Bc3000

Personal Reflection

Reflection is concerned with looking at our experiences and trying to draw some meaning from these that can be used now and in the future. One of the unique aspects of reflection is that, as one revisits old experiences, one can find new learning and new meanings there.

Critical reflection is considered to be an essential developmental approach for professionals in every field. On a continuing basis effective performers will be considering the following:

o What do I need to do to improve the quality of what I do?

o What might I do instead of what I do now?

o What am I doing well that I could develop further?

o What innovation could I introduce?

o What other development activities should I be seeking?

There are many ways of structuring reflection but they all are likely to include the following:

o An analysis of what went well, why it worked and what you achieved.

o What could have been better and how you would achieve this. Here you are expected to be honest, knowing what went wrong shows you have learned from the situation. Explain the issue rather than blaming others or making excuses.

o Any links you can make between the theory you have been studying and what happened in practice.

o What you have learned and will do differently in future.

Reflective Practice

➢ Thinking about and learning from past actions in order to influence the future

➢ Using current knowledge to inform thinking about past actions

➢ Utilising new theory to enrich the learning

Methods:

➢ Observation

➢ Dialogue

➢ Feedback

➢ Learning logs

Learning logs are a format that can be used to help critical reflection. This formal approach enables the learner to capture thinking and learning for future consideration. There are a number of methods available in devising a learning log and we have suggested two you may wish to use for this module. However, you can devise your own...