Reflective Tool

I've done a fair bit of dithering about which particular reflective mechanism to use. Reflecting upon reflecting, I suppose. Although I want something fairly simple and straightforward, and something consistent, it's still easier to think of as an abstract pondering rather than a concrete equation.

Some study skills resources:

Open University
http://www.open.ac.uk/skillsforstudy/postgraduate-study-skills.php

Southampton Solent University
http://mycourse.solent.ac.uk/mod/book/view.php?id=2732&chapterid=1107

University of Bradford
http://www.bradford.ac.uk/wimba-files/skill-space/Reflective_Writing_HTML/page_04.htm

University of Leeds
http://www.ldu.leeds.ac.uk/ldu/sddu_multimedia/kolb/static_version.php

26th April 2013

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Gibbs 1988
(Initial experience) Gibbs discussed the use of structured debriefing to facilitate the reflection involved in Kolb's "experiential learning cycle". He presents the stages of a full structured debriefing as follows:

Description:
"What happened? Don't make judgements yet or try to draw conclusions; simply describe."

Feelings:
"What were your reactions and feelings? Again don't move on to analysing these yet."

Evaluation:
"What was good or bad about the experience? Make value judgements."

Analysis:
"What sense can you make of the situation? Bring in ideas from outside the experience to help you."

"What was really going on?"
"Were different people's experiences similar or different in important ways?"

Conclusions (general):
"What can be concluded, in a general sense, from these experiences and the analyses you have undertaken?"

Conclusions (specific):
"What can be concluded about your own specific, unique, personal situation or way of working?"

Personal action plans:
"What are you going to do differently in this type of situation next time?"
"What steps are you going to take on the basis of what you have learnt?"

Gibbs' suggestions are often cited as Gibbs' reflective cycle or Gibbs' model of reflection (1988), and simplified into the following six distinct stages:
Description
Feelings
Evaluation
Analysis
Conclusions
Action plan.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflective_practice)

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Donald Schon. Reflection-in-action/Reflection-on-action.

A framework for thinking rather than a stepped process.

Reflection in Action:

Works on getting to the bottom of what is happening in the experiencer's process, decision-making and feelings at the time of the event or interaction.

Reflection on Action:

Works on sifting over a previous event to take unto account new information or theoretical perspectives available in conjunction with the experiencer's processes, feelings and actions.

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David Kohlb. Experiential Learning.

Reflective prompts.

What happened

What was my experience of it

Why did it happen. Is there any research that might deepen my understanding

What will I do when/if it happens again.

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Johns Model of Reflection Description of the experience

Describe the experience and what were the significant factors?

Refection

What was I trying to achieve and what are the consequences?

Influencing factors

What things like internal/external/knowledge affected my decision making?

Could I have dealt with it better

What other choices did I have and what were those consequences?

Learning

What will change because of this experience and how did I feel about the experience

How has this experience changed my ways of knowing

Empirics – scientific

Ethics – moral knowledge

Personal – self awareness

Aesthetics – the art of what we do, our own experiences

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Inner Mechanism of Reflection

Having read through these and various writings about reflective mechanisms, I realise there are some areas I am drawn to more than others, and so I have been hoping to come across something that feels exactly right, that will be the most productive for me, the most reflective, etc. Naturally much depends on how I use any mechanism, but I am also looking for something inherently rigorous, so that I can bypass any tendency in myself to avoid something I'd rather not subject myself to and thus scupper the process. The part that feels uncomfortable is the dispassionate reporting of facts, the descriptions without judgements or conclusions. I'd much rather report on the actions to reflect concurrent with my conclusions, but of course see the whole point of breaking this into constituent parts.

I notice that many reflective models are presented for use in medicine and education. I notice also that I have a crumb of resistance to plumping for a model because I know I already have an internal model or mechanism of reflection. It's very difficult to pinpoint exactly what that is, and to summarise it into a series of points. Perhaps this whole exercise will help me in iterating that inner process.

I will keep note of that as I go along, but still want to consistently use one chosen pattern throughout this unit.

Reflective Tool

This is the mechanism I will use, and will retrospectively fill in my reflective jottings so far.

I am using the thinking frameworks of Reflection-in-action/Reflection-on-action at all stages of my reflective cycle, which allows me to easily cross the overlapping borders between stages. I have merged what I consider to be the significant points I'd like to consider whilst reflecting all together, and I will allow merging between points.
I will specifically use this Reflective Tool weekly or fortnightly, and may apply it additionally for significant actions or stages in work.

1. Describe / What happened / What did I do  / What were the significant factors

2. What was I trying to achieve / What were my thoughts and feelings / What are the consequences

3. What things like internal/external/knowledge affected my decision making / What other choices did I have and what were those consequences 

4. Analyse / Evaluate / Judgements / Different people's experience / What worked / What didn't work

5.  Conclusions / What can be concluded about the work or media / What can be concluded about myself / practice / thinking

6. Research / Is there any research that might deepen my understanding / Are there ideas from outside

7. Learning / What will change because of this / What will I do / What have I learned about art, myself, other

1st May 2013

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