Reflective Writing Models PDF

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Various models for reflective practice...

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Models for Structuring Reflection Introduction Reflection has become an important part of academic practice in many subject areas. Reflective writing can take a number of forms: it may be part of your everyday practice as a student, it can be a requirement during a placement, or it might be set as an assignment. Reflection is a helpful skill to master both in your academic work and in your professional life, as it can be used to improve how you do things. During your time at university, reflective practice provides a space for you to think deeply about actions, situations, skills and experiences. Moreover, it enables you to learn from them. This is actually something we do all the time without realising it – for instance, you might change a route you take on a walk after reflecting on which parts are difficult or boring. Here, reflection helps you to improve your route, just as reflective writing helps you to improve in your area of study. Reflective writing also involves an academic element. Much like other forms of academic writing, it includes research and analysis of others’ ideas. To make the most of your reflections, it’s best to use a structured method. There are a number of models available to follow. Sometimes, it can be hard to begin the process on your own. Give the models below a try and see what works for you.*

Models Follow one of the models below as you write. Think of each stage in the model as a section of your assignment and make sure you write about each one. It’s important to use ideas from your reading for your course to support your ideas, too. Include references just like you would for any other essay.

Kolb’s Learning Cycle This well-known model for reflective practice is based upon the premise that we learn from our everyday experiences. For the educational theorist David A. Kolb (1984), the learning process follows a four-stage cycle. This is illustrated and summarised below.

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Stage 1: Experience We learn new things on a daily basis from our experiences. There are countless opportunities to begin the learning cycle, whether at home, at work or out and about. In the context of your studies, you might reflect on your experience of producing an essay or another piece of academic work. You may also be asked to produce a reflective journal or assignment when on placement.

Stage 2: Reflect In order to reflect, we need to think about our experiences and activities. Some people find this easy and are able to make it part of their everyday outlook. Others find that they need structure and training to help them become more deliberate in observing and recording their experiences.

Stage 3: Conceptualise When we move from just observing and recording our experiences to interpreting them, we enter the realm of what Kolb called ‘conceptualisation’. This involves producing a hypothesis about the meaning of our experiences: asking ‘why?’ as well as ‘what?’ and ‘where?’.

Stage 4: Plan This stage is where we test out our hypotheses, leading to actions and opportunities for learning. Kolb referred to this stage as ‘active experimentation’ for a reason! Having experiences will only get us to stage one of the cycle; this final stage puts into action what we have interpreted and tested through reflection and conceptualisation.

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Gibb’s reflective cycle Gibbs' (1998) reflective cycle guides us through six stages of reflection: 1. Description: what happened.

What, where and when? Who did/said what? What did you do/read/see hear? In what order did things happen? What were the circumstances? What were you responsible for?

2. Feelings: what were What was your initial gut reaction and what does it tell you? you thinking about? Did your feelings change? What were you thinking? What pleased, interested or was important to you? What 3. Evaluation: what made you unhappy? What difficulties were there? Who/what was good or bad about the experience? was unhelpful? Why? What needs improvement? 4. Analysis: what sense can you make of the situation?

Compare theory and practice. What similarities or differences are there between this experience and other experiences? Think about what actually happened. What choices did you make and what effect did they have?

5. Conclusion: what else could you have done?

What have you learnt for the future? What else could you have done?

6. Action Plan: what If a similar situation arose again, what would you do? will you do next time?

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Johns’ model for structured reflection

Johns' model (Johns, 2000) was developed for nursing practitioners but is applicable to any field. Johns suggests that this ‘Model for Structured Reflection’ is especially useful in the early stages of learning how to reflect. The 'looking in' and 'looking out' method is a way of challenging our natural tendency to judge ourselves too harshly. The model can be applied by using the series of questions outlined below.

Model for Structured Reflection, adapted from Johns (2000) Looking in:  Find a space to focus on self.  Pay attention to your thoughts and emotions.  Write down these thoughts and emotions. Looking out:  Write a description of the situation.  What issues seem significant?

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Aesthetics – ‘the art of what we do – our own experiences’. - What was I trying to achieve? - Why did I respond as I did? - What were the consequences for me and for others? - How were others feeling? - How did I know this?

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Personal – self-awareness. - Why did I feel the way I did within this situation?

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Ethics – moral knowledge. - Did I act for the best? - What factors were influencing me? - What knowledge informed (or could have informed) me?

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Reflexivity – what other choices did I have? - How does this situation relate to previous experiences? - How could I have handled this better? - What would have been the consequences of alternative actions? - How do I feel now about the experience? - How can I support myself and others better in the future?

Bain’s framework – the 5 Rs Bain's model (Bain et al., 1999) was developed from research done with student teachers. It has been used by many other scholars writing about reflection. Bain's framework is commonly referred to as the '5 Rs' (or sometimes as the '4 Rs', where the 'Reporting' and 'Responding' levels are merged together and called 'Reporting and Responding'). 

Student describes what happened with little or no comment or interpretation of the event(s) attempted.

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Student describes how they feel about the event(s) and might pose some questions.

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Student tries to explain what happened, possibly with reference to their personal experience, and might identify some areas which could be improved.

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Student looks for a better understanding of what happened and considers what the literature tells them about the issue(s). Bain et al. (1999) refer to a process of 'transformation' here, meaning that the student is looking to create new ideas.

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Student works out their own position or theory on a particular issue or set of events. They decide how they would respond to similar challenges in the future. In their study, Bain et al. found that students who made daily notes about their reflections were more likely to reach this highest level.

Level 1: Reporting

Level 2: Responding

Level 3: Relating

Level 4: Reasoning

Level 5: Reconstructing

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Moon’s levels of learning Moon (1999) outlines five stages of learning:

Stage 1: Noticing

The student has to register the topic, event or incident as being interesting or important in some way.

Stage 2: Making sense

The student thinks more about what they have noticed and tries to understand it better.

Stage 3: Making meaning

The student starts to ask questions and to connect ideas together.

The student makes links with other ideas and events. They will probably refer to literature and Stage 4: Working with meaning other research here. At this point, reflection on the learning is likely to be taking place. The student has reached the point where they can formulate new ideas of their own. They know what Stage 5: Transformative learning they would do if a similar situation arose in the future.

It is only when we get to the last two stages – 'working with meaning' and 'transformative learning' – that reflection on the learning is likely to take place. McDrury and Alterio (2003) mapped the practice of learning or reflecting using storytelling on to Moon's levels, as shown in this table: Moon's levels of learning

McDrury and Alterio's stages of learning through storytelling

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Noticing

Stage 1: Story finding

Making sense

Stage 2: Storytelling

Making meaning

Stage 3: Story expanding

Working with meaning

Stage 4: Story processing

Transformative learning

Stage 5: Story reconstructing

(From McDrury and Alterio 2003, p. 47) *NB: Always check your assignment brief, as you may be required by your tutor to use a specific model.

ACTIVITY Think about a recent experience you had on your course. This might be a group presentation, an assignment, a placement, or a research trip to an archive or library. Apply one or more of the above models to your experience.

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