A Guide to Writing a Reflective Report
A Guide to Writing a Reflective Report
What does it mean ‘to reflect’?
Officially, it means to explore experiences in order to lead to new understandings and improved practice.
At its simplest it means:
• To think deeply about an experience. To go beyond the simple question, ‘What’s going on here?’ to ask ‘What’s really going on here?’
• To ask yourself what this experience means to you and your practice
• To churn ideas, thoughts and experiences around in your head and make connections between what you knew before and what you know now
• To express your feelings or insights based on the knowledge you have/theories you have studied.
• To be critically analytical as part of this process. This doesn’t mean to criticize, but to look at both sides of an event or experience and comment on the pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages, good bits and bad bits as part of your new understanding. Schon (1991) speaks of ‘reflecting in action.’ Those are the moments when you are in the middle of an activity or someone says something and you think to yourself, ‘I didn’t know that.
That must be why….’ Sometimes these manifest as ‘aha’ moments of new insight. Other times the wires quietly connect and you just seem to realise something new. Capture those thoughts! Schon also speaks of ‘reflecting on action.’ Those are the moments after an activity, event or procedure when you think about what occurred, what you experienced or what others experienced. This type of reflection typically occurs immediately after an event or perhaps later when you are driving home, having a cup of coffee or are in the shower. Capture those thoughts, as you will be making some insightful connections that are the stuff of reflection.
A Reflective Report is not:
• a description
• a list
• a series of complaints
• a lot of meaningless emotional language
© University of Southampton 2009
1
A Reflective Report is:
• a considered view, in personal terms, of what an
What does it mean ‘to reflect’?
Officially, it means to explore experiences in order to lead to new understandings and improved practice.
At its simplest it means:
• To think deeply about an experience. To go beyond the simple question, ‘What’s going on here?’ to ask ‘What’s really going on here?’
• To ask yourself what this experience means to you and your practice
• To churn ideas, thoughts and experiences around in your head and make connections between what you knew before and what you know now
• To express your feelings or insights based on the knowledge you have/theories you have studied.
• To be critically analytical as part of this process. This doesn’t mean to criticize, but to look at both sides of an event or experience and comment on the pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages, good bits and bad bits as part of your new understanding. Schon (1991) speaks of ‘reflecting in action.’ Those are the moments when you are in the middle of an activity or someone says something and you think to yourself, ‘I didn’t know that.
That must be why….’ Sometimes these manifest as ‘aha’ moments of new insight. Other times the wires quietly connect and you just seem to realise something new. Capture those thoughts! Schon also speaks of ‘reflecting on action.’ Those are the moments after an activity, event or procedure when you think about what occurred, what you experienced or what others experienced. This type of reflection typically occurs immediately after an event or perhaps later when you are driving home, having a cup of coffee or are in the shower. Capture those thoughts, as you will be making some insightful connections that are the stuff of reflection.
A Reflective Report is not:
• a description
• a list
• a series of complaints
• a lot of meaningless emotional language
© University of Southampton 2009
1
A Reflective Report is:
• a considered view, in personal terms, of what an
References: Johns, C. (2004) Becoming a Reflective Practitioner (2nd ed). Oxford, Blackwell. Schon, Donald A. (1991) The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action, Aldershot: Arena © University of Southampton 2009 5