
Through their shared reflections, students could develop their own
learning practice, and in this respect, the students were acting as reflexive
practitioners. The project therefore had pedagogical value as the students
improved their own capacity to learn. The project also served as a research
project investigating how reflective practice and meta-learning could be
expanded upon more broadly. More specifically, as our method focuses on
improving practice through research, it can be considered action research.
Furthermore, as the students were analysing their own learning, the
students can be considered to be ‘auto-action researchers’ (see Hauke
2022 for further discussion of the term). The four students on this project
are accordingly named as co-authors. In this article, we are therefore
documenting how such an interactive multi-modal method can meet the
twin objectives of enhancing individual pedagogical experience and
providing insightful research for a broader audience.
In conceiving this project, we were inspired by two previous projects.
Firstly, the Dear Data project (Lupi & Posavec, 2016) an example of where
weekly postcards were created and exchanged by two ‘pen-pals’ to
represent data concerning an aspect of their lives. This analogue format
demonstrated the potential for expressing new perspectives through this
medium. Secondly, one of the authors, Elizabeth Hauke (2018) had
previously presented research on authentic co-production that involved

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students across year groups discussing their experiences on different
modules. This demonstrated how dialogue across modules could facilitate
rich analysis. The postcard project that we present, was informed by these
two projects in that it involved an analogue postcard exchange and
reflection on learning experiences across student cohorts in different year
groups.
Our Open Approach
We would like to frame our approach to this project with an
acknowledgement of how it sits in the context of relevant literature and
practice. John Dewey (1910/1933) is widely cited as an early influential
theorist on learning and reflection. Dewey (1933: 1) summarised his
position on reflective thinking by stating that it was ‘the kind of thinking
that involves turning a subject over in the mind and giving it serious and
consecutive consideration’ (emphasis added). In turn, Graham Gibb’s
(1988) reflective cycle proposes that reflection progresses with six stages,
starting with description through to a new action plan, and David Kolb’s
(1984) experiential learning cycle proposed that reflection was one of four
key steps in continued improvement and development. Finally, Donald
Schon (1991) introduced the notions of ‘reflection-in-action’ undertaken
during the period of learning; and then ‘reflection on action’ as reflection
that is undertaken after the period of learning. All of these influential
theorists emphasise the link between reflection and learning, and also of
the learner being an active participant in determining what they learn.
While we strongly support these ideas, we feel that the approaches above
adopt a rather linear approach to reflection through the implication that
reflective thinking can be segmented and follow a predetermined series of
steps (James and Brookfield, 2014). Moreover, while a strictly rational
approach is invaluable for reflection and critical thinking, it can also leave
room for alternative approaches that are better placed to foster a holistic
and contextualised appreciation of learning.
The approach we adopted here is more in line with Alison James and
Steven Brookfield (2014). They call for educators to move beyond viewing
reflection as a solely cognitive process and to engage with the messier
ways in which it can take place. This involves a recognition of the
embodied, non-linear, multi-sensory modes of reflection. James and
Brookfield (Ibid) cite Guy Claxton’s distinction between hard and soft
thinking and argue that hard thinking is too often prioritised. Hard thinking
is where the thought is deliberate, structured, and purposeful. Soft
thinking involves relaxed, contemplative thought where ideas might arise
now or later and there is less of a strict structure. Whilst aligning with
James and Brookfield (Ibid), we believe that our project is distinguished
from others by the high level of freedom provided for the students, and its

