What Does It Mean to Reflect Assignment

REFLECTIVE WRITING EXPLAINED

Reflective writing is an analytical practice in which the writer describes a real or imaginary scene, event, interaction, passing thought, memory, form, adding a personal reflection on the meaning of the item or incident, thought, feeling, emotion, or situation in his or her life.

Many reflective writers keep in mind questions, such as "What did I notice?" "How has this changed me?" or "What might I have done differently?"

Thus, the focus is on writing that is not merely descriptive. The writer doesnt just hit the replay button; rather, he or she revisits the scene to note details and emotions, reflect on meaning, examine what went well or revealed a need for additional learning, and relate what transpired to the rest of life.

What is reflective thinking?

To think and write reflectively you have to:

• Experience something
• Think about what happene
• Learn from the experience

You think reflectively all the time, you probably just don't realise you're doing it.

Have you ever missed the bus and then thought next time Ill leave the house 5 minutes earlier'?

This is an example of you being reflective: you thought about an experience and decided to learn from it and do something different the next time.

As a student, and in the workplace, you will be asked to be reflective. Thinking or reflecting on the world around you, your experiences and actions will help you to develop and improve your skills.

Reflection is:

• Self awareness: thinking of yourself, your experiences and your view of the worl
• Self improvement: learning from experiences and wanting to improve some area of your lif
• Empowerment: putting you in control of making changes and behaving in a different way

Reflective writing is not:

just conveying information, instruction or argument

• pure description, though there may be descriptive element
• straightforward decision or judgement (e.g. about whether something is right or wrong, good or bad)
• simple problem-solving
• a summary of course note
• a standard university essa

How to write reflectively

Creating a piece of reflective writing is different from other academic writing as it is more

personal and you are writing about your experiences.

The table below lists the differences between reflective and academic writing.

How to structure your writing

When you write reflectively, use the three W's:

• What? (description)

What happened?

Who was involved

• So what? (interpretation)

What is most important/interesting/relevant/ useful aspect of the event/idea/situation? How can it be explained?

How is it similar to/different from others?

• What next? (outcome

What have I learned?

How can it be applied in the future?

What to include

Here are some tips on what to include in your reflective writing

• Don't just describe explore and explain what
• Be honest it's ok to admit to making mistakes as well as success. But you should also show how you understand why things happen and what you are going to do to
• Be selective you dont have to write about everything that happened, just key events or ideas.
• Look to the future reflect on what happened in the past and how it will have an impact on future ideas or activities.

WHY DO UNIVERSITIES SET ASSESSMENTS THAT REQUIRE REFLECTIVE LEARNING

• To examine your learning processes, including not only what you have learnt, but how you learnt it.
• To make connections: between what you already know and what you are learning; between theory and practice; between course material and personal
• To think carefully about what you are doing, how you are doing it, and whyyou are doing it
• To clarify your understanding identifying the questions you have, and what you have yet to learn.
• To learn from mistakes and lessons: avoid repeating mistakes and identify successful principles and strategies to use again.
• To become an active learner: engage in the learning process by asking questions, raising doubts, and thinking critically about one's own ideas.
• To encourage you to become a reflective practitioner in your future field. This is the key to life-long learning, growth and meaningful change.

The reflective learning process

• Students sometimes view reflective writing as an annoying interruption to the serious business of developing content knowledge in their subject However, there are sound reasons why reflective writing is included in student assessment.
• "Reflection is indicative of deep learning, and where teaching and learning activities such as reflection are missing only surface learning can " (Biggs 1999 in King 2002)
• Reflective writing tasks are given to students to help students learn through reflection, precisely because of the established link between reflection and deeper learning. As well as facilitating learning and monitoring learning, the intention is to produce graduates who have acquired the habit of reflection as a means of continuing to learn and grow in their professions. Reflection can lead to:
• personal growt
• professional growt
• meaningfu
• "Reflection leads to growth of the individual morally, personally, psychologically, and emotionally, as well as cognitively". (Branch & Paranjape, 2002, p. 1187
• Reflection can help you to
• better understand your strengths and weaknesses
• identify and question your underlying values and belief
• acknowledge and challenge possible assumptions on which you base your ideas, feelings and actions
• recognize areas of potential bias or discriminatio
• acknowledge your fears, an
• identify possible inadequacies or ar
• Reflection can lead to greater self-awareness, which in turn is a first step to positive change it is a necessary stage in identifying areas for improvement and growth in both personal and professional Taking time to reflect can help you identify approaches that have worked well, and in that way reinforce good practice.

