a guide to writing a reflective report

7/29/2019 A Guide to Writing a Reflective Report

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University of Southampton 2009 1

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, Whats going

on here? to ask Whats 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 doesnt 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 didnt 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


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A Reflective Report is:

a considered view, in personal terms, of what an activity or new piece of information

means to you or how it affects you. It is acceptable, even necessary, to write about

yourself, your realizations, your feelings. Reflective writing requires evidence of what

you have learned and what you will take away from the experience.

In the report you are required to:

refer to, or give an example of, the activities or events that took place in the given

context without being overly descriptive

reflect on these facts by stating how they affect you now or how you anticipate they may

affect your future inter-professional practice

where appropriate include theories that support or give structure to your statements and

reflections

Here are some examples from previous papers of statements made by students, thinking

they were being reflective, compared to some more fully developed reflective comments:

Statement:

I knew I had some pre-conceived ideas about certain professions.

Reflective comment:

I knew I had some pre-conceived ideas about certain professions. However, I was

seriously mistaken as these students were team players who did not take control but

contributed effectively to the same standards as everyone else. I now see them in a new

light, and my new attitude will no doubt affect my professional relationship with them for

the better.

Statement:

It is vital for health and social care professionals to work together to give the patient apositive experience.

Reflective comment:

My main realization about other health and social care professionals was the way in

which interaction between us is completely vital in order for patients to have positive

health and social care experiences.

Statement:

I had no idea prior to IPL week what Social Workers did.


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Reflective comment:

For example, I was completely ignorant of the fact that Social Workers are sometimes

involved in rehabilitation and long term care and assessment. I can see now that this

could be useful for me in the future, as I will now know who to contact if I come across a

patient needing this type of support.

Statement:

Our group did not set any ground rules.

Reflective comment:

As our group worked well from the start, we never felt the need to establish a written set

of ground rules. If things had started to go wrong, I do feel that we would have taken the

time out to establish a set of rules.

Statement:

I came out as a Reflector in the Learning Styles Questionnaire.

Reflective comment:

The Learning Styles Questionnaire indicated that my learning style is reflective, which I

think had something to do with my reluctance to participate in the week. Not knowing

what was expected of me made me resistant to participation, but once I knew the

parameters, I was eager to get stuck in. This probably goes for others like me. Ill need

to remember in the future the importance of setting out the parameters of a session

early on so people can feel comfortable.

Statement:

I challenged the leader who was out of order in my opinion.

Reflective statement:

At one point I challenged the leader about how we should present the information. This

is not my usual way of acting. Im usually shy in groups. I surprised myself that I was so

bold. I think I gained the confidence to do this because the group was so friendly and

supportive. This is something I need to consider as a member of any group, but

especially as a leader, that you get the best out of people in a supportive atmosphere.


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Some techniques to aid the process of reflection and reflective writing

Assignment 3 in IPLU1 week B requires you to be both analytical and reflective.

The Oxford Dictionary says that reflection refers to calm, lengthy and intent consideration,

contemplation or musing. Essentially reflection is focused thinking of an evaluative type.

Reflection involves being honest with yourself about your previous ignorance and your

new learning, however enlightening or hard it was to face.

Much reflective thinking takes place in your head. Few of us have time to go and write it

down, though reflective journals are excellent practice and used widely by professionals and

people generally to help them muster their thoughts and feelings and move forward in their

life and profession. Recognising that you are reflecting is a useful realisation.

New situations tend to make us self-aware and we become reflective and self-evaluative.

In time we move out of the conscious incompetence stage and move into that unconscious

competence that allows us to get on with what we do best not always aware of why or how

we do it, rather like a competent driver.

Questions are the key to reflection. You may well have found yourself reflecting-in-action

as you experienced working in the team. Some people are good at recognising that they are

reflecting, asking themselves questions such as Whats really going on here? and

evaluating as they go along.

Some useful questions to ask yourself when reflecting on your work, your placements, your

experiences of IPL weeks:

What would I do differently next time? What have I learned about myself from this experience?

Could I avoid this situation another time?

What am I not facing up to in this situation?

What other choices do I have?

What would happen if I did nothing?

What havent I asked that I should ask?

What do I hope to achieve by doing that?

What do I feel about this new information?

How does it impact on me?


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What have I learned about myself?

So what?

Johns provides a model of structured reflection with some more useful questions to use

when reflecting-in-action and on-action (Johns, 2004).

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

a guide to writing a reflective report

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