{"id":202,"date":"2019-06-14T06:00:17","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T14:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/?p=202"},"modified":"2019-07-22T08:20:25","modified_gmt":"2019-07-22T16:20:25","slug":"developing-wisdom-reflection-journaling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/developing-wisdom-reflection-journaling\/","title":{"rendered":"Developing Wisdom: Reflection Journaling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>This article is reposted from <a href=\"http:\/\/bradanderson2000.com\/\">Dr. Brad Anderson\u2019s blog<\/a>. Dr. Anderson is based in Vancouver and teaches at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.&nbsp; You can find  his original post <a href=\"https:\/\/bradanderson2000.com\/2019\/04\/08\/developing-wisdom-reflection-journaling\/\">HERE<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Many thanks to him for allowing us to share his work!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are we a wise civilization? Can we grow wiser? Being cynical about \nthese questions is easy. The news shows us we are always on the brink of\n disaster, and, let\u2019s be honest, the comments section of most social \nmedia posts does not engender a spirit of optimism about humanity\u2019s \ncollective wisdom. Yet, consider the following.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Since the year 2000, the child mortality rate has <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/data.unicef.org\/topic\/child-survival\/under-five-mortality\/\" target=\"_blank\">decreased by half<\/a>.  <\/li><li>In 2016, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/data.worldbank.org\/indicator\/SE.ENR.PRSC.FM.ZS\" target=\"_blank\">99.7 girls were enrolled<\/a> in primary and secondary education for every 100 boys (up from 86.6 in 1990). <\/li><li>In 1990, 36% of the world population lived in extreme poverty. In 2015, <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.worldbank.org\/en\/topic\/poverty\/overview\" target=\"_blank\">only 10% did<\/a>. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>And that\u2019s only scratching the surface of the advancements that have \nimproved our health and quality of life over recent decades. Are we \nperfect? Certainly not. Still, these stats aren\u2019t bad for a species that\n regularly tears itself apart debating the deficits of the latest Star \nWars movie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, yes, I do believe we are wise and growing wiser. For society to \ngrow wiser still, we need wise institutions, and to have wise \ninstitutions we need wise people\u2013people like you and me. <a href=\"https:\/\/bradanderson2000.com\/my-research-interests\/\">My research<\/a>\n focuses on developing organizational wisdom, and my findings show me \nthat we can teach the skills on which wise people rely. I will introduce\n different ways we can do so on this site. Today, I\u2019ll start with \nreflection journaling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why reflection journaling? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Experience is a critical component of wisdom. Experience alone, \nhowever, is not enough. In the words of an early pioneer of reflection \njournaling:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>We do not learn from experience \u2026 we learn from reflecting on experience.<\/p><cite>John Dewey<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Reflection journaling is easy to pick up and, if done well, yields \npowerful insights into our performance at work or in life. It can help \nus identify unconscious assumptions in our decision-making process, \ndeepen our perspectives, and help us make sense of our experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a business prof, I have used a \u201cteaching journal\u201d for a couple of \nyears. It has helped me debrief difficult interactions with students and\n contributed to my development of more effective means to deal with \nthese interactions. It has revealed how emotions have led me to make \npoor decisions regarding class management\u2013for example, how frustration \nmay lead me to discount genuine efforts of students, or sympathy may \nlead me to give a struggling student an unfair advantage. Forearmed with\n this awareness, journaling has led me to make better decisions. It also\n holds me accountable to do the things I said I would do. I feel I am a \nmore insightful teacher than I was before I started my reflection \npractice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To get the full benefit of reflection journaling, there are several things to include in your practice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">An effective reflection journal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>What follows is a collection from several research sources. I\u2019ll \nappend a reading list at the end of this post for those interested in \nlearning more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To get the most significant returns on your time, here\u2019s what to include in your reflections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">On a regular basis (several times a week)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Describe the event<\/strong>: Summarize the main details of an\n event you experienced in enough detail that you can recollect it in a \nfew months. The situation could involve a decision you made at work, a \nsales meeting with a client, a pitch you made to your boss, or whatever.\n It could also be a discussion you had with your spouse, a fight you had\n with your child\u2013whatever\u2019s important to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Provide the rationale for your actions<\/strong>: What were the thoughts behind the decision you made? Be sure to address the following elements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><em>Values<\/em>: What values (or goals, if you prefer) were you hoping to achieve through your actions? <\/li><li><em>Emotions<\/em>:\n This is a big one everybody wants to ignore, but, like it or not, \nemotions influence our behaviours. Reflect on what emotions you were \nfeeling during the event. Importantly, how did those emotions influence \nyour actions? <\/li><li><em>Rationale<\/em>: What were the \u201cintellectual\u201d \nunderpinnings of your choices? Did you rely on gut instinct? Data? Were \nyou simply following company policy? <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>What was driving other individuals?