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promotion of softer thinking, combined with the requirement to engage
in multi-modal dialogue with a peer.
Another study of interest to us was presented by Pretorius and Ford (2016)
who provided their students with open prompts for a reflective journal,
and they complemented this with peer discussion. By empowering
students to lead themselves they reported the students appreciating the
value of reflection for their own learning – and they therefore called this
approach ‘reflection for learning’. They succeeded in facilitating a method
founded on self-discovery and interactive reflection. Such openness
appealed to us and we aimed to facilitate it in our approach. However, in
the studies mentioned above, there is still a lack of research into how arts-
based or affective domains can aid reflection, and we set out to explore
this potential.
Exploring the reflective potential of arts-based approaches
Arts-based research employs the many tools of 'the Arts’ to engage in
research. This could include anything from fine art to narratives, poetry or
performance - and we believe that the method that we adopted allowed
us to benefit from some of its key qualities.
We aimed to capitalise on how arts-based approaches to evaluation,
reflection, and research can prompt different perspectives (McNiff, 1998;
Allen, 1995; Skukauskaite et al., 2022; Simons & McCormick, 2007). By
employing a visual medium, we aimed to facilitate new ways of thinking,
as suggested by Ward and King in their comments on how drawing and art
can be liberating:
Methods rooted in verbal and textual modes of communication require
linear representations of time and causality. Providing participants
with, what is literally an entirely blank canvas, liberates them from
boundaries imposed by other methods. They are free to depict events,
feelings, ideas and reactions in ways that are non-linear, non-binary
and non-logical. (Ward & King, 2020: 20)
Creating an image can free the students from structures or constraints that
modes of expression based on verbal discussion or writing can impose.
We were informed by the work of Sandra Weber (2008) and thereby aware
that our employment of arts-based research could facilitate greater
expressions in the affective domain. In addition, Simons and McCormick
(2007) note how arts-based research can simultaneously facilitate the
communication of both the intellectual and the intuitive – as the
researcher invests their whole selves into the work, or as the viewer
interprets their creations. By traversing rational-intuitive distinctions,
boundaries can be transgressed and the research produced can be unique

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and richly detailed (in a different way from the detail provided by written
modes of communication). Aligned with this, Brown et al., (2021) found
that by creating ‘zines’ – as both text and visual-based media – young
learners expressed personalized reflections on educational experiences in
new and liberating ways, as the makers of the zines became the creators
and the ‘expert’ on their experience.
Leary et al. (2014: 230) note that the freedom of such creative
methodologies does bring a degree of risk as the role of the researcher
changes; also through the creation of art the researchers effectively put
their ‘personality on the line’. We embrace this risk, and its potential for
new insight, with some qualifications (see below our discussion of ethical
issues). Whilst this novelty and focus on creativity can be intimidating,
Sean McNiff (1998: 16) proposes that: ‘the truly distinguishing feature of
creative discovery is the embrace of the unknown’; and we were
convinced by his argument against a prescriptive or standardized approach
to arts-based research in order that we could maintain openness and
creativity.
Exploring the reflective potential of dialogical approaches
Our researchers present their ideas through two modes - image and
written text. In addition to the presentation through two modes, we
propose that with the sharing of these through correspondence, the
opportunities to discuss, reflect, and develop distinctive ideas are again
increased.
Correspondence has been used as a method to facilitate participatory
research before, and notably on sensitive topics (e.g., to engage with
prisoners – see Stamper, 2020). Paulina Rautio (2009) also highlights the
special impact that correspondence has due to the longer period of time
required to create it and then also for the interlocutors to read it and reply.
We wanted to capitalize on this potential for meaningful dialogue to
enhance reflection and our use of correspondence as an interactive
medium draws on the principles of co-operative inquiry, as advocated by
John Heron (Heron & Sohmer, 2019). Like our project, co-operative inquiry
is collaborative. It brings together people with a common interest and one
of its key tenets is that ‘good research is research with people rather than
on people’ (Reason, 1999: 1). Co-operative inquiry also adopts what Heron
(Heron & Sohmer, 2019: 209) calls an ‘extended epistemology’ – that goes
‘beyond the ways of knowing of positivist-oriented academia’.
Accordingly, we aimed to assist our students to reflect on all aspects of
their learning experience and to present it through modes that go beyond
solely abstract theoretical knowledge. For instance, we facilitated the use
of more of what Heron calls ‘imaginal knowing’ (Heron & Sohmer,

