Supporting Arts and Humanities Student Development and Progression through Integrating Reflection into Personal Tutoring

Reflective learning involves ‘learning how to take perspective on one’s own actions and experience…to allow the possibility of learning through experience’ (Amulya, 2004, p1). Reflection has a strong tradition within education, nursing, and professional studies (Rogers, 2001) but is less common within the Arts and Humanities. As reflection’s potential for supporting student progression and holistic development is increasingly understood (Hughes, 2004), different ways that reflection can be embedded in personal tutoring across disciplines has begun to be explored (Bassett, 2014).
This case study examines how reflective practices were integrated into personal tutoring in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Warwick in 2018/19, and the positive impact this had on students’ experiences of personal tutoring and wider learning. It also discusses how reflective learning resources were co-designed with students. The study shows that teaching students how to reflect on their holistic development through personal tutoring helps empower them to manage their academic, personal and career progression at university and beyond.