The use of learning journals to enhance students' learning have been reported at various levels in different disciplines. During the writing process, learners have a chance to organise what they have learnt and to reflect on how they may do better. Since two years ago, students in our year-long (Term 1 + Term 2) Biodiversity Laboratory class have been asked to write a one to two-page learning journal in their own style every week. The teacher would read students' submissions right before the next lesson and give timely feedback to the class as appropriate. Sharing of exemplars is done from time to time. Towards the end of each term, students would put together their 12-13 weekly journals into a portfolio, and have individual meetings with the teacher.

From the teacher's point of view, although reading tens of journals within a very short time every week and meeting students individually at the end of the term have created some pressure, being able to understand the individuals' learning progress throughout the term and to witness them grow have been rewarding. From the students' point of view, survey and focus group results from two batches of students indicate that while some enjoyed the process of the reflection and were happy to see how much they had achieved, some found the task a burden, while some were puzzled about what to include particularly in the early weeks, and some worried about how their work would be assessed. Besides, sharing of students' work in class can on one hand help encourage peer learning, thus help bring up the overall quality; however, on the other hand, this can create pressure that makes some students stressful. Nonetheless, there have been more buy-ins from students regarding the use of learning journals in our class as evidenced from their improved quality of work. Students are now more serious about the tasks and their self-efficacy has also gone up.

Keywords: Learning journal, self-reflection, active learning, peer learning, biology.