The Importance Of Reflection

The aim of this essay is to highlight the importance of reflection. Initially by breaking down individual skills including curriculum vitae (CV) writing, book and journal evaluation and self-evaluation through sources such as the initial skills identification tasks and evaluation workbook (InSITE).

Metacognition is a complex notion that encompasses numerous mental processes in all areas of life. It is often simplistically described as “thinking about thinking.” However, there is no commonly recognized definition of metacognition. In his article “The Power of Reflection”, Stephen Fleming, a well-respected cognitive neuroscientist, agrees with the definition of metacognition given by John Flavell in 1970 as “our ability to evaluate our own thinking” (2). Fleming also accepts Flavell’s proposition that metacognition is “key to educational success”; indeed, the development of metacognitive thinking is vital in learning processes (1). Metacognition is a teachable concept, and has been proven to be crucial in education.

making Practice-Based Learning work Reflection on PRACTICE A resource commissioned by the Making Practice Based Learning Work project, an educational development project funded through FDTL Phase 4 Project Number 174/02 and produced by staff from the University of Ulster. www.practicebasedlearning.org Author Patricia McClure School of Health Sciences, University of Ulster www.practicebasedlearning.org contents Reflection on Practice 02

Intern met with resident K. Brown for the purpose of addressing her personal concerns and speaking with her about her community service hours. Kiara informed me that she completed her community service hours for the previous week. Intern asked her to verify the days she completes CS hours, and she stated Sundays and Wednesdays. Resident did express her frustrations by saying that she used to mess up with her CS hours, but she is really trying to do better. Intern advised her that another resident completes hers during that time, so she will have to do CS hours on Mondays and Thursdays or Mondays and Fridays. Intern also explained to her the importance of doing CS hours. It was explained that not only is this a requirement of the program,

I feel strongly and I am convince that the fact that I had a headache and blocked sinuses affected my learning during the course time.

For my critical reflection I attended the suicide prevention presentation with keynote speaker Jamie Tworkowski. Prior to attending this event, I wasn’t very excited. I thought that it would be a boring lecture where someone stood up and talked about suicide. I didn’t think it would tell me something I didn’t already know. It began with the discussion of Jamie’s organization called To Write Love on Her Arms and how it started with his desire to help a friend who was struggling with addiction and self harm and share her story. Her story first appeared on myspace and quickly after the page received thousands of comments and responses, Jamie realized that this is an issue that reaches everybody. Today, the organization has flourished into a

In order to prepare for this torero trek, I would attend more resume and elevator pitch workshops, and schedule more appointments at the career development center. I attended the Engineering Career fair that was on the 4th of October. In which, I got my first exposure to employers and I was able to practice my elevator pitch and my networking skills. I later scheduled an appointment with Rhonda Harley at the career development center to get some feedback on my resume.

Reflection is considered to be a process that can be developed to support continuous learning as well as personal and professional development. This can include the process of reflective writing as a means of capturing the thought and experiences (Ghaye,1998). A significant relationship is found between reflective writing and academic learning, as one can identify the need for self-development, critical review, awareness of individual functions and decisions. Reflective writing is valuable for students to identify their role when working with others (Anne Sen, 2010).

In the theoretical literature of this thesis, this dissertation has learnt that the three levels of reflection (descriptive, comparative and critical) can represent many of the classifications in terms of reflection. Of these level of classifications, reflective category one (Descriptive/technical reflective) is common for the majority of student teachers at the teacher education though category two (comparison/dialogic) is attempted by some student teachers (Colliver, 1999, Yost, et al, 2000). Very few student teachers, however, demonstrated a more open-minded approach to their experiences- an attempt to see things out of the norm, which can be taken as the third category, critical, of reflection (Yost, et al, 2000). Other authors, Hatton and Smith

Reflection is where you inspect and analyse, your own thoughts and feelings. It allows you to gain a greater sense of understanding about yourself and the impact you have on the world (Fisher, Chew and Leow, 2015). It enables you to identify your strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to know which areas need support. Reflection is a fundamental part of being a counsellor, coach or mentor, as it plays a role in ensuring professional practise and the development of therapeutic relationships (Fisher, Chew and Leow, 2015). It also demonstrates your commitment to your clients and your career, as it shows you want to improve and develop. A useful way of reflecting is to use models of reflection to provide structure. Gibbs’ reflective cycle (Gibbs, 1988) is an effective model to use as it ensures all features of a particular situation have been studied and analysed, which will improve understanding of the situation if it occurs again in the future. It does this through six distinct steps.

What concepts, principles, or ideas that you have learned, do you think you will remember the most after you leave this class?

Reflection is a careful thought about oneself, one’s behaviour and one’s beliefs. It means reviewing past experiences and making insights about them. Reflection is like looking into the mirror and saying what you see. ("Self reflection | Unison", 2017)

Reflection is considered as a vital element of professional practice as it precedes to insight and then subsequent change in practice. The hypothesis of reflection is not new as it can be tracked as far back in the 5th century by the influential Greek philosopher, Socrates and to the 1930s primarily focusing on John Dewey’s work. Dewey is one of the founders of learning from experience. He theorised reflection as ‘active, persistent and careful consideration’ (Dewey, 1933) initiated by a specific situation which was opposing, perplexing or uncertain. One of its most common use today is coming up with a thought, an idea, or opinion made or an observation made as a result of concentration, suggesting in essence a way of thinking in which one looks back and meditate upon (Agnes, 2004).

Embracing the Unexpected: How my Pedagogic Approach Created an Enabling Environment Which Provided Opportunities for Learning for a Five Years Old Boy with Autism.

For me the word ‘reflection’ means taking time to really dig deep into my thoughts, to contemplate something meaningful and significant, to make a decision that often involves me and my future. It has a personal and emotional connection. Daudelin (1996) uses the word ‘reflection’ to encourage managers to create time to recognise the value of learning from past and current work situations (‘experience’) and to adapt this learning to new situations. I would prefer to choose the words ‘thought’ or ‘consideration’ when applying the idea of reflection to my own work environment. To fix my thoughts on what I have learned or to carefully consider how to approach a problem would, for me, be a better fit. I might, however, choose to reflect on how the past year has been or to reflect on the direction the organisation is taking, but not, as Daudelin suggests, bring the word into every day use.