reflective writing clipart

reflective writing clipart

The Importance of Reflective Writing

1. Introduction

The biggest challenge I’ve faced during my time in English 101 was self-discipline. I’ve always enjoyed reading and writing, which is one of the reasons why I took an interest in journalism, a field that requires quite a bit of self-discipline so that a story can be thoroughly researched. Unfortunately, my recent experience with reading and writing has only been limited to the textbook on a need-to-know basis, and writing essays for the sole purpose of completing an assignment. I’d put it in that I’ve taken the easy way out, homework was finished at the last minute and the essays always managed to get an A without much effort. A man should never half-ass two things whole-ass one thing, and the writing style pattern that I have exhibited in the recent months is proof of that statement. The further I veered off the right of self-discipline, the more I started to dislike writing papers. It was really a game of quantity over quality most of the time. This course paper that I will be reflecting on will be a valuable lesson that writing can be very time-consuming, and it is not always a bad thing.

I begin this reflective essay with an insight into the subpar standards of my English 101 class. When the class first began, I was thrilled because it was time to learn something new, which meant an opportunity to increase my knowledge. I knew that English 101 would be a tough class, but I would like to think of my English skills as on or above average compared to the majority of my class. What I am trying to say is that I did not expect to learn much from an entry-level class, but there is always things for me to be wrong about. Anyways, as the class comes to an end, I feel that it is safe to say that my presumptions were quite correct, for I have not learned much of anything new from English 101. The disappointing thing is that this really has nothing to do with the teacher or curriculum at all, it is the fact that I did not have to put in any effort to succeed in the class.

2. Benefits of Reflective Writing

There are many potential benefits to be gained from writing a reflective piece, particularly in helping move from the more common descriptive style of writing associated with many forms of assessment. Not only does it encourage a personal response to texts, situations, experiences, events, or new information or ideas, but it also has the potential to foster students’ understanding of the complexity of the learning process. This focuses on the learning process instead of just the final product, as well as promoting an understanding of how to transfer new learning to various other situations, which can be useful in a student’s later life. Reflective writing can also help students analyze and understand an event, a situation, or a concept in much greater detail. It helps to question the standard or traditional idea or statement and develop it as a result of a new experience, alternative idea, situation, or new information. Considering the pros and cons, implications, value, and worth of something in great detail can help improve critical thinking, which is an important skill for all students to develop.

3. How to Engage in Reflective Writing

One of the most important things you will do is to read the feedback given to you on your assignments and your work. Ensure you have a clear understanding of your tutor’s comments, and if you don’t then ask them. The better your understanding of the level you are working at, the clearer a picture you will develop of what to do next time, and how to improve. If your assignment has been graded or marked, you may find it helpful to make a copy of the grade/marksheet and keep it alongside the assignment for future reference. This will help you judge the effectiveness of particular strategies and identify patterns in your work over time. When considering your future work, knowing what has been effective before and what hasn’t will save you doing the same things again, and provide a basis for setting more advanced goals. Reflective writing requires a clear line of thought, use of evidence or examples to illustrate your reflections and an analytical approach. You may be asked to make a link between the reflection and the concepts taught in class. It is in the processing of applying a writing strategy that you will often generate the data that you need for effective reflection. For example, in writing a diary, using a structured format for each entry and using triggers/primes for recall of an event or place will improve the clarity of the information recalled and its relevance to your focuses. Trying different strategies will enable you to determine which method is most effective for you. The effectiveness of the strategy can then be evaluated in your reflection upon the writing, reconsidering the original event and looking for implications and learning.

4. Examples of Reflective Writing

In a situation where you don’t have a mentor or guide, consider how to generate the conditions for your own learning and growth (e.g. Borton’s developmental model: see later). Equally, if a person’s behaviour is causing concern or is inhibiting your own performance, reflect on how to address the situation with them – I’ve found the Situational Leadership grid very helpful for assessing performance of self and others and deciding what action to take (again, something to be covered in a later post). An example of a situation that’s arisen for me over the last couple of years is my move into a senior occupational physician role in an organisation that was creating the first such post – I’ve found it beneficial to repeatedly reflect on what the characteristics of an ‘exemplary professional occupational physician’ actually are and whether my personal attributes and the organisational resources will stretch to reaching this ideal and making a significant improvement in health and safety culture. This sort of reflection has led me to formal and informal learning in healthcare quality improvement and postgraduate study in the domain of OH/occ prev/public health, learning from other professions and the realisation that the job may be a bit big but is do-able and highly significant. Written reflective accounts are a common assessment task in universities, so you might have been asked to write a structured piece with a clear introduction and description of the event, your feelings and analysis of how the event relates to your professional knowledge and practice, an evaluation of different actions and a conclusion with learning points and planned actions – an example structure can be found here on the Deakin University website. A plan-do-study-act cycle comprising reflection and learning together with a free text diary are other methods of structured reflection that deserve a mention. In a reflective account, it’s useful if you’ve got a clear idea of a relevant theory or knowledge base to compare the experience with e.g. a task familiarisation may lead to errors of execution due to implementation failure of a new theory and I have found the use of a clinical and theoretical knowledge matrix quite helpful to analyse unfamiliar or complex OH clinical cases. Be aware that reflection can be emotionally taxing or stir up a sense of inadequacy from realisation that you were not working at your best or that you were not working in a manner consistent with a currently higher level of understanding i.e. it takes some courage to reflect and face the reality. Not all reflection leads to a positive learning and specific emotions or characteristics may inhibit or promote reflection on a particular issue. Schon’s reflective writing prompts suggest questioning why and how we did and did not know something, though this may lead you against undesirable knowledge or get stuck if a solution to a problem seems too elusive. Use of reflective practice to learn from failure can be part of a resilience process that maintains professional identity in the face of complex tasks and conflicting or unexpected outcomes. Dizikes identifies errors, uncertainty and feelings of responsibility to a client as emotional triggers for reflection and identifies the latter as a common theme in reflective writing by other professionals who believe that they could have worked to a higher standard on behalf of somebody. Retrieval of dormant professional identity and a sense of vocation is an important activity for those who feel that they have lost their way in the modern morass of target-driven activity and employee stress-related illness is often a call to return to personal professional foundations or study their past and how they wandered forsake what had significant though no longer recognized value.

5. Conclusion

Reflective writing is not just a description or summary of something that the individual has done, it is much more. It explores what the individual has learnt. This might be something that the individual has read, discussed, experienced or discovered. Then it considers how this learning was useful or helpful and whether or not the individual has learnt what they wanted to learn. Finally, it is the identification and exploration of what can be done differently the next time. This can be very important for personal development and a better understanding of anything that an individual is trying to improve.

Reflective writing is an important element of learning, which can help to greatly improve critical thinking and reasoning skills. This is particularly important for those who wish to enhance their degrees and are entering the workplace – where there is an increasing emphasis on skills. Reflective learning is a key element of developing these skills. It can help an individual to clarify what they are aiming to achieve, evaluate whether or not they have achieved their goals, learn more about and from their mistakes, and promote better understanding before taking an action or decision.