Facilitation, feedback and feelings

Have just read that the Latin root of 'assessment' means to sit beside, and that perhaps helps me to become more convinced that self and peer assessments are focussed more on developing deeper levels of learning through facilitation by the teacher. The result of this is a student who becomes more self responsible for their own learning, engaged more fully and one who sees the benefits of ongoing assessments.
This thought also helps me link to the place of reflection and reflective practice, a large component of how our students learn. sometimes I think that the process is simply given lip seervice or perhaps others have a different viewpoint. One criticism against reflective practice is that it may become 'closed circuit thinking, that encourages self belief in the rightness of the original thought. However as Dewey (cited in Campbell & Norton, 2007) suggests this is perhaps because when one has to do thinking that is challenging, the individual experiences feelings of dis-ease. "Each time (one has to reflect on practice ), an iterative process is involved in which reflection allows the elements of the experience to be revisited, analysed and integrated into one’s existing base of knowledge and understanding, as a basis for future experience."
Sargeant, J.M., Mann, K. V., van der Vleuten, C., & Metsemakers, J. F. (2009).
Adv in Health Sci Educ (2009) 14:399–410
DOI 10.1007/s10459-008-9124-4
This article also addresses the issues of the place of the facilitator and the type of feedback given including whether the fedback is accepted, acceptable or rejected. this Brings up added issues about the relationship between the teacher and the student, the context and the cultural aspects which others in the course have alluded to.
Still not sure about this blogging. I do wonder who is reading it, other than me, and have to ask myself what is the added value of the exercise. Maybe it illustrates for me the power of the spoken word, where feedback is instant, the argument takes place in real time, and I feel part of the loop of learning.