Reflective writing Daren Mansfield Socrates at his trial Practising critical reflection
Critically reflect on how your perspective of marketing has changed as a
result of this module and what responsibility in marketing means to you - To aid with this assignment you are to make weekly entries into a reflective journal of approximately 100 words per week. - You can record your own observations on how the material covered is demonstrated in the world around you and your feelings in response to the module; your viewpoints, any surprises and challenges etc. - This journal is NOT assessed but you may draw upon it in the assessment. aims & objectives what is reflection? explore a critical incident plan and develop structure models of reflective analysis (choices) appropriate language importance of being critical conclusions and bibliography These Reflective Writing slides are available on http://businesslibrarian.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/ why reflect?
purpose of reflection is to demonstrate
that you are learning, learn from experience, and embed your experience to personally and professionally develop in an ethos of continuous improvement. what is self reflection?
Self reflection is like looking into a mirror and describing
what you see. It is a way of assessing yourself, your ways of working and how you study. To put it simply reflection means to think about something. Reflecting and composing a piece of self reflective writing is becoming an increasingly important element to any form of study or learning.
(Open University, 2016)
http://www.open.ac.uk/choose/unison/develop/my-skills/self-reflection explore a critical incident
what happened to you today?
how did you react to events? what were the consequences? could your responses improve in future? how should you move on?
(adapted from McMillan & Weyers, 2013, 8)
identifying your critical incident
TASK: describe your critical incident & why it
was important to you, what conclusions can be drawn, what theories can be applied to lead to greater understanding? REFLECT: does it challenge your understanding, are there gaps in your self- knowledge & what should change? You are working with a colleague whom you do not particularly like. Their manner is patronizing and you feel that they know they are making you unhappy. You are not sure if you are being bullied, or if you are overreacting, but you know how their behaviour, and your reaction to it, is making you feel. (Hargreaves & Page, 2013, 82) Hargreaves and Page, 2013, 79 reflective writing has two key features: integrates theory and practice, are the theories helpful? what did you learn from the experience? case study: personal account of critical incident where feelings are explored AND applied academic material. Reflector demonstrated thorough understanding of Graham and Schieles (2010) critique of racial discrimination and achieved resolution through enacting shame free and blame free culture (Kiekkas, 2011). recording the reflective process
a reflective journal entry
a text on your mobile an essay a Twitter, blog or Facebook entry a formal report or professional account (Hargreaves & Page, 2013, 84). a) Structure: planning process
Discuss your reflections with others to deepen your insight,
improve your ability to express your ideas and help to explore a range of perspectives. Collect evidence. There are two sources of evidence which need to be used in reflective writing assignments: Your reflections form essential evidence. Keep notes on developments that have occurred during the process. Use academic evidence from published case studies and theories to show how your ideas and practices have developed in the context of the relevant academic literature. b) Structure: beginning Avoid writing a long narrative describing what happened, as you will then run out of space to analyse why it happened. Reflect upon the experience before you start to write, although additional insights are likely to emerge throughout. Discuss with a friend or colleague and develop your insight. Select relevant examples which illustrate the reflective process; choose a few of the most challenging or puzzling incidents and explore why they are interesting and what you have learnt from them. Top tip: Start with the points you want to make, then select examples to back up your points, from your two sources of evidence - i) your experiences and ii) theories, published case studies, or academic articles. Use the reflective learning cycle to structure your writing (see Gibbs, 1988). essay planning using reflection (Hargreaves & Page, 2013, 74). c) Structure: what, so what & now what? What? (description) What was the event? When? Where? Who was involved? So what? (interpretation) What is most important aspect of the event/idea/situation? Why did this occur? How can the event and your feelings be explained? Could anything have gone differently? How do the stages of the event relate to each other? Is this event/feeling similar to/different from others that you or other people have experienced? Now what? (outcome) What have I learned? What are the implications for my future practice (would anything be done differently)? (Hargreaves and Page, 2013, 35) appropriate language normally appropriate to use the first person ('I') but you are likely to need to write both in the first person ("I felt") and in the third person ("Smith, 2009) proposes that "). Identify which parts of your experience you are being asked to reflect on and use this as a guide to when to use the first person. produce a balance by weaving together sections of 'I thought 'I felt,' and the relevant academic theories. This is more effective than having a section which deals with the theory and a separate section dealing with your experiences. when writing about your reflections use the past tense as you are referring to a particular moment (I felt). When referring to theory use the present tense as the ideas are still current (Smith proposes that...). avoid emotive or subjective terms (Hargreaves & Page, 2013, 32) critically analyse the event
analyse: 'to look at all sides of an issue, break a topic
down into parts and explain how these components fit together' using academic references and theories to underpin your argument and understanding (McMillan & Weyers, 2013, 270). in an academic context, your tutors will expect you be 'self-aware, analytical and able to situate your thoughts in the relevant academic and professional context' (McMillan & Weyers, 2013, 8) transformative reflection Mezirow believed that critical reflection can be the trigger to transformative learning, reflection as a form of thinking, assessing assumptions on which our thoughts and decisions are based, we can really critique, confront our actions, more deeply (Hargreaves & Page, 2013, 29). Schns (1991) reflection in action: after the event, you look back and re-visit your actions; time has passed and your thoughts and feelings have changed (Hargreaves & Page, 2013, 55). conclusion
Your opportunity to remind your reader of what
you have written about & draw your writing to a close. You should not introduce any new points. What are the main points that you have made you want the reader to take away? Is there something in particular that you have learnt? Are there any actions to be taken? golden rules for reflective writing write only things that you know to be true: if you are unsure, say so (I think she may have meant; I understood him to say that. . .) anonymize people and places, but if you are required to name individuals, write with the expectation that the person will see what you have written; imagine them reading the actual words you have written. store your writing securely. (Hargreaves and Page, 2013). still doubt yourself?
review your draft, highlight your main points &
search databases to use those keywords to find scholarly articles. you will become more confident in expressing your understanding, develop your argument & sharpen your professional insight. using the library: reflective writing learning business Academic Writing Databases Support SAGE Premier (61,945 aws@lincoln.ac.uk results) AWS offers 1-1 support, ABI Inform full-text (12,051 results) drop-in sessions & Emerald Insight (25,937 results) bookable appointments Science Direct (7,467 results) Daren Mansfield Full text Advanced Search on dmansfield@lincoln.ac.uk library.lincoln.ac.uk (84,666 results) what I learned was. Need for openness, honesty, & authenticity to develop professional practice. But does your environment encourage such behaviour? Literature explores the difculties with assessment: that students perceive what is acceptable to get the best marks (Hargreaves, 2004). Eating humble pie and toeing the line (Macfarlane & Gourlay, 2009) may lead to conformist rather than thoughtful and critical enquiry, and strategic reflection (Hobbs, 2007). Barley refers to assessment as potentially a process of atonement rather than learning (Barley, 2012, 277) and Ross alerts us to the additional challenges faced when reflecting in digital forms which add a new dimension of surveillance and control (Ross, 2011). final advice to record your reflection truthfully to confront painful and difcult things to celebrate your success to work openly with other people
(Hargreaves & Page, 2013, 78)
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A Macionis, J. J. (2010). Sociology. Boston: Pearson Education.
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