Reflective Writing on Marketing Essay

Reflective practice allows us to reflect on our actions and experiences so that we can learn from them and adapt our behaviour accordingly. Reflective practice can be uncomfortable as it challenges our own assumptions about ourselves however it is vital for improving the quality of the service we provide.

What is reflection? Reflection is defined by Wilkinson (1996) as an active process whereby the professional gains an understanding of how historical, social, cultural, cognitive and personal experiences have contributed to professional knowledge and practice.

[1] How do I . . . Write a Reflection? [Online] Available from: http://www.trentu.ca/academicskills/documents/Reflectivewriting.pdf [12/01/15]

Ans. Reflective practice is a way of learning from own experience to improve the way we work.

This reflection learning log and essay guide is a helpful learning tool for you to access when you are completing your learning log and also your reflection essay. It provides you with an introduction to the purpose for setting a reflective piece of work and the benefits this produces for you. It provides activities to help you along the way (see separate guide “ACCG 399 Developing a Reflective Capacity Guidance”) and clearly sets out the requirements that are expected of you, including what you will need to hand in at the end of the semester.

Effective reflection helps the practitioner to see the situation from an outsider's perspective, so that they can develop a better way to respond to a similar scenario in the future. Reflection is meant to achieve a change in practice, rather than simply repeating the same mistakes (Schon, 1983). Many different models exist for structuring the reflective process. Regardless of the framework used, the reflection models are meant to accomplish three things. They are supposed to promote reflecting on events, self-evaluation and analysis, and a plan to change actions in the future. This Reflective essay will utilize Driscoll's 'The What?' model as its structure (Driscoll, 1994). This model has three components"

It means that you stop and think about your practice; the process of reflecting on something you have done or a task you have undertaken. You may look at them from different points of view, you think about what went well, what went not so well and how you can improve it in the future.

Reflective writing is evidence of reflective thinking, which is a beneficial learning tool as it allows me to critically think about my personal employability skills. This self-reflection mode of writing allows me to recognise and identify my current skills, strengths, weaknesses, progress and achievements.

Reflection is an everyday process and is very personal matter. Jasper (2003) suggests that reflection is one of the key ways in which we can learn from our experiences. Reflective practice can be defined as process of making sense of events, situations and actions that occur in the workplace (Oelofsen, 2012).

A load of research has been done on learning and reflective practice and its effectiveness on the practitioners and one of the first people to research reflective Practice was Donald Schon in his book “The Reflective Practitioner” in 1983. Schon was an influential writer on reflection and had two main ways of identifying reflection and they were reflection in action and reflection on action.

According to Howston-Jones (2013) reflection is not something that is out of the ordinary for everyone to do in their everyday lives. Reflection is the act of looking back on a situation, event or incident critically and making sense of it to learn from it and alter our actions to gain better outcomes should the same incident arise again (Capelhow, Crouch, Fisher & Walsh, 2013). As new experiences happen to everyone, everyday; it would be right to consider reflection as an ongoing process within everyone’s life, a process that is repeated, honed and a skill to be developed (McKenna, 1998).

Within different disciplines, what is understood by reflective practice varies considerably (Fook et al, 2006). Despite this, some agreement has been achieved. In general, reflective practice is understood as the process of learning through and from experience towards gaining new insights of self and/or practice (Boud et al 1985;

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.

Schon (1983), identifies two types of reflection; reflection-on-action (after-the-event thinking) and reflection-in-action (thinking while doing). This clearly distinguishes that reflection can occur whilst the action is carried out as it can still benefit the situation rather than reflecting on how things will be done differently for next time. This tool can be effective as it will allow the professional to assess