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Reflective writing
1. Reflective Writing
Explain the role of critical analysis in reflection
Evaluate examples of reflective writing
Synthesise methods for critical thinking, reading
and writing to create pieces of reflective writing
Rhian Wyn-Williams, Academic Skills Tutor,
Skills@ljmu.ac.uk
2. What does good reflective writing look like?
• You have extracts from two Education
students’ analyses of experiences on
placement. In your groups, examine them
and discuss which you think is better and
why.
• Based on your evaluation of these, what do
you think good reflective writing looks like?
3. So, what is academic reflection?
“… consideration of the larger context, the
meaning, and the implications of an
experience or action” (Branch &
Paranjape, 2002, p. 1185)
Think about the
literature, policy
and professional
frameworks from
your subject area
For example,
think about how
you are working
on your university
placement or in
your
employment. You
may need to
think about your
experiences in
university too.
4. Description is needed as context but go deeper:
critically analyse yourself and your actions, the
responses and perspectives/lenses of others, the
immediate and broader significance.
You need theory and policy to help make sense of
it all – our experiences are not isolated ones.
Show how you apply it in real life and analyse its
validity/usefulness.
Above all, you need critical analysis.
How do you achieve academic reflection?
Look back at the better example of
student work. Where and how are
they doing this?
5. What is critical analysis?
• Standing back and thinking about all the
elements of a topic
• Not taking information at face-value
• Thinking about context
• Considering an issue from different
perspectives and synthesising them
• Analysing and evaluating information, ideas
and perspectives before making a judgement
• Critical thinking is about asking and
answering questions: ‘Why? How? What if?
What next? So what?’
6. Reflective Questions
Descriptive
Analytical
Evaluative
What?
Where?
When?
Why did this happen? What
and how can you learn from
existing
theory and practice about
your experience?
So what?
What if?
What next?
Academic reflection requires you to critically analyse yourself and the
critical incident.
Bombard your experience with questions.
7. Use a reflective model
Models can help you structure your reflective
thinking and writing.
However, the basic structure of any reflective
writing, though, is Description, Interpretation
and Outcome.
Read the third example of writing. Where is
each of these elements being shown?
Gibbs’s Reflective Cycle (1988)
8. Specific tasks were shared out amongst members of my
team. Initially, however, the tasks were not seen as equally
difficult by all team members. Cooperation between group
members was at risk because of this perception of
unfairness. Social interdependence theory recognises a
type of group interaction called ‘positive interdependence’,
meaning cooperation (Johnson & Johnson, 1993, cited by
Maughan & Webb, 2001), and many studies have
demonstrated that “cooperative learning experiences
encourage higher achievement” (Maughan & Webb, 2001).
Ultimately, our group achieved a successful outcome, but
to improve the process, we perhaps needed a chairperson
to help encourage cooperation when tasks were being
shared out. In future group work, on the course and at
work, I would probably suggest this.
Description
Interpretation
Outcome
9. Analyse your experience/incident
Now in pairs, take it turns to interrogate your
partner on one of the events they want to reflect
upon: keep pushing them!
Be willing to share your discussions.
What happened?
How did/do they feel about the incident? Why?
How valuable was the experience?
What did/would they do differently next time?
Why have they chosen that one?
How does addressing these questions
deepen your reflection?
10. But to place the critical incident in a broader context and make sense of
it, you need theory and policy
Where and how are the students
whose work you have read
demonstrating their critical analysis
and synthesis of theory?
Ask critical questions of your reading and start to
synthesise the key points and ideas.
Synthesising is combining different aspects of the
ideas of others in order to produce new ideas.
11. A reading grid can help you keep track of your reading and think about how you
will use in your writing
Author, title Topic Key idea/theme Strengths/
Weaknesses
How to use
Brahm Norwich
(2014) ‘Changing
policy and legislation
and its effects on
inclusive and special
education: a
perspective from
England’, BJSE
Children and
Families Act - SEND
provision
Not radical reform.
Doesn’t allow for
eval of admissions/
exclusions – not so
inclusive after all?
2014– evaluation
could now differ
Uses a ‘fake’ case
study school – OK
for ethics BUT could
lead to researcher
bias in selection.
Compare with lit on
positive potential of
reform for
inclusivity.
Ref by Greenwood
and Kelly – they
build on it
(inclusivity in
practice)
Relate to event –
experience rejects
Norwich’s evaluation
of policy (e.g….).
Notice how this helps you to analyse
and synthesise the information
throughout your reading.
