Trainee translators’ reflective thinking across assessment as learning activities: An epistemic network analysis approach

Abstract

Although assessment as learning (AaL) has been recognised as an effective approach for cultivating students’ reflective thinking, few studies have explored the concurrent and continuous processes of individual reflection across various AaL activities. In the context of 21 master-level trainee translators participating in self-assessments (SA) and peer assessments (PA) as AaL activities, this study uncovered trainees’ reflections and their association with translation revision quality through epistemic network analysis. The results showed that trainees worked to primarily maintain reflection throughout the AaL activity. The group with high revision quality had significantly higher proportions of reflection and critical reflection, along with stronger connections between reflection/critical reflection and other reflection elements. In comparison, the group with low revision quality displayed significantly higher proportions of non-reflection and understanding, with greater connectivity between them. Concerning the sub-stages of the activity, the two groups showed significant differences in reflection patterns during the SA sub-stage but not during the PA sub-stage, possibly due to the mediating influence of peer interactions. Moreover, a fine-grained centroid analysis on each task revealed that both groups demonstrated enhanced reflective behaviours during the second SA and PA tasks.