Introduction - reflection and reflective writing

Reflection lies somewhere around the notion of learning and thinking. We reflect in order to learn something, or we learn as a result of reflecting.

An excellent description of reflection can be found in the Harry Potter novel 'The Goblet of Fire'. In the paragraph below Dumbledore the chief wizard and head teacher is talking to Harry about having excess thoughts!

'Harry stared at the stone basin. The contents had returned to their original, silvery white state, swirling and rippling beneath his gaze.

"What is it?" Harry asked shakily.

"This? It is called a Pensieve," said Dumbledore. "I sometimes find, and I am sure you know the feeling, that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind."

"Err," said Harry who couldn't truthfully say that he had felt anything of the sort.

"At these times" said Dumbledore, indicating the stone basin. "I use the Pensieve. One simply siphons the excess thoughts from one's mind, pours them into the basin, and examines them at one's leisure. It becomes easier to spot patterns and links, you understand, when they are in this form.' (Rowling 2000)

What is reflective writing?

We will start from what reflective writing is not. It is not:

• Conveyance of information, instruction or argument in a report, essay or 'recipe'
• Straight-forward description, though there may be descriptive elements
• A straight-forward decision eg about whether something is right or wrong, good or bad etc
• Simple problem solving like recalling how to get to the nearest station

In the context of your higher education programme, reflective writing will usually have a purpose e.g. you will be writing reflectively about something that you have to do or have done). It will usually involve the sorting out of bits of knowledge, ideas, feelings, and awareness of how you are behaving and so on. It could be seen as a melting pot into which you put a number of thoughts, feelings, other forms of awareness, and perhaps new information. In the process of sorting it out in your head, and representing the sortings out on paper, you may either recognise that you have learnt something new or that you need to reflect more with, perhaps further input. Your reflections need to come to some sort of end point, even if that is a statement of what you need to consider next.

Some subject matter for reflective writing

We start with pure description that is not reflective at all - but sets the scene for the reflective writing.

Description:

What is the issue / event / topic / plan / project / task / period of time etc that is to be the subject matter of the reflection?

Questions to facilitate reflection

• · Out of the description, what is the issue / are the issues that could be addressed in reflective writing? These issues can be raised within the description or separately. They are like bits of velcro to which you can attach the reflective writing.
• Is there anything else you need to consider at the moment in terms of the context?
• What is the nature of the significance of this issue to you (and why)?
• How do you feel about it?
• How do your feelings relate to any action?
• Was it good/bad - and what are the implications?
• What do you need to do?
• What other information do you need (ideas, knowledge, opinion etc)?
• Are there previous instances of this event, issues arising that will help you to think more/differently about it?
• Are there others, or the views of others who are relevant to this matter - and in what way?

Questions that are likely to be helpful in prompting more profound reflection

• Has the nature of your description of the issue/event (etc) influenced the manner in which you have gone about the reflective writing
• Is there relevant formal theory
• How do motives for and context of the reflective writing affect the manner in which you have gone about the task?

You will often find there to be unexpected rewards in working in this manner. You will find out things that you had not considered, you even find that your academic writing becomes more fluent; you may find that you can solve problems more easily when you have reflected on your processing of similar problems.

The Presentation - an exercise in reflective writing

Introduction

This is an account of the experience of giving a presentation. It is written by Marianne who is in her first job after graduating. It is written in two different versions to demonstrate different levels of reflective writing., At the end of the accounts, there are notes on the criteria for the levels of reflection that each account portrays.

The Presentation (1)

I had to take an agenda item to the weekly team meeting in my third week of working at PIGG PLC. I had to talk about the project that I am on (creating a new database for the management information system). I had done a presentation before and then I relied on my acting skills. Despite the acting, I spent quite a bit of time preparing it in the way that I have seen others make similar presentations.

The presentation at the last team meeting, given by my colleague, went well - she used Power Point and I decided to use it. I decided that a good presentation comes from good planning and having all the figures that anyone might request so I spent a long time in the preparation and I went in feeling confident.

However, I became nervous when I realised they were all waiting for me to speak and my nerves made my voice wobble. I did not know how to stop it. Early on, I noticed that people seemed not to understand what I was saying despite the Power Point. Using Power Point meant that people received my presentation both through what I was saying and what I had prepared on the slides. In a way that meant they got it twice but I noticed that Mrs Shaw (my boss) repeated bits of what I had said several times and once or twice answered questions for me. This made me feel uncomfortable. I felt it was quite patronising and I was upset. Later my colleagues said that she always does it. I was disappointed that my presentation did not seem to have gone well.

I thought about the presentation for several days and then talked with Mrs Shaw about the presentation (there was no-one else). She gave me a list of points for improvement next time. They included:

• putting less on Power Point
• talking more slowly
• calming myself down in some way

I also have to write down the figures in a different way so that they can be understood better. She suggested that I should do a presentation to several of the team sometime next week so that I can improve my performance.

