Writing reflectively seems like it should be easier than digesting and regurgitating a swag of other people’s writings into a new and coherent form, but if you take it seriously it’s surprisingly in depth.
We’re working from a new template for the critical reflection process which is being tested as part of one of the PhD students studies. (Click on image for fullsized view)
In essence, assuming I have it right, it breaks down like this.
- Discuss what you are doing, how you feel about it and what you know
- Discuss why you made the decisions here that you did and how you felt about them
- Discuss what you have learnt from that.
So far this seems like a pretty strong system to use for reflection.
That said, the first one has been something of a challenge – this structure seems to work pretty well when you have actually begun work on something but for the first reflection we have been asked to consider our overall knowledge and skills in the area of designing multimedia and to look at what kind of projects we might undertake and what kind of skills we are going to try to build.
Fortunately I have a number of work projects coming up (particularly relating to training teachers in using audio and video in online learning) that this subject seems ideal for, so with a bit of luck, the two will cross over nicely.