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Reflective Practice

When you write a critical reflection, you won’t just be describing or journaling your experience. Critical reflection is going a step further to analyse and examine your experience to gain a deeper understanding of what your learnt during the process and how you can use those skills or that knowledge in a broader context, (Cottrell, 2011, p. 209).

Note: In an academic Critical Reflection you may also be asked to back up what you learnt using references, or compare what you learnt with examples, from research or literature that has already been undertaking in the industry. You can learn more about the importance of referencing here.

What is Critical Reflection

Critical Reflection is the process of drawing conclusions and discovering outcomes or learning possibilities that arise from an experience.

“Critical reflection is an extension of “critical thinking”. It asks us to think about our practice and ideas and then it challenges us to step-back and examine our thinking by asking probing questions. It asks us to not only delve into the past and look at the present but importantly it asks us to speculate about the future and act,” (Department of Education and Training Victoria, 2007, para.4.)  

How to write a Critical Reflection

When you are writing a critical reflection on a learning experience or a project you have undertaken you will be examining that experience by exploring its outcomes, limitations and further questions that arise.

You can use the questions below to prompt your reflective process

 

Video

Watch this short video for an explanation of Critical Reflection and an example layout for your work

What is Reflective Writing?

Reflective writing is a process by which students reflect on what they have learned, how they have learned, and how they interpret and respond to the information. Reflective writing provides the individual with the opportunity to reflect on their experiences. Consider asking yourself some of the following questions. 

  • Identify strengths and gaps in knowledge. 
  • What key concepts, practices, ideas or information are you wanting to know next?
  • How do you implicitly feel, think or understand your own knowledge and practice in your area?
  • Do your actions match your words? Do you practice what you believe and say?
  • What can you change in your practice to improve outcomes?

Reflective models

Students can use existing 'Reflective Models' in order to structure their reflections; Gibb's Reflective cycle (1988) and Kolb's Reflective Model (1984) are two popular models.

McLeod, S. (2013). Kolb's Learning Styles and Experiential Learning Cycle. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html 

Resources