In this article, we argue that using students' reflective writing to understand specific aspects of their classroom experience requires that researchers systematically integrate into the curriculum reflections that responsibly attend to both students' learning and the focus of classroom research. Informed by recently published articles on reflection and collaborative writing and learning, this argument contributes to recent "Composition Forum" discussions (e.g. VanKooten; Fiscus; Winzenreid et al.; Jankens, "Learning How to Ask"). We also aim to demonstrate that the process of learning how to do research "right" is a recursive endeavor. Addressing the challenging results of our study, we consider ways that more systematic reflection in our paired courses might have brought collaborative learning even more to the surface both for students and our research. We pose that, in retrospect, had we developed a series of reflective writing assignments that explicitly prompted students to describe learning as part of a social process within the classroom, this reflective writing would likely have better highlighted collaboration for our research and for students' meta-awareness of their learning processes.