How to conduct effective Self-Reflection
December is the perfect time of year to reflect back on the last 12 months. If you are goal orientated, you’ll probably reflect regularly on your progress. Checking that you are on track and making sure milestones are being met. There are several models of self-reflection. It is important that you select a process or model that works well and you are comfortable with implementing. It’s a skill to conduct effective self-reflection. And, how to conduct effective self-reflection needs a process.
Here’s a couple of self-reflection models:
- Graham Gibbs – Reflective Cycle.
- Donald Schön – Reflection-in-action/Reflection-on-action.
- David Kolb – Experiential Learning.
- Description of the event: Describe in detail the event you are reflecting on. Include where you were, who else was there, why were you there, what were you doing, what were other people doing. Also include the context of the event and what happened, what was your part in this and others and the outcome or results.
- Feelings: At this stage try to recall and explore the things that were going on inside your head. For example, why does this event stick in your mind? Include how you were feeling when the event started and what you were thinking about at the time. How did it make you feel and do you know how other people felt? Write down how you felt about the outcome of the event and what do you think about it now?
- Evaluation: Try to evaluate or make a judgment about what has happened. Consider what was good about the experience and what was bad about the experience or didn’t go so well.
- Analysis: Break the event down into its component parts, so they can be explored separately, the things that went well and what you did well. Consider what others did well, what went wrong or didn’t turn out as expected or planned. In what way did you or others contribute to the the outcome or results?
- Conclusion: You now have a lot of information on which to base your judgment. It is here that you are likely to develop insight into your own and other people’s behaviour in terms of how they contributed to the outcome of the event.
Remember the purpose of reflection is to learn from an experience.
During the analysis you should ask yourself what you could have done differently. Finally, to really learn from this experience you’ll need to take action.
Action plan: Plan what you would do if you encountered the event again. Would you act differently or would you be likely to do the same? How will this incident affect your future practice? What additional knowledge and skills do you need to develop?
Learning through reflection is more effective if there is an understanding of the model. This encourages a structured process to guide the act of reflection. Various models have been developed which may suit individuals or particular situations. However, it is important that you select the model that best suits you and you feel most comfortable with. This will support learning from experience more effective. The type or combination of types may be used according to the requirements of the situation.
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