This document provides guidance on reflective writing for students. It explains that reflective writing requires both descriptive and analytical components. Students must describe events and experiences, but also critically analyze them by considering underlying reasons and implications. The document reviews examples of student reflective writing and identifies key features like using first person to describe experiences, third person for referring to literature, and hedging language. It emphasizes that reflective writing necessitates placing experiences in broader theoretical and policy contexts by synthesizing literature. Tools like reflective questions, models, and reading grids can help students structure and deepen their reflective analysis.

1. Reflective Writing
You will be able to…
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

2. What does good reflective writing look like?
• You have extracts from two Education
students’ assignments that required
them to reflect on learning theory.
• Handout One
• Based on your evaluation of these, what
do you think good reflective writing
looks like?

3. Answers
Example B
Yes. This example provides greater depth of
analysis because it is not only linked prior
experience to theoretical understandings, it
explored feelings and motivations too. It also
anticipated how this learning might be applied
in a professional context in the future.

4. 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.

5. 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?

6. Helping yourself to
reflect
Keeping a reflective learning journal
You may want to consider keeping a
learning journal, as a form of informal,
regular reflection. This is an example
of one way of approaching it.
If you have been asked to keep a
reflective log- make sure you try to keep
up with writing your entries. Trying to
remember what you did can be very
difficult!
Top Tip

7. 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?’

8. 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.

9. 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)

10. 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

11. Analyse your experience/incident
Think about the events you wish
to reflect on. Use these
questions to help you focus on
the details.
What happened?
How do you feel about the incident? Why?
How valuable was the experience?
What would you do differently next time?
Why have you chosen this event?
How does addressing these questions
deepen your reflection?

12. 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.

13. A reading grid can help you keep track of your reading and think about how you
will use it 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.

14. 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?

15. 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
can you identify where the student use these features
of reflective writing.
Look at the handout of
useful phrases. How can
you use these?

16. 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
this presentation.
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.