too toA Guide to Writing a Reflective Report
What does it mean ‘to reflect’?
Officially, it means to explore experiences in order to lead to new understandings and improved practice.
At its simplest it means:
• To think deeply about an experience. To go beyond the simple question, ‘What’s going on here?’ to ask ‘What’s really going on here?’
• To ask yourlf what this experience means to you and your practice
• To churn ideas, thoughts and experiences around in your head and make connections between what you knew before and what you know now
怎么说• To express your feelings or insights bad on the knowledge you have/theories you have studied.
• To be critically analytical as part of this process. This doesn’t mean to criticize, but to look at both sides of an event or experience and comment on the pros and cons,
advantages and disadvantages, good bits and bad bits as part of your new
understanding.
Schon (1991) speaks of ‘reflecting in action.’ Tho are the moments when you are in the middle of an activity or someone says something and you think to yourlf, ‘I didn’t know that. That must be why….’ Sometimes the manifest as ‘aha’ moments of new insight. Other times the wires quietly connect and you just em to reali something new. Capture tho thoughts!
Schon also speaks of ‘reflecting on action.’ Tho are the moments after an activity, event or procedure when you think about what occurred, what you experienced or what others experienced. This type of reflection typically occurs immediately after an event or perhaps later when you are driving home, having a cup of coffee or are in the shower. Capture tho thoughts, as you will be making some insightful connections that are the stuff of reflection.
A Reflective Report is not:
• a description
• a list
• a ries of complaints
• a lot of meaningless emotional language
• a considered view, in personal terms, of what an activity or new piece of information means to you or how it affects you. It is acceptable, even necessary, to write about
yourlf, your realizations, your feelings. Reflective writing requires evidence of what you have learned and what you will take away from the experience.
In the report you are required to:
• refer to, or give an example of, the activities or events that took place in the given context without being overly descriptive
• reflect on the facts by stating how they affect you now or how you anticipate they may affect your future inter-professional practice
on board
• where appropriate include theories that support or give structure to your statements and reflections
Here are some examples from previous papers of statements made by students, thinking they were being reflective, compared to some more fully developed reflective comments: Statement:
• I knew I had some pre-conceived ideas about certain professions.
Reflective comment:
xsysinfo• I knew I had some pre-conceived ideas about certain professions. However, I was
how manyriously mistaken as the students were team players who did not take control but contributed effectively to the same standards as everyone el. I now e them in a new light, and my new attitude will no doubt affect my professional relationship with them for the better.
Statement:
• It is vital for health and social care professionals to work together to give the patient a positive experience.
Reflective comment:
• My main realization about other health and social care professionals was the way in
which interaction between us is completely vital in order for patients to have positive health and social care experiences.
Statement:
• I had no idea prior to IPL week what Social Workers did.
• For example, I was completely ignorant of the fact that Social Workers are sometimes involved in rehabilitation and long term care and asssment. I can e now that this could be uful for me in the future, as I will now know who to contact if I come across a patient needing this type of support.
Statement:
• Our group did not t any ground rules.
burntReflective comment:
• As our group worked well from the start, we never felt the need to establish a written t of ground rules. If things had started to go wrong, I do feel that we would have taken the time out to establish a t of rules.
Statement:
• I came out as a Reflector in the Learning Styles Questionnaire.
Reflective comment:
小熊座• The Learning Styles Questionnaire indicated that my learning style is ‘reflective,’ which I think had something to do with my reluctance to participate in the week. Not knowing what was expected of me made me resistant to participation, but once I knew the
parameters, I was eager to get stuck in. This probably goes for others like me. I’ll need to remember in the future the importance of tting out the parameters of a ssion
early on so people can feel comfortable.
Statement:
• I challenged the leader who was out of order in my opinion.
Reflective statement:
• At one point I challenged the leader about how we should prent the information. This is not my usual way of acting. I’m usually shy in groups. I surprid mylf that I was so bold. I think I gained the confidence to do this becau the group was so friendly and supportive. This is something I need to consider as a member of any group, but
especially as a leader, that you get the best out of people in a supportive atmosphere.
Some techniques to aid the process of reflection and reflective writing
Assignment 3 in IPLU1 week B requires you to be both analytical and reflective.
The Oxford Dictionary says that reflection refers to calm, lengthy and intent consideration, contemplation or musing. Esntially reflection is focud thinking of an evaluative type.
和音是什么意思
Reflection involves being honest with yourlf about your previous ignorance and your new learning, however enlightening or hard it was to face.
Much reflective thinking takes place in your head. Few of us have time to go and write it down, though reflective journals are excellent practice and ud widely by professionals and people generally to help them muster their thoughts and feelings and move forward in their life and professi北师大二附中
on. Recognising that you are reflecting is a uful realisation.
New situations tend to make us lf-aware and we become reflective and lf-evaluative. In time we move out of the conscious incompetence stage and move into that unconscious competence that allows us to get on with what we do best not always aware of why or how we do it, rather like a competent driver.
Questions are the key to reflection. You may well have found yourlf reflecting-in-action as you experienced working in the team. Some people are good at recognising that they are reflecting, asking themlves questions such as ‘What’s really going on here?’ and evaluating as they go along.
Some uful questions to ask yourlf when reflecting on your work, your placements, your experiences of IPL weeks:
• What would I do differently next time?
• What have I learned about mylf from this experience?
• Could I avoid this situation another time?
• What am I not facing up to in this situation?wakey
• What other choices do I have?
• What would happen if I did nothing?
• What haven’t I asked that I should ask?
• What do I hope to achieve by doing that?
• What do I feel about this new information?
• How does it impact on me?
• What have I learned about mylf?
• So what?
Johns provides a model of structured reflection with some more uful questions to u when reflecting-in-action and on-action (Johns, 2004).
REFERENCES
Johns, C. (2004) Becoming a Reflective Practitioner (2nd ed). Oxford, Blackwell. Schon, Donald A. (1991) The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action, Aldershot: Arena
