Understanding the emotional reactions and exploring the professional development of college students based on reflections

Abstract

AbstractIt remains ambiguous how college students form perceptions of professional development by identifying their emotional reactions and reflecting on their experiences in a situated setting. College students undergo professional development by participating in field experiences and reflecting on their experiential learning. In addition, researchers have increasingly insisted that student emotional reactions to learning should be addressed in higher education. Therefore, this qualitative study explored the emotional reactions of six college juniors and how they made sense of professional development, analyzing the contents of their reflective papers in a field experience course. The findings indicated that 10 types of emotional reactions caused students to form perceptions regarding professional development. The three major themes of these perceptions were acquiring and applying professional knowledge, the importance of self-understanding, and discovering professional attitudes. The study elucidates how college student awareness of emotional reactions could facilitate reflecting on experiential learning.Keywords: emotional reactionsexperiential learningreflectionprofessional developmentcollege studentssituated learning AcknowledgementsWe would like to acknowledge all the research participants who participated in this study.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Additional informationFundingThis study was made possible by the support of research grant from Fu Jen Catholic University, Office of Research and Development [grant number 410131064023].