Reporting or Reconstructing? The Zine as a Medium for Reflecting on Research Experiences

In a research-based course, undergraduate third year students were asked to submit their reflections on their research experience in the zine medium. While the literature shows that the zine medium can encourage students to reflect meaningfully about their experiences, evaluating the medium, which is a mix of text and visuals, can be challenging for the instructor. This paper explores the value of zines as a medium for reflection using the 4R Reflection Scale as a framework. The 4R Scale by Ryan and Ryan (2015) outlines four levels, reporting and responding, relating, reasoning and reconstructing, to determine the depth of thinking in the reflection. The zines analyzed using the 4R Reflection Scale show that students were likely to report and respond on their research experience (lowest level on the reflection scale) rather than reconstruct (highest level on the reflection scale)