Guidelines on Reflective Writing
What is Reflection and Reflective Writing? Put simply, reflective learning is all about you, it is a process of making sense of your learning. It is not just about what you did, it is about who you are when you are doing it, it is about your identity, your beliefs and your values. Reflection also provides evidence of how the theoretical, technical and practical aspects of your work have evolved. Reflection could be argued to be the essential stage where learning is integrated within the whole learner, and added to existing frames of reference, and internalised and personalized. (Race, 2006) Reflectve practice is a conscious activity in which we engage to explore our experiences and develop ne w understandings and conceptualisations." (Boud, 1987) - Reflection is an ongoing process of thinking about your development in relation to your work. - Reflective writing is both a record (description) and a review (analysis and evaluation) of your work. - Reflective practice is a "sorting out/clarifying process" giving you new perspectives on you and your work.
Your Reflective Writing should include the following: - A description of events, experiences and processes - An indication of your feelings about these events - Both positive and negative experiences - Self-questioning about these experiences - Analysis of your work and evaluation of your progress - Suggestions for future practice - An honest appraisal of your experience - Links to your coursework and theories - Extensive use of the first person (I) in your writing
Why is it Important? - Reflective practice allows you to stand back and assess your work in a more detached light. - Developing ideas and solving problems can become easier if you regularly reflect upon your practice. - Examining both your positive and negative experiences can help you understand your learning. - Reflective writing allows your tutors to see how you have developed your practice and ideas. - Reflection is an essential skill for the continued development of your practice.
Topics for Reflection A piece of reflective writing can be about anything you have done on the course. For example, you may wish to write about: - The process of research - The process of a creating work and developing practice - How you developed a new skill or technique - What you've learnt from a particular essay, theorist, lecture, designer, artist or from other students - Your influences - Your motivations - Your experiences - How you work in a group / on your own - Feedback on your work from faculty and peers How do I Start?
- Understand the functions of blog posts, pages, categories and tags. - Choose a suitable wordpress theme and have foresight in setting up the information hierarchy of your blog - Making time to "pause, record and reflect" on a regular basis will allow you to get the most out of blogging. - A mixture of words and visuals can be used to record ideas (writing, drawing, photography, video, audio). - It may be useful to think of your reflective blog as a journey. It won't necessarily take you in a straight line, and you could find yourself in a dead end on occasion. However, what is important is what you learn from this journey.
Useful Questions The following questions may help to guide you in your reflective writing: - What happened? This is a description of events, experiences, or a process you have been through - What "critical incidents" should I focus on? (Critical incidents are experiences that stand out as having had a big impact on your approach / thinking) - How do I feel about what happened? - What was good about this experience? - What did I learn from this experience? What new techniques, skills, and abilities have I acquired? - What was bad about it? - What would I like to change and why? - What action could I have realistically taken to change the situation? - What else could I do / have done? - If I attempted something different, did the revised approach work? - If so, is there a general principle here I could use again? - If not, what could I try next, and why?
Some Common Problems There are no rules about how to write and structure your reflections; however, there are a few things to avoid: - Your writing is too descriptive and does not offer much analysis - It reads like a diary i.e. a list of events, or it's too personal and not really about your work - Your blog does not capture anything meaningful because you've written it at the last minute, and not used a journal throughout the term/ year - Your writing provides a general overview of events, and does not highlight any critical incidents - There is little or nothing said about what did not go well for you - Only positive events are discussed - In cases where a problem is identified, you do not take ownership of the situation - No detailed discussions about what you've learnt, and how things could be done differently in the future
* Moon, J (2004) A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning. London: Routledge Falmer * Adapted from Pat Francis and Sarah le Marquand (2007) Not Bolt On - an integrated approach to the delivery of writing in the learning environment of the studio .
