Reflection On and In the Workplace for Students

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. What is Reflection?
3. Types of Reflection
4. Definitions of Reflection
5. Becoming a Reflective Practitioner/Worker
6. Kolb's Learning Cycle
7. Time for Reflection
8. Keeping a Reflective Diary
9. What is the Purpose of Reflection?
10. Where do you Put the Reflections in Your Portfolio?
11. What Makes Good Evidence?
12. Learning from Significant Events
13. Tools for Reflection
14. Individual Reflection
15. 2: Roles For Reviewing In Pairs
16. Reviewing for Two: Walking And Talking
17. Reviewing for Two: Changing Partners
18. Summary
19. References

Becoming a Reflective Practitioner/Worker

According to the educator Boud et al. (1985), effective learning will not occur unless you reflect. To do this, you must think of a particular moment in time, ponder over it, go back through it and only then will you gain new insights into different aspects of that situation. According to Kolb (1984) reflecting is an essential element of learning. This is shown through an experiential learning cycle illustrated below.

McClure (2005) suggests that if you follow this cycle in a clockwise direction, you will see that after having had an experience you have to reflect on what you saw or did, by reviewing the whole situation in your mind. This may be assisted by: looking at it on film, discussing it with others, thinking abstractly about the event for a while, or seeking advice or further information.

Eventually you will probably come up with ideas for approaching the situation differently next time. You can then try out their ideas to see if they are effective. You will thus complete the learning cycle and start over again with a view to refining his/her actions. This is an ongoing process, so we will never achieve perfection. We will always find other ways of doing things based on our learning from previous experiences.

Building up experience is a gradual process. You will develop reflective abilities during the course of your learning on placement. Reflection should initially develop in safe environments where mistakes are tolerated. You can then reflect and discuss the decisions that were made during their supervision sessions with your work-based supervisor or UNN tutor. Reflection should become integral to these sessions.

When reflecting-on-action, the first step in the process is the description of the incident and it is advisable you keep a reflective diary, as memory cannot be relied upon for the detail of events, in which you record details of incidents that either troubled or pleased you, recording details as soon after the event as possible.

Much attention has been given to the value of recording events and experiences in written form, particularly through the use of reflective diaries and journals (Zubbrizarreta 1999 and Tryssenaar 1995). The exercise of diary writing promotes both the qualities required for reflection, i.e. open-mindedness and motivation, and also the skills i.e. self-awareness; description and observation; critical analysis and problem-solving; and synthesis and evaluation (Richardson & Maltby 1995).