This document discusses learning journals and their definitions, purposes, and structures. It notes that learning journals involve reflection over time, not just recording facts, and can take various forms like writing, drawings, or audio recordings. Learning journals have fuzzy definitions and can cover personal development, education, or professional development. They can have simple or complex structures depending on their goals. The audience of a learning journal, whether real or imagined, can influence the writer and content.

2. 2 Backgrounds
but they are not logs only in the sense of recording data at particular points in time
or place. An example of the latter would be a ship's log in which data is written
at fixed points in a ship's passage. A learning journal is very likely to include
some factual recording about place or time but for the sense here, it means more
than that. Sometimes a learningjournal, as we have said, is the same as a personal
development plan, a 'progress file' or a record of achievement (NCIHE, 1997;
Cottrell, 2003). It may, likewise, coincide with many aspects of a portfolio in
which a range of leamer's work or evidence of work is accompanied by a reflective
commentary. There are other words that have been or rnay be used to describe
broadly the same activity as the keeping of a learning journal. Old terrns are
'commonplace' or 'common-day' book (Rainer, 1978) which could be descrip-
tive or might have a more constmctive purpose. 'Think place' or 'think book',
'notebook' and 'workbook' are other terms that arise in the literature. There are
some other words such as 'ponder' that rnight be engaged here.
Precisely defining words - such as 'journal' - is unhelpful here because it is a
situation in which the creative development of personal terms is an aspect of the
very process of reflective learning. In this book, by 'learning journal', we refer to
an accumulation of material that is mainly based on the writer's processes of
reflection. The accumulation is made over a period of time, not 'in one go'. The
notion of 'leaming7 implies that there is an overall intention by the writer (or those
who have set the task) that learning should be enhanced. For this reason, the
descriptive diary that never goes further than describing events is not part of the
subject matter of this book. Within this generalized form that we describe here
there are vast creative possibilities with many illustrations of these in this book.
So we are not talking about something with a fixed definition here. The
definition has fuzzy edges. For example, the idea of writing a journal mostly
implies an activity that is personal and relatively solitary, but one form of journal-
writing involves two or more people who construct the same document. 'Dialogue
journals' represent a written conversation between two or more people, each
responding to the other's entries, usually around an agreed topic, though, as in the
nature of any conversation, the topic rnay shift and a new one rnay be introduced.
Shifting on in meaning a little brings us to email conversations, and the various
software mechanisms whereby a large nurnber of people can read or contribute to
a discussion, with the topics organized into strands (e.g. blogs and wikis).
Another example of activity that rnay or rnay not fit our notion of 'learning
joumal' is the autobiography. In the past few years the literature on story and narra-
tive in education and professional development has increased greatly (e.g. McDrury
and Alterio, 2003). As an example, many teacher education programes utilize
autobiography as a means of exploring students' pre-course conceptions of teach-
ing, teachers, school and other concepts that rnay distort their new role as teachers.
Sometimes this form of work would not be sufficiently continuous in time to fit our
deñnition, or it rnay be an exercise within a learning joumal.
An aspect of the definition on which we have not yet expanded is the form of
expression of the reflection. It is easiest to think of journal work as written and