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2019:209), derived from the production of imagery, art and other creative
elements.
Co-operative inquiry also involves rounds of reflection and action, thereby
aligning with our project as our students acted as ‘auto-action researchers’
(Hauke, 2022). However, our method offers more freedom than Heron’s
approach in that co-operative inquiry advocates clear ‘cycles of inquiry’
(Heron & Sohmer, 2019: 208) where participants consecutively reflect and
act in a number of set phases.
By engaging in a more open written and visual dialogue with another
student on a different module, our method aimed to use the multi-modal
format to provoke deeper evaluation and reflective thought. The discourse
would be generated and very much led by the participants across different
cohorts, with them comparing and contrasting their different learning
experiences. We anticipated that such an interactive comparative
approach could facilitate more criticality and we set out to investigate how
well we achieved that. Following on from this, a key objective was to
enable students to organically engage in ‘domain generality’ in their
metacomprehension. The importance of this is highlighted by the former
Editor of the journal Metacognition and Learning, Roger Azevedo (2020).
‘Domain generality’ in metacognition can be used in a variety of domains
and situations and it contrasts with ‘domain specificity’ where
metacognition would need to be learned for each task or domain in which
it is used. The need for flexibility, adaptability, and capability to transfer
skills and knowledge to a range of situations in the 21st Century means that
such transferable metacognitive abilities are particularly useful today
(Ibid). Moreover, with this holistic approach, our project can be better
defined as facilitating ‘meta-learning’ and understanding of how learning
more broadly happens, as opposed to specifically metacognition.
To summarise, we provided an open approach. Open in terms of what we
told the students to include. As Ruikytė (2021: 89) noted on her co-
creation project with students at Warwick, and as supported by Palmer’s
(1998) work on Arts management, sensitivity is required with artists ‘not
to interfere with and disturb their creative freedom’. In our project, in
order to provide appropriate space for the students, the content was
therefore not prescribed for our students – however, it was our choice of
medium and our set up of how participants could communicate that was
structured. One of the justifications given for more structured or
interventionist approaches to developing reflection in students is that it
can allow educators to rectify overly descriptive tendencies, particularly
when students are writing individual journals (Hume, 2009). However, we
wanted to explore whether our cross-cohort, multi-modal, interactive

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method would provoke criticality and insight that was generated and
developed dialogically between the students themselves.
We believe that this review of the literature demonstrates the potential
for how arts-based research can open up students’ perspectives to
consider different elements of their learning, particularly surrounding the
affective domain. This, combined with the dialogicality of the project, led
us to two research questions which could demonstrate the value of our
method.
Research Questions
First, does our interactive and multi-modal method of reflection lead to
more emotional expression; and, second, does it lead to new forms of
criticality.
The Set Up for Exchanging Postcards
The essential participants on which this whole project was contingent
were, of course, the four students who exchanged the postcards on their
educational experiences. We were given a small amount of funding from
our university that was sufficient to pay for postage stamps and to
compensate a maximum of four students for their time. The students
were recruited by inviting all students studying Dr Mark Pope’s modules
to apply to take part and then selecting four students based on their
application emails. Two of the selected students were studying a
Third/Fourth Year Undergraduate module called Creative Futures (Rasika
Kale and Ting Lee) and they were paired with two more students studying
Second Year modules called Global Village: Innovation Challenge
(Anastasia Kolesnikova) and Global Village: Visual Arts Challenge (Nadia
Davis) respectively – with these pairings, students wrote to someone in a
different year and studying a different module. The module Creative
Futures aims to introduce students to qualitative tools to help them
approach the future more proactively; whilst the Global Village modules
provide students with a case study to inspire them to produce either an
innovative design (Global Village: Innovation Challenge) or an art exhibit
(Global Village: Visual Arts Challenge). All of the modules are provided
under the Change Makers umbrella of interdisciplinary modules (Imperial
College, 2022). The modules predominantly employ active learning
strategies and involve student-led enquiry-based learning, where students
choose their exact focus – but it is a focus on a real-world case study or
theme. This distinctive mode of study can be challenging for students, as
they are given greater autonomy, decision-making responsibilities, and
opportunities to be creative.

