Abstract:

Reflective thinking is one of the higher-order thinking skills that can be taught to students. With reflective thinking, students can take responsibility for their learning process by identifying their failures. This study aims to determine the effect of learning journals that develop reflective thinking on the academic achievement of high school students. The participants' views on learning journals were also examined. For this purpose, mixed research was preferred, in which quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The "embedded pattern" was used as the research design. This research was conducted at a high school in Bayburt province. A total of 46 students in 10th grade from two different departments of this high school constitute the study group in the quantitative dimension of the research. In the qualitative dimension of the study, all students in the experimental group kept learning journals every week. Interviews were conducted with 10 students who kept diaries. The academic achievement test and the semi-structured interview form were used as data collection tools. The academic achievement test was used to determine the participants' academic achievement, while the semi-structured interview form was used to determine the students' views on learning journals. In this study, quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed using different methods. An independent samples t-test was used to analyze the quantitative data, and content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. The academic achievement test findings revealed that there is no significant difference between the pre-test scores of the experimental and control group students. However, the post-test scores are in favor of the experimental group. It was also observed that learning journals were effective, and students had positive views about these journals.

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