<\/strong> If your event \ninvolves interactions with others, what do you think drove their \nbehaviour? Do you have insights into their values, emotions, or \nrationale? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Short-term outcome<\/strong>: What was the result of the event\n you described? Are you satisfied with the resolution? If yes, what was \nkey to arriving at that outcome? If no, what prevented you from your \ndesired end?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Short-term lessons learned<\/strong>: After reflecting on the \nabove, what key lessons can you glean? If a similar event occurred, how \nwould you respond differently? What would you do the same?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Action items<\/strong>: Pull out any actions you feel you need to take as a consequence of your above reflections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Periodically (every 3-4 months)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Review your journal<\/strong>: Scan through your reflection \njournal and review your recordings. I do this at the end of each \nsemester. If you\u2019re working for a corporation, you might do this every \nfiscal quarter. Find a rhythm in your life that will prompt you to \nundertake this review every 3-4 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Long-term outcomes<\/strong>: We love to ignore long-term \nconsequences. We make decisions in the heat of the moment and gauge \nsuccess on the result at that moment. Decisions, however, have an echo. \nAre there consequences to any of your choices that you have experienced \nin the long-term that you did not notice at the time? Are you happy with\n those long-term impacts? Why or why not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Trends<\/strong>: Do you notice the same situation arising \nfrequently? Do you see yourself making the same mistake regularly? Is \nthere a system you can put in place to address these recurring elements?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Long-term lessons learned<\/strong>: Considering the long-term\n outcome of your actions and the trends you observed, are there \nadditional lessons you have learned? Highlight key learnings so that you\n can review them often and keep them top of mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Action items<\/strong>: Pull out any action items you wish to complete based on your review. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">In the end<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Reflection journaling is an easy and effective way to deepen our \ninsights into our patterns of behaviour and help us develop skills and \nprocesses to deal with the events of our lives. It helps us make sense \nof our experience and integrate what we learn into our daily practice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Have you used reflection journaling, either at work or in school?  What has been your experience? Please take a moment to share your  stories in the comments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Additional reading<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Adler, N. J. (2007). Organizational Metaphysics\u2013Global Wisdom \nand the Audacity of Hope. In E. H. Kessler &amp; J. R. Bailey (Eds.), <em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/books.google.ca\/books\/about\/Handbook_of_Organizational_and_Manageria.html?id=ol9hlQJlOJQC&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;source=kp_read_button&amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\">Handbook of Organizational and Managerial Wisdom<\/a><\/em> (pp. 423\u2013458). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc.<\/li><li>Coulson, D., &amp; Harvey, M. (2013). <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/srhe.tandfonline.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1080\/13562517.2012.752726#.XDFV-VxKjD4\" target=\"_blank\">Scaffolding student reflection for experience-based learning: A framework<\/a>. <em>Teaching in Higher Education<\/em>, <em>18<\/em>(4), 401\u2013413.  <\/li><li>Gardner, H. (2011). <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/books.google.ca\/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=IHNMg2zBayIC&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PT5&amp;ots=ba-8gfgo4a&amp;sig=5JQq2vRaUqw7hztSecFeT-Vx6Ho&amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership<\/em><\/a>. New York: Basic Books.<\/li><li> Harvey, M., Coulson, D., &amp; McMaugh, A. (2016). <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/ro.uow.edu.au\/jutlp\/vol13\/iss2\/2\/\" target=\"_blank\">Towards a theory of the Ecology of Reflection: Reflective practice for experiential learning in higher education<\/a>. <em>Journal of University Teaching &amp; Learning Practice<\/em>, <em>13<\/em>(2).  <\/li><li>Kessler,\n E. H., &amp; Bailey, J. R. (2007). Introduction\u2013Understanding, \nApplying, and Developing Organizational and Managerial Wisdom. In E. H. \nKessler &amp; J. R. Bailey (Eds.), <em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/books.google.ca\/books\/about\/Handbook_of_Organizational_and_Manageria.html?id=ol9hlQJlOJQC&amp;printsec=frontcover&amp;source=kp_read_button&amp;redir_esc=y#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\">Handbook of Organizational and Managerial Wisdom<\/a><\/em> (pp. xv\u2013lxxiv). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc.<\/li><li>Sch\u00f6n, D. A. (1983). <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.taylorfrancis.com\/books\/9781351883160\" target=\"_blank\"><em>The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action<\/em><\/a>. Basic Books.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article is reposted from Dr. Brad Anderson\u2019s blog. Dr. Anderson is based in Vancouver and teaches at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.&nbsp; You can find his original post HERE. Many thanks to him for allowing us to share his work! Are we a wise civilization? Can we grow wiser? Being cynical about these questions is easy&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","iawp_total_views":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[33,35,36,34],"class_list":["post-202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-high-impact-practice","tag-guest","tag-journal","tag-reflection","tag-wisdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202\/revisions\/209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.wordpress.kpu.ca\/tlcommons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}