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The modules were 20 weeks long and we asked the students to exchange
one postcard each week reflecting on their educational experience,
creating an image on one side and writing on the other. Students
addressed their postcards to our staffroom and sent them through the
postal service. Dr Mark Pope would deliver the postcards to the partners
at their next class. This also provided the teaching staff with the
opportunity to monitor the cards and speak to students if there were any
concerns regarding their content. On occasions when there were delays in
sending or receiving the cards the teaching staff could therefore
communicate with both partners to keep them informed. Otherwise,
when delivering the postcards, Dr Pope limited his comments to open or
reaffirming statements that were mostly aimed at ensuring the students
had the confidence to continue as they were.
This project received ethical approval from the university before it
commenced and in an introductory session staff and students discussed
issues concerning the revelation of personal information. We discussed
how the postcards would enter the public domain - to be read by their
partners, by those involved in their postage, and by a wider audience at
the end of the project. Therefore, the students were advised to only
include comments and themes that they were comfortable sharing. In
addition, the students were asked again at the end of the project to
provide consent to share their work. Finally, for this article, students read
drafts and approved the use of the quotes and images used. We did also
intend the project to be one that would support student well-being.
Therefore, we asked students to not spend too much time each week on
the postcards and made clear that we understood the need for delays in
completing them at some points.
Postcards were photographed by the recipients and by Dr Pope. Then the
entire collection was shared electronically before the very end of the
project so that the students could reflect more broadly on the whole
experience with their final postcards. By this time in Spring 2020, the
university was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and these reflections
were therefore made on final postcards delivered electronically.
The key aim in this setup was to encourage students to choose to focus
their postcards and reflections on what they felt was most relevant to their
own particular learning. Dr Pope provided an initial introductory session
eliciting from the student researchers how they might share their
experiences. This resulted in the student researchers suggesting dozens of
possible themes that might be covered, and ways in which they might be
conveyed, visually and in writing. Continuous detailed feedback from staff
or obligations to use designated categories was something that we wanted
to avoid. The brief was intended to be liberating, and the focus was

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developed by the students as they responded to each other’s
correspondence.
We emphasised that the students were free to comment on and depict the
aspects of their educational experience that they wanted to, and although
the focus was likely to be on the corresponding week of that module, any
context that impacted their experience from their other studies or life
outside of university would be welcomed. Therefore, the students, acting
as auto-action researchers, were tasked to interpret what was relevant
and appropriate. They could use whatever resources they liked, as long as
the postcard could be sent through the postal service. For instance, one
student, (Ting Lee), regularly discussed his experience with an additional
student, (Vy Lai), and she helped create the visuals with him. Arts- based
research does encourage the employment of expression that moves
beyond the rational, including at the analytical stage, and we set up our
student researchers to embrace this in a safe process that we monitored
throughout. Students commented that they enjoyed the project and we
hope that you will now enjoy their work that is presented and analysed
below.
Postcards as multi-modal reflective practice
We found that the postcards did facilitate the expressions of diverse types
and intensities of emotionality and criticality - not commonly seen by
teaching staff in reflective journals. These elements were also not
exclusive to each other, as much of the criticality was imbued with passion
and was developed and enhanced through the exchanges. However, in
order to frame our analysis in relation to our research questions we have
divided the analysis below into two sections focusing first on emotionality
and then on criticality and dialogicality.
Emotionality
At times the feelings represented on the postcards were intense and raw.
The expression of tension created by assessment was explicit on both the
written and visual sides of the postcards. This was notable in reference to
the examination weeks on students’ core degree programmes but was also
evident in the lead-up to assignment deadlines.

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Figure 1: ‘My patience is Breaking’, by Anastasia
Figure 2: ‘Examinations Exhaustion’, by Nadia
These images convey the physical impact of studying for a STEM
undergraduate degree and we found that the postcards effectively
represented affective impact. Sarah Weber (2008: 44) suggests that the
use of visuals can indeed prompt an ‘embodied approach’ that recognises
how people are ‘flesh and blood beings learning through their senses’. This
can be seen more explicitly in the images below.

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Figure 3: 'Together', by Nadia
Figure 4: 'The Emotion of Pain', by Nadia
In contrast to the tension in the above postcards, there was also a clarity
surrounding the positive emotion portrayed on the completion of an
assignment. Rasika and Ting (below) celebrated the completion of projects
with the symbolism of colour, finish lines, completed jigsaws and balloons.