The Presentation (3)

I am writing this back in my office. It all happened 2 days ago.

Three weeks after I started at PIGG PLC had to take an agenda item to the team meeting. I was required to report on my progress in the project on which I am working. I am developing a new database for the management information system of the company. I was immediately worried. I was scared about not saying the right things and not being able to answer questions properly. I did a presentation in my course at university and felt the same about it initially. I was thinking then, like this time, I could use my acting skills. Both times that was helpful in maintaining my confidence at first, at least. Though the fact that I was all right last time through the whole presentation may not have helped me this time!

I decided to use Power Point. I was not very easy about its use because I have seen it go wrong so often. However, I have not seen anyone else give a presentation here without using it - and learning to use Power Point would be valuable. I was not sure, when it came to the session, whether I really knew enough about running Power Point. (How do you know when you know enough about something? - dummy runs, I suppose, but I couldn't get the laptop when I wanted it).

When it came to the presentation, I really wanted to do it well - as well as the presentations were done the week before. Maybe I wanted too much to do well. Previous presentations have been interesting, informative and clear and I thought the handouts from them were good (I noticed that the best gave enough but not too much information).

In the event, the session was a disaster and has left me feeling uncomfortable in my work and I even worry about it at home. I need to think about why a simple presentation could have such an effect on me. The Power Point went wrong (I think I clicked on the wrong thing). My efforts to be calm and 'cool' failed and my voice went wobbly - that was, anyway, how it felt to me. My colleague actually said afterwards that I looked quite calm despite what I was feeling (I am not sure whether she meant it or was trying to help me). When I think back to that moment, if I had thought that I still looked calm (despite what I felt), I could have regained the situation. As it was, it went from bad to worse and I know that my state became obvious because Mrs Shaw, my boss, began to answer the questions that people were asking for me.

I am thinking about the awful presentation again - it was this time last week. I am reading what I wrote earlier about it. Now I return to it, I do have a slightly different perspective. I think that it was not as bad as it felt at the time. Several of my colleagues told me afterwards that Mrs Shaw always steps in to answer questions like that and they commented that I handled her intrusion well. That is interesting. I need to do some thinking about how to act next time to prevent this interruption from happening or to deal with the situation when she starts*. I might look in the library for that book on assertiveness.

I have talked to Mrs Shaw now too. I notice that my confidence in her is not all that great while I am still feeling a bit cross. However, I am feeling more positive generally and I can begin to analyse what I could do better in the presentation. It is interesting to see the change in my attitude after a week. I need to think from the beginning about the process of giving a good presentation.. I am not sure how helpful was my reliance on my acting skills*. Acting helped my voice to be stronger and better paced, but I was not just trying to put over someone else's lines but my own and I needed to be able to discuss matters in greater depth rather than just give the line*.

I probably will use Power Point again. I have had a look in the manual and it suggests that you treat it as a tool - not let it dominate and not use it as a means of presenting myself. That is what I think I was doing. I need not only to know how to use it, but I need to feel sufficiently confident in its use so I can retrieve the situation when things go wrong. That means understanding more than just the sequence of actions*.

As I am writing this, I am noticing how useful it is to go back over things I have written about before. I seem to be able to see the situation differently. The first time I wrote this, I felt that the presentation was dreadful and that I could not have done it differently. Then later I realised that there were things I did not know at the time (eg about Mrs Shaw and her habit of interrupting). I also recognise some of the areas in which I went wrong. At the time I could not see that. It was as if my low self esteem got in the way. Knowing where I went wrong, and admitting the errors to myself gives me a chance to improve next time - and perhaps to help Mrs Shaw to improve in her behaviour towards us!

*I have asterisked the points that I need to address in order to improve.

Features of the accounts that are indicative of different levels of reflection

The Presentation (1)

This account is descriptive and it contains little reflection.

- The account describes what happened, sometimes mentioning past experiences, sometimes anticipating the future - but all in the context of an account of the event.

- There are some references to Marianne's emotional reactions, but she has not explored how the reactions relate to her behaviour.

- Ideas are taken on without questioning them or considering them in depth.

- The account is written only from Marianne's point of view.

- External information is mentioned but its impact on behaviour is not subject to consideration.

- Generally one point is made at a time and ideas are not linked.

The Presentation(2)

This account shows quite deep reflection, and it does incorporate a recognition that the frame of reference with which an event is viewed can change

- Self questioning is evident (an 'internal dialogue' is set up at times) deliberating between different views of her own behaviour (different views of her own and others).

- Marianne takes into account the views and motives of others and considers these against her own.

- She recognises how prior experience, thoughts (own and other's) interact with the production of her own behaviour.

- There is clear evidence of standing back from an event.

- She helps herself to learn from the experience by splitting off the reflective processes from the points she wants to learn (by asterisk system).

- There is recognition that the personal frame of reference can change according to the emotional state in which it is written, the acquisition of new information, the review of ideas and the effect of time passing.