What is Reflection?
What is Reflection?
‘… a form of mental processing with a
purpose and/or anticipated outcome that is
applied to relatively complex or
unstructured ideas for which there is not
an obvious solution’. (Moon ,1999 pp23)
The Pensieve
( J.K Rowling, 2000)
What is Reflection?
• A thought process occurring after an experience or
situation
• Usual meaning/definition: looking at some concrete &
specific experience and thinking about how it was and
how it could be different in order to review your
effectiveness
• Deep approaches involve notions of an altered view of
the world and of wisdom
(Ramsden, 2003)
Analysis
• Asks WHY the
elements or events
are described as they
are
Reflection
• Particular kind of
analysis
• Always suggests selfanalysis
• Retrospective
consideration of one’s
practice
Why Reflect?
‘There is only one corner of the universe you can be
certain of improving, and that’s your own self.’
Aldous Huxley
‘It is not sufficient simply to have an experience in order
to learn. Without reflecting upon this experience it may
quickly be forgotten, or its learning potential lost. It is
from the feelings and thoughts emerging from this
reflection that generalisations or concepts can be
generated. And it is generalisations that allow new
situations to be tackled effectively.’
(Gibbs 1988)
Why Reflect?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Consider the process of our own learning
Critically review something
Build theory from observations
Engage in personal or self development
Make decisions or resolve uncertainty …
Empower or emancipate ourselves
(Moon 1999 pp23)
Why Reflect?
• National Standards for Key Skills
– Communications
– Information Technology
– Application of Number
– Working with Others
– Problem Solving
– Improving own Learning and Performance
Enhancing Reflective Skills
• Developing Skills enables you to:
– learn more effectively from situations
– identify what you have learned in practice.
• Skills required: self-awareness, description,
critical analysis, synthesis and evaluation.
• Self-awareness enables you to recognise beliefs
and values, to analyse feelings and behaviour
and how these affect the behaviour of others.
Theoretical Approaches to Reflection
• John Dewey
• ‘a kind of thinking that consists in
turning a subject over in the mind and
giving it serious thought’.
• ‘Active, persistent and careful
consideration of any belief or supposed
form of knowledge in the light of the
grounds that support it, and further
conclusions to which it leads…it
includes a conscious and voluntary
effort to establish belief upon a firm
basis of evidence and rationality’
(Dewey, 1933)
Theoretical Approaches to Reflection
• David Kolb
Active
Experimentation
Concrete
Experiencing
Abstract
Reflective Learning
Cycle 1984.
Conceptualising
Reflective
Observation
Theoretical Approaches to Reflection
• Donald Schon
• ‘knowing-in-action’
• The Reflective
Practitioner
Applying the framework to metacognition (learning how to
learn).
What ?
Now what ?
So what ?
Stages of Reflection
(J.Moon, 1999)
Structured Debrief
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•
•
•
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Description
Feelings
Evaluation
Analysis
Conclusions (general)
Conclusions (specific)
Personal Action plans
Summary
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•
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What is reflection?
Why reflect?
Some reflective theory
Three models for reflection