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Figure 5: 'Final Piece of the Jigsaw', by Rasika
Figure 6: 'Completed Assignment', by Ting

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Figure 7: ‘The Finish’, by Rasika
This prominence of emotions throughout the collection was conspicuous,
partly because emotions are often overlooked in academic analysis. When
they are evaluated or reflected upon, the accompanying analysis can be
encouraged to be ‘rational and distanced’ (University of Edinburgh, 2009).
Therefore, it was striking that in their visual depictions of the educational
experience centred around academic modules, the students appeared
especially free to convey them emotionally.
The emotions that were expressed through the images were also referred
to on the written sides of the postcards. For example, on both the written
and visual sides of the postcards, students expressed how they felt. In the
postcard Nadia sent after the first week of her module she wrote: ‘I can
already feel this course will challenge my interpersonal and creative skills
(...) The artwork I produced on front is a representation of how I felt.’
Figure 8: 'The Faces of Change', by Nadia

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However, through the visual mode, some of the delineation and
boundaries contained in the written medium appear to have been opened
up. Although complementary to the text, the images could be interpreted
as providing something more. In the image above (Figure 8) they prompt
questions about identities, and the identity of Nadia’s team that has yet to
be established.
Roger Azevedo (2020) calls for researchers to investigate whether
metacognition involves both conscious and subconscious processing. We
believe that the visuals, with their connotations, tap into complexities
surrounding more subconscious thinking and feeling, and were effective
at conveying the less tangible, less certain, or more multi-dimensional.
Figure 9: 'Looking Up', by Ting
The multiple layers of potential meaning can be seen in the above image
created for the first week of the Creative Futures module. In the top left,
the title ‘looking up’ is just visible. This could represent the feelings
experienced by Ting when starting a new module, with new colleagues and
embarking on a new mode of learning. And/or, it could be more specific,
related to the Futures Studies on the module, and the potential for
studying linear approaches to progress that stop before the sky is reached,
or simply being daunted by the continued developments of modernity.
There is also a strong sense of claustrophobia and overwhelm in the image
that could be related to Ting, or the module content. This visual metaphor
does not specify, but it can leave the viewer to contemplate – and the
postcard above exemplified how the multi-modal format not only enabled
the presentation of visceral experience but it could provoke multiple layers
of thinking and feeling. The examples above have addressed our first
research question and provided indications of how our method facilitated
emotions surrounding learning to be depicted in many ways - reflecting
those experienced by the creator of the postcard, but also the viewer. As

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we shall see below, shared or collective experiences were also represented
effectively and in a dialogical manner, and this impacted on criticality.
Criticality and Dialogicality
With regard to our second research question on criticality, we shall now
consider how the students expressed themselves and their interests with
a criticality that was infused with passion. This criticality was one that
students were personally invested in, and our analysis indicates how the
students often developed their critical points through discussion and the
shared construction of their own identities. Crucially, the correspondence
between students on different modules with the multi-modal format was
conducive to exchanges and critiques on learning at a deeper level. The
dialogue that emerged through correspondence did appear to enhance
this further as students pushed each other to think in new directions and
validated their collective experiences.
Critiques of social issues evident in the world or the communities that they
were studying were made by students, and again with a passion personal
to them. Rasika, who was studying Creative Futures, was keen to address
societal inequality, and she expressed this both in writing and through
images.
Figure 10: 'Exhibit 1 and Exhibit 2', by Rasika
The above postcard represented two interdisciplinary topics that she was
considering choosing to research further for the module - health inequity
and pandemics, or menstrual equity. The discussion and depictions
surrounding her choice of topic inspired her postcard partner, Nadia, who
later reflected:

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Something that I found useful was when you shared your own
discussions and group ideas with me. This allowed me to see your
thought processes behind the ideas and gave me an insight into how
you personally would approach some of the issues in our case study
community. (Nadia, Written Comment)
Nadia said she was inspired by thinking about the approach Rasika would
‘personally’ bring. Nadia adapted her approach to her case study
community and proceeded to produce these images in the subsequent
weeks, critiquing injustices that she had researched:-
Figure 11: ‘Landlords’, by Nadia

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Figure 12: 'Revolutionary', by Nadia
Figure 13: 'A thought which I think everyone around the world should have', by Nadia
These images represent key issues on which critical theory can be based –
such as anti-capitalism, revolution, or environmentalism. There is also a
conspicuous feminine quality to both Nadia’s and Rasika’s cards. In this
way, both students had adopted a personal and critical approach to issues
in the wider world that they themselves and their postcard partner might
relate to, empathise with, and support.