3. Backgrounds 3
often it is handwritten. A pen and notebook may not now be vastly more con-
venient to cany than a palm-top computer, but they are still cheaper, and for many
people there is something more expressive about a favourite pen than a keyboard.
Electronic joumals have advantages, and one, in particular, is where parts of the
journal can be cornmunicated to others by email - such as in the case of a dialogue
j o m a l or the discussion lists that we have mentioned above.
Verbal reflection can be recorded on tape. Audio-diaTies have become relatively
cornmon on radio. Here they might take the form of the individual making regular
recordings during a journey - or during the experiencing of an event. As this is
written, an audio-diary broadcasted in the summer of 2005 on the BBC comes to
mind (BBC Radio 4, 8 August 2005). It was made by a relatively unknown
Scottish band, the members of which were suddenly drawn into 'top of the charts'
status in Serbia. They reflected on their journey to Serbia across Europe in an old
van, the brief experience of stardom and the trundle back into everyday life.
We do not assume, either, that joumals are always verbal. Words can be mixed
with drawing or drawing may predominate. Leamingjournals are close or coincide
with the idea of the artist's notebook. In architecture or art, the noting and explor-
ation of graphic form over a period of time might be the subject of a j o m a l and
parallel ideas might be applied in music and it may even occur in dance and acting.
These different forms of recording in a leaming joumal need to be borne in mind
when reading this book but, for convenience, most of the text will refer to the
written form of recording.
The subject matter of joumals - what it is that people are writing and thinking
about in their joumals - will be covered in many areas of this book. For con-
venience we divide the main approach to the subject matter of joumals into three
areas - personal development, journals in formal non-vocational education and
in the context of professional education and development. There are large areas of
overlap of likely subject matter in these areas. For example, few would separate
personal development entirely fiom professional development (Harvey and
Knight; 1996). Equally, professional or vocational issues may well emerge in a
personal joumal but are alse sometimes of relevance to a student's development
within his or her discipline.
Beyond the three big categories here, however, there are some surprises in the
literature. While it is clear to see that there is no limit to the day-to-day subject
matter of a personal development joumal, there also seems to be little limit to
the subject matter about which journals may be written in the field of formal
education. This book will discuss the use of joumals in over 30 disciplines in
formal education. These disciplines range far fiom the humanities and arts, where
the home of joumal-writing might seem to be, to the sciences and applied sciences
of engineering and computer studies. It is usefbl that basic subject matter inspires
the development of different structures for reflection and writing and these dif-
ferent structures can then be adapted and applied elsewhere. Many of the exercises
that are described in the last two chapters of this book have been adapted fiom
specific applications in other contexts.

4. 4 Backgrounds
Another major variable in joumals is their stmcture. A simple personal leaming
joumal rnay be no more than a recording of the features of the day with reflective
commentary and consideration of the issues raised. However, an extreme example
of a structured joumal is also one most often focused on personal development.
Progoff S 'Intensive Joumal' (see p. 132) consists of 19 sections, many of which
have associated methods recornrnended for their entries (Progoff, 1975). Between
these extremes, there is wide variation, which is often defined by the subject matter
or the purposes of the journal. For example, in formal education, journal entries
rnay often relate to coursework - the content of lectures and reading work or
entries rnay be required to follow a sequence of questions that are designed to
structure reflection. Often, however, students who are guided in some of their
- entries are encouraged also to write fi-eely in another section. As we noted, we have
personal development planning that links the academic experiences of a student
with her broader experiences of being a student and with her developing
aspirations for career.
The question of audience for the writing of a joumal raises some interesting
issues. It has three aspects that rnay be linked. First, for whom is the joumal being
written, in the sense of who is it who has decided that it will be written? (1s there
any choice not to write it?) Second, who will see it - will it be assessed and
seen by another in that context or will it be seen by a tutor who will ask only
helpful questions to guide reflection to unconsidered issues? Will it be seen by
peers? Individuals rnay choose to share aspects of their journal with another for
mutual benefit or for their own benefit. There are benefits fi-om sharing journal-
writing, but it can be risky, too, and the knowledge that one is sharing can distort
the process of writing. The third aspect, of audience, rnay remain in a conscious
or unconscious state with the writer. Writers of personal joumals rnay become
aware that they are writing for a particular audience - perhaps their children,
or others who may see the joumals after the writer has died. Thoughts about
this aspect of audience rnay arise in considerations of the confidentiality of
joumals. 1s someone quietly prying on a personal joumal or not? If someone pries,
does it matter? 1s it al1 right that someone else leams more about one's views and
reflections - more than would be revealed in a conversation? The coercion, the
power and the nature of the audience can be major influences on joumal writers
and their journals.
W h y write a learning journal?
There are many formal purposes (Moon, 1999b) for writing a joumal (Chapter 5).
In this section we seek to provide a 'feel' for the reasons why people choose
to engage in this activity. We tackle this task by considering the comments that
joumal writers and those who have managed a joumal-writing process have made.
These quotations are chosen because they seem, in their different ways, to articulate
some of the essence of 'why write a joumal'.