John Dewey said it plainly: "We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience." It sounds almost too simple. But if that's true, why is structured reflection still one of the most underused tools in higher education?
That was the central question at the heart of a session presented by Oglethorpe University's Stephen Herschler Mattern and Digication's Jeffrey Yan at AAC&U CLASS 2026. Their argument: reflection isn't a soft add-on. It's the connective tissue running through every High Impact Practice, and it may be the single most powerful thing faculty can offer students.
What Reflection Actually Does
Think about a student you taught a few years ago. What do you hope they're still carrying with them? Not a specific theory or date or formula, but a quality. Self-awareness. Intellectual humility. The ability to learn from failure.
Those qualities don't develop automatically through experience. They develop when students are asked to stop and think about what they just experienced, what it means to them, and how it connects to who they're becoming.
That's reflection. And when it's done well, it gives students the chance to relate learning to their own lives, integrate new knowledge with what they already know, develop genuine self-awareness, and build the kind of self-regulation that serves them long after graduation. For educators, it offers something equally valuable: a window into how students are actually thinking, in their own words, without the performance layer that most assignments invite.
It Works Across Every Discipline and Format
One of the most useful things the session surfaced is how adaptable reflection is. In STEM, a biology capstone can use reflection to help students articulate how they've grown as scientific thinkers. In a core curriculum ethics course, reflective prompts can push students to wrestle with questions that don't have clean answers. Reflection can happen before a learning experience as an activation exercise, during it as a check-in, or after it as synthesis.
The format is flexible too. Writing is the classic approach, and there's good reason for that. A colored pen and a blank page create a productive pause that has genuine pedagogical value. But video, audio, and multimedia reflection are increasingly common, especially for students who communicate more naturally in those modes.
AI-Coached Reflection Is Changing What's Possible
What's newer, and genuinely exciting, is the emergence of AI-coached reflection. Digication's TORI (Taxonomy of Reflective Inquiry) framework brings a structured, scaffolded approach to reflection that meets students where they are and guides them toward deeper thinking. As Arthur C. Brooks puts it, "if you can make honesty and self awareness your superpower, you will become happier, more empathetic and more successful in all you do." TORI is designed to help students develop exactly that.
Whether you're just starting to incorporate reflection into your courses or looking to build a more systematic approach across your program, the tools and frameworks are available to make it work. The question is less about whether reflection belongs in your classroom and more about how you want to bring it in.
Curious about how TORI and Digication can support reflective practice on your campus? Get in touch with our team to learn more.
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