Introduction to Reflection
On this page:
- What is reflection in academic writing?
- Why is reflection used for academic assignments?
- Developing your Reflective Practice
- The Importance of Hindsight
What is Reflective Writing?
At Wrexham University, we define reflection and critical reflection as a conscious examination of past experiences, thoughts, and ways of doing things. The goal of reflection is to bring meaning from experiences in order to inform the present and the future. It challenges and asks why we behave, think, assume and react in the way that we do therefore informs and shapes our future decisions, actions, attitudes, beliefs, and understanding about ourselves.
In essence, reflective writing involves examining an experience, reflecting on it and then thinking about what you have learned. There are many different models of reflection to support you with structuring your reflective writing. Your lecturers and/or assignment brief may guide you towards using a specific model or it may be up to you to decide which one you choose. Some commonly used models are Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle and Borton's Reflective Model, What? So what? Now what? (also known as Driscoll or Rolfe et al.). You can learn more about these models and see some examples of how to use them in our Models of Reflection section.
Developing your Reflective Practice
Reflective practice may occur following a difficult experience. This would imply that reflection only results from negative experiences, which is simply not the case. We can also learn from an event that went well, or from a positive experience. For example, you might decide to try a new approach to something in your practice. Initially, you may have felt nervous about this as it involved doing something unfamiliar or outside of your comfort zone. However, the new approach has such a positive impact on a given situation that you decide to keep it and use it in your future practice. Your reflection might involve describing how trying new things can sometimes be scary but also and often, very rewarding.
The Importance of Hindsight
Hindsight can be defined as an understanding of a situation or event only after it has happened. Some hindsight might occur immediately after the event because of some knowledge you gain during the event. For example, imagine you take a four-year-old out for dinner and soon after starting the meal, they spill a whole cup of water all over their clothes. With hindsight, you might wish you had brought a change of clothes to the restaurant! Further hindsight is gained overtime as more knowledge becomes available, often through further experience, lectures and research, which explains why things happen or should be approached in a certain way.
Try and capture both things in your reflective writing. On a subsequent visit to the same restaurant, this time, the cup of water is a jug of water, which doesn’t just soak the four-year-old’s clothes, but also your own. From this day forward, you make sure everybody in your party has a change of clothes!
Schön’s (1991) Reflection in action/Reflection on action framework provides an additional element by distinguishing between reflection during and after the event. This is particularly useful in practical situations when you need to make adaptations when things are not going to plan (University of Hull, 2022).
Why is Reflective Writing used for Academic Assignments?
Reflection is an important aspect of learning. Many professions include an aspect of reflection in their daily routine, for example Healthcare professions, Teachers, Engineers and Project Management are just a few. Teachers learn to reflect on how particular ideas, lessons or techniques work and then revise their teaching accordingly. Reflecting on experience allows you to recognise both your strengths and weaknesses. Although humans have a tendency to focus on weaknesses, we must also remember it is very important to reflect on what we are good at, so we have a balanced view.
Reflection can be used for many things including:
• To enhance your practice to achieve better results in the future
• To boost performance and skills
• To increase your awareness of your abilities and attributes
• To grow and advance your employability
• To assess the quality and success of an action plans
• To be able to apply theoretical knowledge and frameworks to real-world experiences to deepen your understanding of the underlying theories.
Have a look at the following example:
| What happened? | How did you decide what to do? | What did you learn? |
| During semester one, I was asked to teach a group of Mental Health and Wellbeing students about reflective writing. Prior to the session, I was conscious of the dryness of the topic and wanted to bring it to life to enhance the learning experience for the students. | I decided to introduce the session using an ice-breaker activity after reading about the importance of active learning - doing something rather than passively trying to absorb lots of information (Collins, 2020). Williams (2019) further suggests that by linking the learning to real-life situations, more knowledge can be gained from an experience. I, therefore, decided to link the discussion activity to the everyday experience of making a cup of tea. | Teaching this way has given me the confidence to think creatively when planning sessions and is something I can apply to future Learning Skills sessions, not just on the topic of reflective writing, with the aim of encouraging group discussion and more active learning. |
The Importance of Hindsight
While hindsight can be incredibly frustrating, making you think ‘if only I’d known this sooner’, at the point in which you are reflecting on an experience, you should be using hindsight to think about how you can change things going forwards.
Have a look at the following example:
| What happened? | How can I use this learning in future sessions on reflective writing? | How can I use this learning in my future practice? |
| When planning a session on writing a literature review, I decided to play a short video at the start of the session. The video compares the process of writing a literature review to planning the seating arrangements at a banquet hall. However, on arriving at the venue, I realised that there was no sound available on the screen. |
Create a PowerPoint Presentation to briefly summarise the content of the video to support me in explaining the analogy to the students. |
I will always visit the venue/classroom prior to any teaching sessions to check the technology. |