Reflective writing useful tips

Reflection means taking some time to examine your own thoughts, beliefs, values, attitudes and assumptions about your understanding of a topic, a situation or a problem. When you reflect, think about your own experiences and knowledge and how you arrived at that understanding. Often our thinking has been shaped by the values of our family and culture, an embarrassing or uncomfortable situation, our religion, past teachers, newspapers, TV shows and so on. There is no absolute right or wrong way with reflective thinking. But the key questions in reflective thinking are how? and why? rather than what?

Reflective writing varies across disciplines which have particular ways of thinking about the world, and how to interpret the meanings of actions and things. In some disciplines, for example nursing and education, reflection is used to create knowledge and improve professional practice.

Lecturers may ask you to write reflectively for a range of reasons:

• To become an active learner by asking questions and thinking critically about your own
• To examine what you have learned and how you have learned
• To make connections, for example between what you already know and what you are learning, between theory and practice or between course content and persona
• To indicate your understanding by identifying any questions you have, and what you have yet to learn
• To learn from mistakes by identifying how you would do it differently next time and also to identify and accept what you could not change at the time.
• To encourage you to become a reflective practitioner in your future This is the key to life-long learning, growth and meaningful change.

How to write reflectively

It is important that you write reflectively according to your unit and discipline. Read your assessment carefully, and ask your lecturer for further guidance if you are not sure.

Writing reflectively can be assisted with some guiding questions:

• What happened during that event or experience? And why did it happen?
• What was my role in the event? And why did I adopt that particular role?
• What were my feelings during that experience? And why did I feel that way?
• What were my thoughts during that experience? And why did I think that way?
• How do I interpret what I experienced or observed?
• What might this experience mean in the context of my course?
• What other perspectives, theories or concepts could be applied to interpret the situation?
• How can I learn from this experience?

There are a number of reflection models you can use to help construct your writing - the "What? So what? Now what?" model was outlined in the video. Another useful Reflection model is "The 4 Rs" which is outlined below. The 4Rs process is based on "Reflection-On-Action" - this means actions are analysed and re-framed after an event or observation, and potential solutions are developed. The process is designed to encourage you to address your ongoing learning from a number of standpoints, such as practical, cognitive and emotional, and from your own values, ethics and beliefs.

The 4 R's

Useful phrases for reflecting

When you write a reflection the reader will expect to learn about your personal experience, feelings, ideas and opinions. Use the first person (I, my, me)

Phrases below can be incorporated with your ideas to express:

• your experience of a situatio
• personal reaction to an idea, opinion or perso
• evaluation of an argumen
• comparison with another idea
• comment on the worth of an ide
• identification of key issues
• how well you understood somethin

Try using these phrases:

• My experience of this leads me to believe/think/question
• I think/feel/believe/hope/am .
• I remember/recall...
• This was difficult/easy/frightening/exciting
• I find this worrying/amusing/convenient
• For me, this assertion is very difficult to agree..
• I agree/do not agree with the reading where author argues ..
• Based on my personal beliefs and experiences
• In my mind the key question/issue is
• It had not occurred to me that

REFLECTIVE WRITING QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

In reflective writing, it is better to keep description to a minimum. Reflective writing is a personal reaction to an experience. It is therefore written in the first person (I learntI discovered) and is usually less formal than most academic writing.

Reflective writing may or may not require references to other sources. When demonstrating your understanding of theory you can integrate theory into the reflection. How did the encounter proceed from a theoretical perspective?

Possible prompts for reflective writing

• What did I already know before the encounter and what did I learn from it?
• How did I act in that situation?
• How would I do things differently?
• What connections can I make between the encounter and theory from the class?
• What is the best way for me to move forward from this encounter?
• What surprised me about the encounter?
• Who and what helped me at the time?
• What can I do better since this encounter?
• Are there any other questions that arise from this encounter?
• How and where might I use my new knowledge and competencies?
• Are there alternative interpretations to consider?
• If you step back from this issue, does it look different?
• How do you judge your ability to reflect on this matter?
• How do your feelings relate to any action?
• Was it good / bad and what are the implications?
• What do you need to do?
• What other information do you need (ideas, knowledge, opinion etc)?
• Are there previous instances of this encounter, issue arising that will help you to think more/ differently about it?

