sentence starters for reflective writing

sentence starters for reflective writing

The Importance of Reflective Writing

1. Introduction

Reflective writing has become established as a key component of reflective practice, and central to the notion of learning from experience. Claims are made in the reflective practice literature of the capacity for reflective writing to develop the writer’s critical thinking and analytical abilities, contribute to their learning and personal development, and also enhance their understanding of complex and ambiguous situations. This is achieved by encouraging them to make links between experience, theory and practice, and to explore and reframe their thoughts and feelings on situations. These outcomes are consistent with those identified in the education literature as desirable student learning outcomes, and for which universities and professional associations are developing assessment criteria. So it is reasonable to assume that if educators promote the use of reflective writing to their students it would be beneficial to have a more detailed understanding of what reflective writing entails, and its potential effects and outcomes. This essay is presented with the intention of providing a more in-depth understanding of reflective writing, and the key elements that contribute to its effectiveness. Despite the widely accepted importance of reflective writing, claims and evidence of its effects remain largely theoretical. Empirical investigations of the effects of reflective writing are few in number, and tend to implement reflective writing exercises at a very basic level – such as requiring participants to keep a regular personal journal, or to write brief descriptions of critical incidents. While these studies have identified some positive effects of reflective writing such as increased critical thinking and self-awareness, they remain limited in the insights they can provide into how and why reflective writing works. This is due to a lack of recognition that there are varying levels of reflection and that different reflective writing activities are likely to produce different cognitive and affective processing effects. An enhanced understanding of reflective writing would require investigations that treat reflective writing as a complex cognitive activity, implemented at different levels of depth and with differing cognitive and affective strategies. This would involve the analysis of specific writing tasks or exercises and the use of verbal reporting and or stimulated recall methods to identify the thoughts and feelings that occurred during their implementation. It should also take into account the context in which the writing is implemented, and the prior knowledge and attitudes of the writer. Any insights gained from such investigations would be beneficial to the ongoing development of reflective writing theory, and the design of effective reflective writing activities for a diverse range of students and professionals.

2. Benefits of Reflective Writing

Reflective practice is also a key learning tool in developing a deeper understanding of a subject or course. The process of reflection is not simply a passive recording of an event. It’s about an attended-to evaluation and analysis of an abstract concept. This is a rare event in most people’s lives. Often, it is through surprise, failure, or success where people are forced to stop and think, and along with the discomfort that involves admitting we do not always do things as well as we could have done, we turn a passive event into a learning experience. Dropout. Step 3.

Illustration 2: Learning Spiral – Gibbs (1988)

Clearly, self-reflection is an important aspect of the learning process. There are many aspects of learning that occur during a specific subject or task that are often unnoticed. Unsuccessful experiences are often the best opportunities for learning. Through reflecting on these experiences, one can develop a deeper understanding of the task, leading to the development of new knowledge and understandings. Not only are learning experiences identified and analyzed during reflection, but it is also a time for a learner to take a step back and repeat the event. The re-running of the experience in one’s mind is similar to the re-reading of text where the meaning becomes clearer on the second or third attempt.

3. Techniques for Effective Reflective Writing

Audience and Purpose: After getting the hang of starting a reflection, an important step is to incorporate these attitudes into a piece of reflective writing with a clear audience and purpose. This is important because it will make the writing much easier to manage considering the greater your understanding of who the writing is for, the better your use of language will be so that you can accommodate your audience. For example, writing a reflection for employers after completing a project will require more professional language than an essay written for a university tutor. As for purpose, this is addressing what you hope to achieve from the piece of writing. For example, you may want to get a better grade, improve writing skills, or learn more about your subject in more depth. Both audience and purpose should be written as a strategy which makes it easier to incorporate these into the reflective writing.

Utilize written prompts: Begin by using a type of written prompt to get the hang of starting a reflection. Questions, such as “What did I do? Why? What would I have done differently?” are helpful to kick you off for reflecting. Different types of prompts you could use are quotes or works of art. These kinds of prompts may work better for certain disciplines than others; for example, works of art are more likely to be useful in a subject, such as English or Drama, than Biology. Additionally, if you are a more creative person, creative prompts may be more suitable for you. These are the most important parts of starting a reflection because they get you into the right frame of mind and place to begin your reflection.

4. Examples of Reflective Writing Prompts

Attention assignments: “Describe a memorable moment in class this week and analyse its effect.”

Classical: “Analyse a personal experience.” Used as the classic starting point, gets students looking at what they have learnt and how it has affected them.

Simple: “Describe an experience.” Ask them to remember something that they did or that happened that they can reflect upon. This is often good for starting off and getting students to realize the nature of reflection.

In order to illustrate the multifaceted nature of reflective writing, consider these classic and creative reflective prompt options. These prompts are meant to be used to help students engage in reflective writing. All are based upon Boud’s model and will help students develop greater self-awareness about their experiences. By looking at their thoughts and actions in context, often students are able to change the way they approach their learning in the future.

5. Conclusion

Earlier studies of reflection – mainly in professional fields such as teacher education, health, and social care – had conceptualized reflection simply as a conscious, deliberate, and thinking activity that was a useful tool in the process of learning from experience. But a growing realization that there are different types of reflection and that they may not always lead to constructive learning has led to a more complex model of reflective activity. Throughout this essay, the focus has been on the use of reflection on experience to enhance learning and professional development. Reflection is being viewed as a learned skill, which can facilitate professional growth and the achievement of an advanced level of professional competence. This, in itself, has generated an interest in how reflection might be assessed and what might be done to promote reflective practice in professional training and practice. We have also briefly considered the role that specific techniques of written reflection might play in the learning and professional development process and the issue of whether written reflection itself is a learnable skill. A survey of research on reflective learning both instrumentally and in formal education, it may be useful to further distinguish different phases and levels of reflective experience and different types of reflection in order to better understand the conditions under which reflection does or does not lead to learning and how it might be variously facilitated.

In conclusion, it is really important for everyone to recognize and reflect on their personal experiences, both the good and the bad, in order to enhance learning opportunities. Reflective writing has been gaining popularity in recent years, especially in the educational context. The overwhelming interest in the process of reflection is fueled by the assumption that reflection is a panacea that can always put things right in all circumstances. It is an attractive assumption because thinking that there is always a right answer can be quite distressing (Atkinson, 1984 cited in Hatton & Smith, 1995:330). For the same reasons, there is now an increasing interest in developing techniques to make the exploration of reflective experience explicit to those who would like to learn professionalism and who believe that reflection is a skill that can be mastered.