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Criticality was also evident in approaches toward the study and research
methods that students were introduced to in their modules. The use of
some methods based in the humanities required more qualitative analysis
from the students. Through the postcards, the students could evaluate the
methods whilst simultaneously affirming their identity as science students.
Anastasia wrote:
We used Soft Systems Methodology which is something they use in
social studies "research". I refuse to call it science out of personal
reasons and distaste. (Anastasia, Written comment)
However, Anastasia subsequently praised the benefits of Soft Systems
Methodology, evaluating its strengths, including its capacity to enable
exploration of how stakeholders interact.
Ting reciprocated with critiques of social scientific methods employed in
the Creative Futures module. These also utilised a non-positivistic
approach. One method proposed that linguistic elements, such as
metaphor and myth, construct other layers of the social and cultural world
such as ideology and systems. Ting stated that the method is like ‘a stack
of pancakes – sure, there may be lots of layers but there are no “root
causes” of language hiding under the surface keeping everything afloat’.
Figure 14: 'Causal Layered Analysis - A Stack of Pancakes', by Ting
This metaphor provides an interesting visual critique of the
poststructuralist method. However, the point we want to highlight here is
that Ting also framed his critique with a reference to his identity. He wrote:

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I find it disconcerting to disagree with something being taught to me,
because as a science student the facts and theorems are unarguable,
but I guess learning humanities requires us to challenge and evaluate a
possibly different approach. (Ting, Written comment)
This is an example of how the medium prompted reflection on identity and
then the sharing of these reflections – highlighted above through Ting’s
use of personal and collective pronouns (I, me and us). The shared
evaluative critiques went beyond discrete disciplines and noticeably the
positions taken by students were linked to identity - either students’ own
identity, or to those they relate to or empathise with.
Higher Order Skills
Our method led to a significant amount of theoretical analysis and critical
comment on higher-order skills. With the different contexts of the
different modules being studied – albeit with the similarities between
Change Makers modules – there were a number of postcards where
students engaged in dialogue on teamwork, working with others,
creativity, and feedback.
Figure 15: ‘The mind is nothing but a million neurons working together.
Creativity is collaboration all the way down’, by Ting

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Figure 16: 'Creativity: we create our own prison', by Anastasia
For instance, on the above postcard Anastasia conveyed the challenges of
generating ideas. Ting and Anastasia pursued this theme on both sides of
a number of postcards, discussing the perils of the ‘blank page’ and the
‘scary white paper’, and there were recurring references to variations of
this trope as they built on each other’s ideas for how they could improve
their divergent thinking. They provided eloquent multi-modal
commentary that evaluated the pressure points of their creative
processes.
Through their dialogue, written and visual, Anastasia and Ting covered all
the aspects of Gibb’s (1988) reflective cycle: descriptions of what
happened; reporting of feelings; an evaluation of the experience; analysis;
a conclusion; and suggestions for how they would deal with similar
situations in future. However - they went further, pulling out deeper
themes than might have been expected from non-dialogical reflection on
one person’s individual experience in one class. Their exchanges delved
into issues such as the difficulty striving for originality and perfection, and
also the potential therapeutic value of the ‘creative release’. Pairing the
students across modules and across year groups thereby did facilitate
commentary on higher-order skills and other themes that were not
discipline-specific. Moreover - they had developed their thinking through
their dialogue with each other. We can therefore respond to our second
research question positively, reporting that students did develop new
forms of criticality, that were personal to them individually but also as
pairs and as fellow STEM students.

