Reflective Thinking: Critical Analysis

This paper will introduce critical thinking and creative problem solving with an emphasis on the latter. In doing so, it will attempt to describe any similarities and differences between the two.

Critical thinking is one of the most important traits that a person can have in their day to day lives. It involves the person to have the ability to ascertain claims and make judgments based on well-support evidence or logic rather than anecdote or emotion. There are 8 protocols that critical thinkers’ exhibit in their day to day lives in order to become better at their craft.

Reflective practice is a key way of learning from the experience, it allows to overview the past experience from a different perspective and take actions to benefit it to yourself. Basically, the reflective practice covers a gap between theory and practice that helps to create a strategy for learning and improving (Jasper, 2003). Therefore, an understanding of reflective theories is a key aspect that I should develop before my graduation.

Critical thinking is described as unbiased, clear and factual thought process that helps any student with any decision-making process. Critical thinking is an essential tool that every student will need to master to continue academic success. There are multiple phases of critical thinking as described by Benjamin Bloom which include remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating. The critical thinking process starts by remembering. If we can remember what we read and apply key facts we will be able to move forward to understand what decisions we need to make. From there we can then apply the facts to the decision we have to make and innovate, or create, as needed.

“Reflective learning involves assessment and re-assessment of assumptions and critical reflective occurs whenever underlying premises are being questioned”.(Williams 2001) P.29.

Simpson and Courtney (2002) state "an important step in problem solving and decision-making is the need to utilize critical-thinking abilities to reframe a problem or situation." Critical thinking involves questioning all the features of a situation and analyzing solutions.

How to teach the skills necessary for effective reflection, how to offer support when different issues are identified in student narratives are just a few of the challenges identified. There are models of reflection that have been used to provide to support student efforts to think critically about the reflective process itself such as Baker's four-step model and Carper's patterns of knowing (Kennison, 2012). These models provide structure with a how-to path for reflective narrative. For faculty, these models are structured so that they can fulfill their roll to provide quality feedback. These aspects are necessary to maximize the improving student’s critical thinking skills. Other studies confirm this important step. Providing medical students with reflection guidelines improved reflective performance and feedback on both content and reflective ability also improved performance. Teaching students the characteristics of deeper, more effective reflection and helping them to acquire the skills they need to reflect well improves their reflective ability (Aronson et al., 2012). Using questions focused on aspects of critical thinking from Richard Paul’s Model of Critical Thinking, student’s reflective writings were analyzed from multiple perspectives. Identifying characteristics of critical thinking, analyzing the narrative themes identified as experiential aspects

Reflection is a process of reviewing and thinking critically about activities and how this affects learning of student’s. It is not just descriptions of what happened during the lesson; it’s to

The two units that I felt I could connect the most to were the mental health and the factors affecting wellbeing unit. I think I was able to connect the most to these units because some of the things that are talked about in the units applied to my life. In mental health and factors affecting wellbeing, we discussed the different factors that can affect our mental health. One example that we talked about was stress, and this is one reason why I was able to relate to the unit. I often have felt stressed therefore, I know the effects it has on our mental health. Another thing that we talked about was how our mental health is affected every day by little things, and, I agree with this statement because I too have experienced

Reflection at its most basic principle "provides us with an opportunity to review our decisions and decision-making processes" however, in practice, reflection is a far broader and contextual concept, it is about understanding a person’s life and the actions they have taken throughout their lives. (Nussbaum 1997).Reflective practice first emerged from the work of a man called Donald Schon, having found that there appeared to be a gap between theory and putting it into practice (Fook 2006a: 441). He went on to state that reflective practice is a way of improving professional practice, through critically evaluating how we respond to practice situations and being self-aware (Mezirow 1991). Whereas reflection is applicable in all aspects of living (Fook 2006a).

Critical reflection what does it mean? As a result of pulling the word apart, ‘critical’ itself has the meaning ‘important’ and ‘reflection’ itself means ‘evidence’, therefore adding them together to get the meaning ‘important evidence’. Reflection helps teachers review and analysis

Critical thinking is the process that you use in order to apply a memorized concept or term to a situation. The ability to think critically is necessary for college students preparing for the work force because they will have to be able to develop new ideas for their area because many fields are moving so quickly, they constantly need to be making progress. This skill is developed by changing the way you learn information and how you practice and use it.

1. What assumptions did you notice as you worked with the paper the second time around?

Kolb (1984) suggested that reflection plays a key role in transforming experience into knowledge. It has been suggested that reflection is a fundamental process for learning as a development; rather than merely the ability to retain information (Reynolds, 1998). Schon (1983) suggested critical reflection as a strategy for developing from practice to solve complicated or difficult situations, that require problem solving and a degree of “artistry” Schon (1983). Schon (1983) was one of the first theorists to look at reflection in terms of reflective practice. Moon (1999) defines reflective practice as "a set of abilities and skills, to indicate the taking of a critical stance, an orientation to problem solving or state of mind." Essentially, this is a readiness to continuously analysis and review practice.

The idea of reflective practice in an academic context however is new to me, and I did feel lost at first. Now I can see how reflecting on my own learning and experiences has helped me to see where I have improved week on week and I think that as a result, my confidence has improved and I am able to contribute more in class, I have more confidence in my ability to teach and I feel that as a result I am learning more. The process or reflection, evaluation and adaptation is truly a cyclic one.