Critical reflection activity

Reflective cycles

Have a look at the following example that can be used to inspire your thinking.

Critical reflection activity

Think about a recent activity you took part in as part of your studies (e.g. a presentation, group work). Use Gibbs’ cycle and make notes of your ideas for each stage, based on the activity you took part in.

Use the questions below to help you.

Description:

What happened? What was my role? What was the role of others? What did I do? What did they do? What outcomes were there?

Feelings:

How did I feel? What did I find interesting/inspiring/disappointing and why? Why did I respond as I did? How might others have responded in a similar situation? Were my actions appropriate? Were my expectations met?

Evaluation:

What was positive and negative about the experience? What were my strengths and weaknesses? What did I learn? Has it changed anything in me?

Analysis:

What theory or research is relevant to this? How does what happened relate to this theory? How could my involvement have improved? What could we have done instead and what consequences would that have had?

Conclusion:

What did I learn from this exercise? What would I do differently next time?

Action plan:

What goals are you going to set from this exercise?

Remember the SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-related

Relating theory to practice

• Check research basis – choose an area you know has published research
• Key issues – research that supports, any criticisms, debate within the subject
• How and why your experiences support/don’t support these theories
• New insights – are there theories that support these?
• Relate your conclusions to broad research base
• Learn from experts – reputable sources of research to understand difficult areas
• Does research encourage you to do things differently?
• Helps understand – what happened, why, how wider issues impact, how you can act differently for different outcomes

Good reflection

• Has a clear focus
• Goes below the surface, analyses initial thoughts
• Uses theory and links experience to it
• Leads to action

Poor reflection

• Blames others
• Tries to cover too many aspects/be too general
• Is superficial (only looks at the surface)
• Doesn’t refer to theory
• Is mainly descriptive and doesn’t develop understanding