Core activity 2.5: Guide To Reflective Writing for Students - My advice.
Good reflective writing by its nature is personal. It is a ‘diary’ of thoughts and reflections which can or should demonstrate development of personal academic or professional thought. Within this personal domain, fear of failure, ridicule or assessment criteria should be absent. Students should feel at liberty to explain and demonstrate what they felt, how they understood, what mis-conceptions they were under, or misunderstandings they have uncovered. Reflective writing in this sense is a personal journey to which there is no final destination other than knowledge and understanding.
At which point reality kicks in. As a student you must demonstrate the above journey within the bounds of academia. There must be structure and boundaries to your writing. Your rambling thoughts, lack of punctuation and or lack of direction needs to be expunged while retaining the essence of reflection.
I would offer the broad directional signposts to assist your thinking and structure. Ask yourself the following:
1. Something Happened?
2. What Happened?
3. So What?
4. What Now?[1]
Asking the question, ‘Something happened?’ is a starter question for you to recognise that something significant did actually happen; to assist in distinguishing an event out with, or amongst, the automatic functions which form the majority of our lives. Identifying what happened, provides the boundaries and recognition of change and the final questions enable you to explore meaning and possible development objectives. These questions may seem to deliver a very different process to that of a personal reflective experience outlined in paragraph 1, but it does so in a manner which adds clarity and value to you the student not only in a learning sense but also from an academic perspective. However, this academic perspective requires a little more understanding. To what end should you ask the four questions above? How does one determine significance? These answers are to be found within the Framework for personal and professional development on H808[2].
Knowing that these writings and therefore thoughts will be critiqued, requires honesty from you and trust in the staff and mutual respect for your fellow students. On occasions, discretion from staff and fellow students will be paramount. What is clear is that reflective writing is a skill that you must develop. It takes time and will improve with effort. Courses where reflective writing skills are necessary should be constructed to enable students to develop these skills to an appropriate level prior to assessment.
One final point, if you have any concerns, ask. Not everyone finds this skill natural, but maybe that is what makes it valuable to us as learners.
[1] CETL- Reusable Learning Objects, Reflective Writing, http://intralibrary.rlo-cetl.ac.uk:8080/intralibrary/open_virtual_file_path/i1026n24186t/reflective_writing/reflective_writing.html accessed on 2/10/2010.
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