Samples of reflective writing

Accounts 1-3 on the next page show different levels of reflection. They are based on a critical event that happened to a 22 year old in the workplace, after graduating. There are three accounts of the same event: giving a presentation at a team meeting.

Each account is written with three different levels of reflection

• Descriptive writing: a description of There is no discussion beyond description and there is no evidence of reflection.
• Descriptive reflection: there is a basic description of events as well as evidence of deeper consideration in relatively descriptive There is no real evidence of the notion of alternative viewpoints in use.
• Critical reflection: there is a stepping back from the events, with an exploration of the role of self in events and actions. There is consideration of possible alternatives for explaining and hypothesising, and it links factors and perspectives.

When producing your own critical writing you could compare it against these different accounts

• Which account do you think youve written like?
• Do you need to be more critically reflective

Account 1: descriptive writing

I had to talk about the project that I am on. I was confident but I did spend quite a bit of time preparing. During the presentation I became nervous when I realised they were all waiting for me to speak and my nerves made my voice wobble.

Afterwards I was disappointed that my presentation did not seem to have gone well. My boss suggested that I do a presentation to the team next week to improve my performance.

Comments:

• This account is only descriptive The author does not consider how previous experiences could have had an impact on preparing for the presentation.
• When writing about the presentation, the author does not talk through their feelings, for example why did they have nerves? How did they realise colleagues were waiting? How did this make them feel? There is also no consideration of different perspectives, such as whether colleagues thought the presenter came across as nervous.
• After the presentation, the author has not stepped back from the event and considered how they felt, why they felt the presentation did not go well and why it had such an impact on them.
• Finally, though the boss suggests another presentation, there is no discussion about the impact this has on them. There is no evidence of learning from the previous presentation and how they would do things differently the next time.

Account 2: descriptive reflection

I was scared about not saying the right things and not being able to answer questions properly. I did a presentation in my course at university and had felt the same about it initially.

During the presentation I realise that I was desperately trying to prove that I could present as well as my colleague. I wanted to impress everyone. Early on it went wrong and I began to panic. Trying to pretend I was confident made the situation worse because I did not admit I needed help. The more I spoke, the more my voice wobbled.

Following on from the presentation, my self esteem is low at work now. However, partly through talking over the presentation and the things that went wrong, I can see several areas that I could get better. I am hoping to have a chance to practice with some of the team

Comments:

• This account is descriptive reflection as there is some evidence of reflection. At the start the author is referring to a past incident their presentation at However, they do not consider how other prior experiences (such as watching other presentations) could have had an impact on the event.
• When reflecting on the presentation, the author shows some reflection (how they felt), but havent included any alternative viewpoints (such as what the audience thought of the presentation).
• The author talks about how they felt after the presentation and identified the impact it had on their self esteem at work, but not in a wider setting. Also, they missed the opportunity to hypothesise why the presentation has had such an effect on them.
• Finally, though the author engaged with others to discuss the presentation, there is no evidence of recognising that their views may change after the next presentation

Account 3: critical reflection

I had to talk about the project that I am on. I spent quite a bit of time preparing it in the way that I have seen others make similar presentations.

When it came to the presentation, I really wanted to do it well as well as the presentations were done the week before. Maybe I wanted too much to do well? My efforts to be calm failed and my voice went wobbly thats how it felt to me anyway. My colleague said afterwards that I looked quite calm despite what I was feeling.

In the event, the session was a disaster and has left me feeling uncomfortable in my work and I even worry about it at home. I need to think about why a simple presentation could have such an effect on me.

I am feeling more positive generally and I can begin to analyse what I could do better in the presentation. It is interesting to see the change in my attitude after a week. I need to think from the beginning about the process of giving a good presentation

Comments:

• This account is critically reflective. At the start, the author describes the event, reflects on the whole process (preparation) and recognises that interaction with others (colleagues presentations) can have an impact on their behaviour.
• They have written about how they felt during the presentation (engaging in an internal dialogue) and also reflected deeper by looking at different perspectives e.g. how their colleague thought the presentation went.
• They have reflected on how the incident has made them feel in a wider context (home and work) and have also considered why such an event has had an impact on them trying to hypothesise reasons for this.
• Finally, the author has stood back from the event and considered what they could do differently next time. They demonstrate the concept that reflection can change over time (talking about next week), by taking on new ideas and trying again.