Five tips for developing your written reflections

By Iain Wilson

Introduction

You will be, or may already have been, assessed using reflective writing as part of your course. It is an assessment which is becoming more common in higher education as there is a growing emphasis for students to reflect upon their experiences in order to apply their learning in different contexts (knowledge transfer; Perkins, 1992). This in turn can aid career development and improve career prospects. Here are some tips that I have developed from my experiences of marking reflective assessments. If you are unfamiliar with the skill of reflection, please read my previous blog article for a broad overview: “Reflection: Something fluffy or an under-rated skill? Spoiler alert – it’s the latter!”

1. Make it meaningful.

As a marker of reflections, too often do I hear the question “what do you want me to write about?”. The issue with this question is that it is focused on what the marker thinks and writing what the marker wants to hear. This defeats the purpose of reflection as it becomes assessment-focused and broader learning, and continuous development through reflective practice is reduced. It is therefore essential that the reflection is meaningful and important to you and your development. If you do not believe in what you are reflecting about you are not going to learn from your experiences.

Part of this is about being honest. Being honest with yourself about your baseline ability levels and how much you have (or haven’t) progressed will allow you to evaluate your experience more accurately and appropriately. Sometimes this means facing difficult truths, but if you cannot face them now, when will you? This will help you to identify roles that bring you joy and that you are motivated to do and overall be more satisfied. Peterson and colleagues demonstrated that individuals who are aware of their character strengths and aligned these with their work roles were more likely to report higher job satisfaction and life satisfaction overall (2010).

2. Have a clear action plan at the end.

This section is often written last, and therefore, given the least number of words available to discuss it in appropriate detail, or is neglected. There are two things that need to be done here:

1. Goals which relate to your experience in your reflection.

Your goal(s) should follow on logically from your reflection. They are setting out the next milestones of your development. These should be focused on applying what you have learned from your experience in a future situation (Corker & Holland, 2015). The idea of the goal, or goals, in the action plan are to tell you and the reader what you plan to do if you experienced a similar situation again, or plan to apply your learning in a new context. How would you ensure a positive outcome? Remember that you are thinking about how you can apply what you have learned through this reflection in the future.

2. Actions which are needed to make your goals achievable.

It is not enough to just state a goal and leave it as that. An action plan needs to include the steps that you plan to take to make sure that you give yourself the best possible chance of achieving your goal. This also needs to be supported by evidence. How do you know that action will increase your chance of success? Has someone with experience told you? Is it the main outcome of that training you plan to attend? Is there a theoretical argument in the literature which argues why you will be successful? This will help you plan plausible actions and support your development.

Remember: The action plan (i.e. how you plan to apply your learning in the future) is the key aim of reflection and therefore needs to be given sufficient words to explain what your goal is and how you plan to make this achievable.

3. Question your experience.

Ask questions such as “why?” and “so what?” as you examine your experience. You have developed critical evaluation skills when examining psychological literature, apply these to your own experiences. If you do not question you will not be able to fully understand your experience and therefore not learn from it. There are two ways that you can ask questions.

Depth (Brechin, Brown, & Eby, 2000): This is the type of evaluation and analysis that you will be familiar with. It is about scrutinising the evidence that you present. Think about the quality of the evidence. Is it reliable? How do you know? Also think about the source of the evidence. Who said it? Are they a credible source? This way you will not just accept information as fact but become critically aware enough to make a conscious, informed decision.

Breadth (Murray & Kujundzic, 2005): This may be less familiar to you as it originates from Sociology. It is about questioning the context in which the situation is occurring. Are there social, cultural, political, etc. norms which are influencing the way that people are able to behave in the given situation? How do you know? Are there any societal barriers, such as privilege (e.g. male privilege, white privilege, able privilege), which has enabled or prevented certain outcomes? Context is everything and it is important to recognise and understand your own actions in the light of this context.

4. Evidence your arguments

Just because reflections are based upon your subjective experience, does not mean that they cannot be robust by using evidence to make your arguments stronger. Bannigan and Moores (2009) argued that reviewing an experience without considering external evidence to support conclusions is a process of intuition, not reflection.

