36.1 million people, or 59% of the UK population watched 15 minutes or more of the Paris Olympic TV coverage.1 I was one of them. Over the course of 10 days I watched, from the comfort of my sitting room, thousands of athletes represent themselves and their country in the pursuit of sporting excellence. While there was much to applaud in these 2024 Games, one event, or rather one athlete stood out from the rest for me, and not for obvious sporting reasons.
Her name is Nicola Olysganers, and she is an Australian high jumper, and a Silver medalist from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. I don’t know much about the sport of high jumping, but Nicola’s technique fascinated me. After every attempt at the bar, she would sit down, open a hardcover A5 notebook and write intently. Apparently, this technique has been part of her routine since the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
So, what does she write in the journal? This question intrigued sports journalists at the 2020 Olympics and she has been asked this question many times since then. Her answer is more conventional than you may think. She writes about her technique, gives herself a score or rate on how the jump was executed, personal reflections and motivational and religious quotes. In an interview she explains why she does it.
“The reflection part is so important to me,” she says. “In between jumps there can be anywhere from a few minutes if I’m the only one left, or there’s just one other jumper – but if there’s 10 jumpers left, it could be 15 or 20 minutes between jumps. Being able to write it down is a way to switch off, save my energy, relax and rest and reset for the next jump. It’s the process that is the powerful part, as much as what I write down.” 2
In this quote, Nicola succinctly draws together the evidence base for journalling and why it can be a beneficial practice. Expressive writing enables the writer to explore and name their feelings, beliefs, and behaviours. This free format allows the writing to be transformed into a self-learning tool.3 Her decision to commit her thoughts using paper and pen and in a physical book is also worth noting. Research by Shibata and Omura 4 found that paper-and-pencil processing was associated with lower cognitive load and higher levels of abstract thinking compared with online/digital work. The ability to engage and maintain an internal dialogue with one’s self is also linked to positive mental health and well being, as evidenced by the recognition of journalling as a form of therapy.5 Within the world of elite sports, the emotional states of athletes and their responses to certain situations, like competition and injury, are recognised as important aspects of their readiness to performance.6
In the realm of teaching, journalling has long been promoted as a key tool for professional development. Keeping a journal has been recognised as an ‘important survival strategy’(p.1)7 especially early in ones career, helping novice teachers to navigate the process of change and linking theory with practice.8 A teaching journal can include classroom observations, reflections on pedagogic practice and classroom dynamics, things that went well, didn’t go well and items that are in need of improvement. Such reflective practice has been found to have a positive impact on teaching, making it more impactful.9,10 Journalling or self-writing can also be a vehicle for consciousness raising, politicising ones teaching practice and teacher identity, by helping to lay clear the ways structural processes and exclusions that criss-cross our lives and the institutional spaces where we teach.11
Early in my teaching career, I always kept a notebook, where I wrote about my reflections after each teaching class. Nearly twenty years later, and my reflections on my teaching continue, but they have become more compressed, compartmentalised as a mental exercise rather than a deliberative reflective written task. Seeing Nicola and her notebook brought me back to my early teaching days and refreshed the benefits of keeping a teaching journal. I always try to do something ‘new’ with my teaching every year, whether it be trying out a new teaching technique or technology. This year, my ‘new’ thing, will be an ‘old’ thing and I’ll go back to my teaching journal. What additional insights and reflections will I learn about my teaching practice this year?
References
1. BBC Sport. 12 August 2024. Paris 2024 breaks BBC Sport record with 218 million streams. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/articles/c86l33xy7x0o#:~:text=Across%20the%2019%20days%20of,account%20to%20watch%20the%20action.
2. Pender, K. 28 May 2024. High jumper Nicola Olyslagers: ‘I want to do something I’ve never done before,’ The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/may/29/australian-high-jumper-nicola-olyslagers-paris-olympics-2024
3.Lonowski, D. 2004. Journaling as a Teaching and Learning Tool, Bush Project Anthology, 2, http://openprarie.sdstate.edu/bpa.2
4. Shibata, H and Omura, K. 2020. Why Digital Displays Cannot Replace Paper: The Cognitive Science of Media for Reading and Writing, Singapore: Springer Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9476-2
5. Adams, K. 1999. The history of journaling. Center for Journal Therapy. https://journaltherapy.com/get-training/short-program-journal-to-the-self/journal-to-the-self/journal-writing-history/ Accessed 13 Sept 2024.
6. Davis, PA., Gustafsson, H., Callow, N and Woodman, T. 2020. Written Emotional Disclosure Can Promote Athletes’ Mental Health and Performance Readiness During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Frontiers in Psychology, 11:599925. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.599925.
7. Lowe, G.M., Prout, P., Murcia, K. 2013. I See, I Think, I Wonder: An Evaluation of Journaling as a Critical Reflective Practice Tool for Aiding Teachers in Challenging or Confronting Contexts. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 38(6).
8. Bullock, A and Hawk, P. 2010. Developing a teaching portfolio: A guide for pre-service and practicing teachers. Third Edition, Pearson: Australia.
9.Boyd, J., & Boyd, S. 2005. Reflect and improve: Instructional development through a teaching journal. College Teaching, 53(3), 110-114. https://doi.org/10.3200/CTCH.53.3.110-114
10. Mohammed, R. 2016. Critical incident analysis: reflections of a teacher educator. Research in Teacher Education, 6(1), 25-29. https://doi.org/10.15123/PUB.5093
11. Guajardo, M. 2023. Engaged Pedagogy and Journaling: A Pathway to Self-Transformation. Feminist Pedagogy, 3(1), Article 8.