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At the end of the project, students demonstrated a capacity for meta-
learning. Having shared the whole collection electronically, they
recognised the value of holistic self-reflection and practice. This was
evident in two written quotes, with which we will finish our analysis. In her
last postcard, Anastasia discussed how she held an alternative view of
learning following the project:
I have one last question. What do you think learning is? From this
experience, I think my answer before would have been something like
‘acquisition of new stuff/knowledge that you will regularly use as not to
forget’. But after this experience, I am tempted to say that learning is
much more than memorising and practice. It’s the collection of events
and jokes and comments made by your peers, the all-nighters you pull,
the memories you create through classroom activities, the frustrations
and simply the experience of tackling the unknown. What you have
learnt is the experience which draws not only on information, but also
your feelings and thoughts, and what you think of yourself before and
after learning occurred. I don’t know if this makes sense, but I hope it
does. (Anastasia, Written Comment)
The postcards appear to have enabled Anastasia’s evaluation of the more
holistic experience that she calls learning here. Suffice to say, she goes well
beyond a focus on knowledge retention and practice, even recognizing the
importance of continued personal reflexivity.
Also demonstrating a broad consideration of learning and development,
Rasika provided this comment in her final postcard:
As the weeks go on, my own postcards go from theory and method-
based, to more topic-based musings, to an integrated view of my
narrative as part of a whole […] While the postcards mainly focus on
what we did in class, it is evident that I start to apply what I have learnt
when thinking about what is happening in the world around me. These
postcards are primarily a personal record but help paint a vivid picture
of how we grew. [emphasis added] (Rasika, Written comment)
Here Rasika articulates how the collection of postcards documents the
underlying steps of her pedagogical progression, including real-world
applications of her learning. In addition, Rasika picked up on the personal
and social nature of the cards. She observed how the postcards
demonstrated ‘how we grew’, thereby acknowledging the collective
nature of the project, and also its facilitation of the recognition of the
identity and growth of the participants. These comments were made as
students looked back over all four students’ postcards. There were no
prompts given to them and they demonstrated how the students valued
this method of reflection and had developed the capacity to articulate how

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it worked for them. Therefore, we believe that the unique form of co-
operative inquiry that the students engaged in on this project stimulated
evaluation and meta-learning that are rarely seen with other approaches
to reflection.
Conclusion
To conclude, we propose that the collection of postcards presented above
show the potential for such a multi-modal, interactive method. In terms of
emotions, and the first research question, we found that the postcards
facilitated strong expressions of multi-layered emotionality relevant to
students’ contextualized learning experiences. The visual representations
of the physical affective impact of experiences were clear, and at points
were visceral and embodied. We suggest that the intensity and persistence
of emotional aspects indicate that they are integral to educational
reflection and failing to give them prominent consideration, or attempting
to remove them from analysis too early, could side-line a key aspect of
educational experience.
Regarding the second research question, we found the criticality to be
distinctive in that it was more personally invested in, as it was often
directed towards the students themselves or to an issue in the world that
they were passionate about discussing. Ronald Barnett (1997:1) has
suggested that ‘[c]ritical persons are more than just critical thinkers. They
are able critically to engage with the world and with themselves as well as
with knowledge’. We believe that the students demonstrated the capacity
for this here. Indeed, Pat Allen (1995:3) proposes that art can help us
understand our deeper thinking and ‘knowing what it is we actually
believe’. The postcards did provoke the presentation of deeper personal
thinking, which was conducive to an expression of values, empathy with
others, and references to identity. We believe that these elements,
integral to a holistic reflection on learning, are not often promoted - but
the final quotes above demonstrate how transformational they can be for
meta-learning.
The dialogicality evident through the collection was significant too. The
criticality appeared to hold meaning and resonate for students both
individually and as a collective, and we believe this can be attributed to
the collaborative, dialogical nature of the project consistent with
principles of co-operative inquiry. As the students exchanged ideas, they
validated each other and pushed each other to think beyond their
introspective musings. In this way, this visual and written dialogue across
modules facilitated learning and meta-learning across domains.