12. So, as a form of academic writing, reflective writing requires both
descriptive and analytical writing styles:
Descriptive style
• What something is
• Where something takes place
• Who is involved/when it occurs
Descriptive style tends to provide background
to critical discussion
Critical analytical style
• Discusses underlying reasons for something
• Examines how something takes place
• Considers alternatives - what if?
• Evaluates importance – so what?
• Offers possible implications – what next?
13. Features of the language of
reflective writing:
• First person-when expressing personal experiences, observations or opinions.
• Third person-when referring to theory or other writers, write in the third person. Refer to other
writers by name.
• Actions (verbs)-usually those of feeling and thinking, e.g. feeling, felt, considered, experienced,
wondered, remembered, discovered, learned.
• Hedging- using words like ‘may’, ‘perhaps’ or ‘might’ help demonstrate that you are aware that
you are considering different perspectives, experiences, lenses, and that critical analysis does not
make something 100% certain.
Have a look back at extracts one from exercise one and
in your groups, identify where the student use these
features of reflective writing.
I’ve got a handout for
you of useful phrases to
use.
14. Have a go….
Using the basic description, interpretation and
outcome framework (or choose a model you are
familiar with), write a short paragraph reflecting on
today’s session.
You have some examples of literature on reflection
that you can use, but you could also use some from
your subject if that is more relevant to what you
want to say.
15. Next steps
To build on today’s class to either focus on
your use of literature or your other types of
assignment
This week
• Academic Writing: case studies for PGs
• Using reading in your PG assignments
Next week:
Webinars to be announced…
Editor's Notes
Get an idea of what type of reflective assignments they have to write as an opener so that these can be referred to throughout, as there is such a range.
10 minutes in total, including Q and A/discussion as feedback – get them to clearly and precisely identify the features of good reflective writing.
Use to reinforce their comment and to explain a little further how the refection is where the experience and the theory collide – how they won’t working/learning in a vacuum but in this broader context.
As whole group Q and A – couple of minutes but they need to develop their initial comments by focusing more on exactly how the sample pieces are demonstrating these features (what bigger context exactly is being shown and how)– get some focus on critical analysis (how are they showing it?) – this will lead into a What is Critical Analysis discussion – could ask each student to define it as a way of checking current levels of knowledge/understanding/application.
Hopefully just a check list after the previous discussion. It is worth going through these and asking them for examples of each using what they have studied so far on their course
Get them to recognise that the questions here are the same as those on the model to generate critical thinking. Reflection is a critically analytical experience!
Ask them whether they have been using reflective model/advised to, and which ones – highlight the variety with some examples (Brookfield, Johnson and Johnson, Tripp….are they sued to the term critical incident?) but they all share the DIO basis – very quick activity in pairs
10 minutes. Explain how this works as learner cell –– it’s not a discussion but question and answer – can only ask questions/answer them taking it I turn. Encourage them to challenge in their questions: keep asking why, how etc until ‘satisfied’. Could relate their questions back also to the questions to trigger critical analysis already discussed. Get each pair to share what they have learnt about their partners ‘incident’ and what their partner has learnt from it.. Open up to how far this has deepened their reflections.
2-3 minutes Quick open Q and A to keep checking learning
2-3 minutes This is just to demonstrate one approach to thinking about their reflections – talk through the examples and explain.
Reiterate here that reflective writing needs both of these styles but it is the critical that really enables true reflection, which leads into the next slide
I’d ask them to go back and identify any of these features in the sample paragraphs they have just used, and this could lead to a fruitful discussion of how the better of the two used language effectively to express reflection. - open it up to for 5 minutes or so
Need at least 20 minutes. This works as quite a meaty activity to check their learning but also as a plenary their through our discussion of their paragraphs by acknowledging that they will all (hopefully) be saying something about what they will take away and use in their own assignments. The quotations they have been given are:
Reflection is “… consideration of the larger context, the meaning, and the implications of an experience or action” (Branch & Paranjape, 2002, p. 1185)
“Student responses often differ markedly form what teachers have expected on their basis of their own feelings in the classroom” (Brookfield, 1995, pp. 95-96)
“Once the situation has been analysed, you can plan for a response or a strategy2 (Tripp, 1993, p. 72)
“Reflection lies somewhere around the notion of learning and thinking. We reflect in order to learn.” (Moon, 2004, p.12)
I also tell them here that they could even make some references to literature/policy up if they don’t remember any off the top of their heads and they want to say something not directly related to reflection using the quotations given to them– it’s really to show that they know where and how to integrate the literature.