Different types of evidence

• Subjective – Some evidence is difficult to capture, such as that of what you are feeling. However, this is still important. This type of evidence could include interpretations of your body (e.g. feel sweaty or heart racing), verbal comments from peers, perceptions of others’ thoughts/feelings/motivations etc.
• Objective – This is evidence which is factual. It can be information about the physical environment, time of day, number of people involved in the experience. This evidence is really important to provide accuracy and context to your reflection.
• Theoretical – This is where you use academic literature to support your arguments. It could be that you use a theory to explain and understand your experience when analysing it. It may be that you are planning ahead and using theory to justify your future actions and shape your behaviour. Over time you want to work towards theory informing your actions as this will be applying your knowledge, however, be patient as this takes time to develop! Starting with writing action plans informed by theory is the first step…

Remember: Evidence can be used to help understand and evaluate your experience, however, it can (and should) be used to justify your action plan.

5. Practice

Whilst your assessments are few and far between, reflection should be a regular practice. It may be that you do not write on a daily basis but thinking reflectively can easily be built into your day. This may be small activities, such as reflecting upon things that you are grateful for from the day. If you need some support with practicing, then find someone that you respect and trust and discuss your ideas with them. Costa and Kallick (1993) discuss the importance of having trusted others who are willing to challenge you constructively and support reflective practice. They called these critical friends. Finding your critical friends and engaging with reflection with them will enable you to develop this practice.

Conclusion

You can use a model, such as Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle (1988) or my Synthesised Model of Reflection (SMoR – currently being piloted as seen in Wilson, 2023; 2023a; 2023b), however, going through the stages will not automatically make your reflection robust, critical and meaningful. Reflection is a skill that you have to actively engage with, it is not possible to do passively. Whilst we assess you on your ability to engage with and use a reflective model, this is a skill which is invaluable for your development and future. Be honest, even if that is not easy to face, critical, to evaluate the quality of evidence you are considering, and practice regularly to gain the most from this skill.

---

About the author

Dr Iain Wilson is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology within NTU Psychology. He specialises in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning within Psychology, with particular interests in employability learning and written reflective assessments. Iain is currently working on a sabbatical, in the 2022-23 academic year, which is evaluating a new model for assessing reflective writing, as well as developing resources to support the teaching, learning and assessment of reflection.

References

Bannigan, K., & Moores, A. (2009). A model of professional thinking: Integrating reflective practice and evidence based practice. Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 76(5), 342-350.

Brechin, A., Brown, H., & Eby, M.A. (2000). Critical practice in health and social care. London: Sage.

Costa, A. L., & Kallick, B. (1993). Through the lens of a critical friend. Educational leadership, 51, 49-51.

Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit. Oxford Polytechnic: Oxford

Murray, M., & Kujundzic, N., 2005. Critical reflection: A textbook for critical thinking. London: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Perkins, D. N., & Salomon, G. (1992). Transfer of learning. International Encyclopedia of Education, 2, 6452-6457.

Peterson, C., Stephens, J. P., Park, N., Lee, F., & Seligman, M. E. (2010). Strengths of character and work. In P. A. Linley, S. Harrington, & N. Garcea (Eds.), Oxford handbook of positive psychology and work, (pp. 221-231). Oxford University Press.

Wilson, I. (2023). NTR Synthesised Model of Reflection – Workshops (Version 1). National Teaching Repository. https://doi.org/10.25416/NTR.22345222.v1

Wilson PhD FHEA, I. (2023a). Poster for ANTF 2023 – Evaluating The Synthesised Model of Reflection (SMoR): An outline of an NTU Psychology funded sabbatical (Version 1). National Teaching Repository. https://doi.org/10.25416/NTR.22683454.v1

Wilson PhD FHEA, I. (2023b). Staff guidance for delivering workshops supporting the Synthesised Model of Reflection (SMoR) (Version 1). National Teaching Repository. https://doi.org/10.25416/NTR.22647085.v1