What is a reflection anyway?

Reflection is a tool that helps us to learn from our experience. Life offers us many experiences, but to get the most value from what we do, we need to pause, think, explore what we’ve learned, and what we want to do next. David Kolb, a well known author on reflection, wrote that “learning is a process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience”. In other words, we learn when we think about what we have done in the past. We analyze our experiences, and we develop new insights that we can put into action in the future. The CRAOI organization highlights three benefits of reflection. First, reflection helps us to learn and to become more adaptable. We do this by thinking about both our successes and failures, what we learn from them, and how we want to develop our skills next. Second, taking time to reflect can help us build our problem solving skills. By analyzing our experiences, we can learn to make better decisions in complex situations. Lastly, reflection can increase our self awareness and our emotional intelligence. In many courses, you’ll be asked to create reflections in order to create new knowledge and grow your professional practice. Reflection is a skill that you will use throughout your personal and professional life. In an academic context, reflection plays an important part of learning by helping you bring your life experience together with the concepts you’re learning. This helps you to create new knowledge and identify what you want to do in the future. You may be asked to create written reflections, reflective videos, or put reflections together with evidence of your learning in an ePortfolio. What are the key elements of a good reflection? First, it needs to be based in a specific experience. A reflection isn’t a theoretical essay. A reflection starts by thinking about a very specific event that happened to you. For example, you might reflect on a conflict you experienced at work, a specific interaction with the client or a significant event at a volunteer placement. Second, in an academic context, a reflection should bring in the important ideas you’re learning in class. A good reflection will show that you know the terms, concepts, and ideas you are learning, and that you’ve learned them well enough to apply them in a creative way to your own life. Third, a good reflection will always lead you towards a future action. After reflection on a past event, analyzing with course concepts, you’ll end off with implications for what you want to do next. A good reflection will have a clear structure that moves through this process. If you’re doing a written reflection, you’ll structure your thoughts with clear paragraphs. If you are reflecting verbally or by video, you’ll want to start with a list of clear points to discuss. By growing in your ability to learn from your experience, you will be setting a path for effective learning, both in your present courses and in your career.