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Our method did therefore provide more emotional expression and new
types of criticality. In another project, the postcards could be analysed in
further depth, or using other analytical techniques. However, we believe
we have demonstrated the value of our method here.
We also suggest that this method could be repeated, and at scale. We
would recommend that any iterations of this project in higher education
institutions follow our practice of sending the postcards via a staff
member. In this way, the staff can monitor the project and the expressions
presented on the postcards. The students studying these modules were
adept at creating visuals, meaning that they were not representative of
the student body in their technical and artistic skills. However, we propose
that technical skill level should not preclude students from partaking in
such a project and gaining the benefits of multi-modal interactions – as it
is the personal contribution that is key. Moreover, future projects do not
need to be presented as widely as this one and partaking can be voluntary
again, so concerns about sharing artwork can be mitigated.
Through the use of postcards, we changed the format, and genre, of
communicative practice on reflection. The above article shows that it
produced distinctive findings into how learning happened and that this
was valuable from both a research and a pedagogical perspective. The
students themselves developed their capacity to articulate their
experiences, and enhanced their meta-learning; whilst any reader of their
postcards or this article could benefit from the broader insights of the
research. We believe that this project strikingly demonstrates the
potential for more creative and interactive reflective methods. In short,
we wanted to push the boundaries of reflection, and we found the answer
on a postcard.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank and acknowledge the students whose
work is included in this article. All image rights are retained by their
respective creators and are included in this paper with permission.
Dr Mark Pope works in the Change Makers team at
Imperial College adopting creative and sustainable
approaches to Higher Education. He employs critical
and transdisciplinary methods in his research on
communications and pedagogical themes.

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Dr Elizabeth Hauke is a practitioner-researcher in
Higher Education working to promote student centred
active learning. She developed the Live, Love, Learn
approach to curriculum development and classroom
delivery and her research interests focus on
authenticity in education.
Nadia Davis received her Bachelor's and Master's
degree from Imperial College London where she
specialised in Molecular and Cellular Biology. Whilst
completing her undergraduate studies she took part in
the 'Dear Change Maker' postcard project to explore
visual methods of learning.
Rasika Kale is an Operations & Development Manager
at Quincy Asian Resources Inc (QARI), an immigrant-
oriented nonprofit. She holds a Master of Science in
Public Health degree from the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a Bachelor of
Science degree from Imperial College London. Her
professional interests include exploring the nexus of
housing, transportation, and food systems as drivers of
urban health disparities, along with qualitative and
community-based methods for health program
delivery.
Anastasia is a PhD student at the University of
Southampton, working on understanding the
constraints on the domestication of plants. She
completed her bachelor's at Imperial College London.
Her professional interests include bioinformatics, food
security, public engagement, and science education.
Ting received an undergraduate degree in
Biotechnology from Imperial College London and is
now pursuing a DPhil in Engineering at the University
of Oxford with a focus on control of microbial
communities. He is interested in communities (human
and microbial) and enjoys writing about both.
List of Figures
Figure 1: 'My patience is breaking', by Anastasia
Figure 2: ‘Examinations Exhaustion’, by Nadia
Figure 3: ‘Together’, by Nadia
Figure 4: ‘The Emotion of Pain’, by Nadia
Figure 5: ‘Final Piece of the Jigsaw’, by Rasika

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Figure 6: ‘Completed Assignment’, by Ting
Figure 7: ‘The Finish’, by Rasika
Figure 8: ‘The Faces of Change’, by Nadia
Figure 9: 'Looking up', by Ting
Figure 10: ‘Exhibit 1 and Exhibit 2’, by Rasika
Figure 11: 'Landlords’ by Nadia
Figure 12: ‘Revolutionary’ by Nadia
Figure 13: ‘A thought which I think everyone around the world should
have’ by Nadia
Figure 14: ‘Causal Layered Analysis – A Stack of Pancakes’, by Ting
Figure 15: ‘The mind is nothing but a million neurons working together.
Creativity is collaboration all the way down’, by Ting
Figure 16: 'Creativity: we create our own prison', by Anastasia
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To cite this article:
Pope, M., Hauke, E., Davis, N., Kale, R., Kolesnikova, A., & Lee, T., 2024.
Pushing the Boundaries of Reflection: The Answer’s on a postcard.
Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, 11(2), 1-28. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v11i2.1245.