Reflective Writing Help Sheet PDF

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Welcome to this Reflective Writing Help Sheet About this doc: Go into more detail on how to use the 5 Rs framework.and review two examples in practice. 

The 5 Rs Model of Reflection The 5 Rs Model of Reflection helps you to draw out some blind spots and better understand your experience. It is great as a reflection framework to discuss as a team or complete individually. The 5Rs of Reflection are: one - Reporting, two - Responding, three - Relating, four -Reasoning and five - Reconstructing.  Let’s look at those in more detail: Report – what happened? ➔ Important details about the experience (the “what”, “where”, “who”, “how”). I.e. what was the feedback you received? ➔ Be specific, but brief.  Respond – how did you react to this situation? ➔ Link the feelings evoked in you - emotionally, physically, mentally. Be specific, relevant and brief.  Relate - why did you react this way? ➔ Make connections between your reaction (to the feedback) and your knowledge and skills. How do your insights relate to your personal and professional experiences?  Reasoning - what is a theoretical or logical explanation for your reaction? ➔ You now need to explain the situation based on theory and logic. Would a different perspective or theory have affected the situation? ➔ Think of the “why” to the above “what”? Why do you think things went the way they did and you felt the way you did? What knowledge do you (or others) have that can help make sense? This is the hard stuff, so give it more time and effort.  Reconstructing - what did you learn? ➔ What did you learn as a result? what skills or knowledge gaps did you identify? ➔ What strategies did you put into place as a result? How did it influence your practice? How effective were those strategies? 

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Examples in practice Example #1 This student completed a reflection against the 5 Rs Model in her second Team360 at the end of an industry project. They reflected on the feedback they had received in Team 360 #1 and how they reflected on and incorporated that feedback in the second half of the project.  Report The team and I worked together over the course of two weeks to deliver a Draft Report for the client. At the start of the project I was assigned the responsibility of leading a component of our research and analysis. We set a date to reconvene so that we could share our findings and devise an action plan moving forward to produce a quality Draft Report on time. Casting an analytical view at the Peer Feedback (data & written feedback), I can see some themes emerging. My team and I agree that I am a reliable member and active participant in discussion. However, there is some discrepancy in the other Collaboration Skills, namely Solution Orientated. I also received clear written feedback to improve my openness & flexibility.  Respond During and following the meeting I felt that I had demonstrated excellent leadership qualities; I had communicated my findings persuasively clearly and had justified my opinions with valid data points. And so, I was disappointed by the feedback I received regarding my flexibility and nervous that I had offended in my attempt to demonstrate positive leadership and efficient decision-making. I wanted to understand why and how I behaved in a way that came across as domineering. Relate Literature on leadership generally states that leadership is about bringing out the best in your team as you work towards a common goal. Simon Sinek, for example, says that the best leaders lead by creating a shared, valuable goal with their teams. In other words, a highly-functioning team requires the careful building of a culture for sharing ideas and authentic, passionate, consistent and confidence building towards the achievement of that goal. Reason

I believe that in my eagerness to demonstrate my knowledge and convince others of my opinions, I didn’t demonstrate the necessary skills of a team member or leader. If I had been more attuned to others’ visual or verbal cues I might have spotted some discontent. Furthermore, while I deemed my approach to be Solution Orientated and efficient, others perceived my communication strategy as missing out on other valuable solutions, or even, a thorough understanding of and discussion around the problem. Reconstruct As we move into the next phase of the Project I will ensure that I actively develop and implement strategies to improve my openness and flexibility. I will firstly develop my knowledge of agile management through reading about Scrum Mindset where there is an emphasis on the problem rather than the solution, as well as a flattened hierarchy. In my conversations with my team members I will actively seek their opinions, check my and their understanding of situations and collaboratively form solutions moving forward. I will also suggest to the team that we create a set of Team Values that we can openly reference in times of conflict and challenge.   Example #2 This is a reflection in the third person of a PhD student at the start of an industry placement.  Reporting: a PhD student recently related her experience when she first arrived at her industry placement and received her project briefing: It turned out that the project involved tools and research she was not familiar with and had no idea how she was going to go about the work.  Responding: The student reported feeling overwhelmed and confused - she felt she didn’t have time to think about the problem in the moment so kept quiet and didn’t raise any concerns or ask questions. This lead to a problem as the industry manager took her silence to mean all was good and there were no problems.  Relating: The student has a tendency to want all the facts and time to analyse them fully before making a decision or speaking up about an issue. 

Reasoning: The tendency to hold back until you have all the information and the answers is common to many analytical introverts. The student recognised that this was a part of her personality, at times a strength and at others a weakness.  Reconstructing: The student could have made a number of different choices to get a better outcome next time. She decided to play to her strengths and respectfully ask for some time to look at how she was going to deliver the project and consult with her mentor. She also asked where she could get more information and who she could come to with more questions. This might lead to a longer discussion in the moment, but it would ensure that she was not setting the wrong expectations with the manager.   ...