In this lesson, we discussed why we use reflective writing and identified reflective writing within a given example. We also applied a reflective writing method to our own work by practising with the attached skills session from this week.
First, we were asked about our opinion on what it means to be reflective. I struggled with this definition far more than I thought I would because it was hard to explain how I knew reflection was different from normal thinking. It isn’t evaluation per se, but not just a description of something either. This is what I settled on:
” Reflection is when you think back on a process, activity, result or some other thing in a neutral manner “
I put ‘in a neutral manner’ at the end because I think that when reflecting, you should be objective and that means not looking at work through a specific perspective or one-sided view. In this way, bias can be avoided, an insight can be reached, and true reflection is achieved.
Here is the official definition of what it means to be reflective, which I looked up in order to have a clear idea of the concept.
” Reflective practice is the ability to reflect on one’s actions so as to take a critical stance or attitude towards one’s own practice and that of one’s peers, engaging in a process of continuous adaptation and learning. “
So why is it important to utilise reflective writing in our work? Well, it structures the text, which can be helpful when writing something that doesn’t involve research and can be difficult to organise. It creates a record of skills development and indicates a need to develop further, both of which are important for personal growth and progress tracking. Also, reflection ensures that one’s abilities are always challenged, thus opening a gateway into new possible habits, routines and practices to implement into one’s life. We were shown one possible way of doing this called ‘What, So what, Now what’. Developed by Borton (1970) and improved by Driscoll (2017), this method of reflection involves thinking/writing about an experience in a structured manner, categorised into three main sections:
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What – did I see/do?, was my reaction to it? , is the purpose of returning to this situation?
So What – were the effects of what I did (or did not do)? , positive aspects now emerge for me from the event that happened in practice?
Now What – is the main learning that I take from reflecting on my practice in this way? How can I modify my practice if a similar situation arises again?
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We were then given our first task. In groups, we were to read three short paragraphs and identify the reflective elements by highlighting keywords or phrases that indicate reflection. In our group, we used two different colours. Expressions in blue were mainly words or short phrases that showed reflection (generally) whilst the longer phrases in green, we noted were clearly used to discuss the next stage of reflection.
Using these reflections as examples, we then wrote our own based on a particular aspect of our work. I chose to do mine on my creative project so far. I used the ‘So What’ structure to an extent, but as with all reflective writing, I ended up writing what came to mind and going off on my own tangent, as they say. I think that the categorised technique can certainly be beneficial, but for people who are a bit looser with their writing, it is a time to break free of templates and focus on the self.
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Looking back over all of my work so far for the Creative Project, I feel that I am on track both in terms of standard of work and my schedule. My main goals for the project stemmed from the mistakes that I felt I made with my previous ones; procrastinating too much, not executing my schedules as planned and creating unrealistic expectations. So far, I have effectively avoided procrastination for the most part by organizing each stage of the production process into the timeline of the FMP and using previous work as stimulation to better myself. Thanks to this, my second goal is also achieved so far because instead of putting work off, I feel the urge to get ahead in order to produce better final products and feel proud of what I have done, unlike last time. Blog work hasn’t been too much of a problem, since my writing has been detailed and thorough with every major project, however, the production was where I struggled because I always had a great vision in mind that was above my abilities and I decided to go ahead with it anyway. I identified that this was because of my mild atychiphobia, which often pushes me into unrealistic projections which can only be achieved through a lot of work, thus causing procrastination. Ultimately, all of these things are linked and I have mostly overcome them for the current period that I have been working on the FMP because of multiple new practices I have implemented, including frequent self-care and healthy prioritisation.