Tracy Dix
Hello, you're listening to the Wyrd Learning podcast with your hosts, Dr. Tracy Dix and Dr. Alex Patel. Today's episode is called the right way to reflect, unlocking the potential of reflective writing assignments. So Alex, what about this topic today?
Alexandra Patel
Well, we know that it's something that a lot of people find very, very difficult to do. I know we see a lot of students who don't know how to get started with reflective writing for their assignments. And actually, usually the people who are setting the assignments don't have a particularly clear idea of what reflection is. So it makes it very hard for them to explain to other people. However, I'm lucky enough to have had to go through the whole reflective writing process, when I was training to be a secondary school teacher. So you have to look at your experience in the classroom, reflect on it. Think about how you felt a bit more detail than that, and then contrast it to kind of theories and try and draw in a deeper understanding based on research to analyze what actually happened in the session, and then build on that.
Tracy Dix
Yeah, so reflective writing was one of the topics that was recently requested by some students we ran a focus group with and as always aiming to please this is why we are addressing it now. And in fact, we are running masterclass on reflective writing on the 18th of May, isn't it? That's a I believe that's a Thursday at 6pm. So 18th of May at 6pm are running a masterclass on reflective writing. And so this is to sort of give a little taster as to why we think it's important, and why students have to do them, and how you can unlock the potential of reflective writing, beyond, you know, having to jump through a hoop. So it's not just an assessment that you have to pass, what a drag, but actually, how do you use it to your advantage, so it can benefit you, your career and later on in life? Yes,
Alexandra Patel
so reflective writing. So it's really broken down into a couple of different things, the reflection parts, where you actually, you know, take a step back and think this is the situation, my experience, and actually do the reflection part of it, where you break that down, you analyze it, you pull out the key ideas or issues that you're reflecting on, and then communicating it, which is also really challenging.
Tracy Dix
And Alex, you were saying that you initially had to do it when you were training to be a secondary school teacher. And we have found from coaching students that it's commonly Yeah, it's students who are training who are doing the teacher training who have to do reflective writing assignments. But also it's very common in the healthcare, healthcare sciences, I suppose. But it's a particular challenge to the students because being from a science background, many kind of science students quite unaccustomed to academic writing in the first place. And as we all know, you know, there are certain kinds of expectations and rules that are involved with academic writing that the students first have to master when they come to university. And just as you know, they're trying to get their head around, you know, what are the expectations of academic writing? What are the conventions? What are the styles? What can I do? And not do? They get told that need me to do a reflective writing assignment? And much of the basic kind of advice around that is completely different from academic writing in the sense that, while all of a sudden, you can you should be writing in the first person because this is about your own experience, whereas that's considered quite a no, no, you're meant to be writing to third person to come across as objective in academic writing. So students are often really quite confused, quite conflicted and uncertain as to what to do and how to go about it. And in consultations, I've certainly had students kind of say to me, okay, so if I do this, or what sentence do I have to change? And how can I reword it? And does this mean I'm going to pass now? So they're very much seeing it as an obstacle to them actually qualifying and being able to practice their chosen profession. So you know, I just wants to be a teacher now, can I can I just pass, graduate and become a Teacher and get over this reflective writing nonsense. It's often the attitude. And it's the same with you know, midwifery students, you know, students kind of doing their ward rounds in medicine and disciplines like that.
Alexandra Patel
So there is another area where people often use reflection. And that's something that applies to all students. And that's in their career development. So you will be expected to reflect on your experience in certain jobs, and perhaps group working activities, and be able to pull out the transferable employability skills and to be able to articulate those, which is very difficult. So you may have come across systems like I think is one of them Situation, Task. Action, Result results, yes, ideally,
Tracy Dix
as always a result?
Alexandra Patel
Yes, yes. But it's, it's, you know, really quite a challenge to learn how to do that. And to do it in a way that really makes you sound like the person they want to hire. And so of course, you've got that reflection parts, but then there's the communication. So that might be communicating through a CV, you know, how do you really make your special skills stand out beyond other people's, but it might also be in the interview.
Tracy Dix
So now to connect the dots, then what we were talking about earlier on in this episode was, so the thing is that many students see reflective writing assignments as an isolated task. And it's evitable, and it's something they just have to get through. But the reality is, it's going to come back and haunt you again, at some point, no, I'm kind of joking. So what I mean is so connecting the dots now to what Alex has been saying about career development. Now, when you are asked to produce a reflective writing assignment, it's usually to reflect on something that you're doing as part of your vocation. So if you're trying to be a teacher, you'll be asked to reflect on a classroom session that you've taught, for example, or if you're trying to become a midwife, you will be asked to reflect on a shift and how that shift went. And, you know, and the classes that you're studying are related to the career that you want to undertake upon graduation. So connecting the dots, then it is kind of cyclical process that is very, very beneficial, and very fruitful, you know, if you were to get good at reflective exercises, and reflecting on your own, practice your own performance, but also as an individual, you know, what do you want to get out of your actions? What are the results as a consequence of your actions? And how can you change the results in future? Should you want to? So what kind of how would you adapt the actions in order to get different, more positive? Perhaps results?
Alexandra Patel
Yes, so I'm gonna move on to the next slide. Okay, so I'm now going to throw a bit of a wildcard in, I think that reflection is something that people often have to do at various different points in their life, far beyond, you know, thinking about employability skills, or demonstrating, you know, evidence of good practice. I think that a lot of things like meditation, and forms of counseling are, in essence, different ways of reflection. One example is kind of psycho dynamic therapy. But it's the idea that, you know, you need to look at what's going on in your behavior. If you react really strongly to something, and it's completely out of proportion, then you can reflect or explore what the trigger was, and try and work out how to avoid it, that affecting you in the same way again, in the future.
Tracy Dix
So now, I was sort of joking about how if you don't learn how to reflect now, if you don't kind of learn good sort of reflective practices, now they're going to come back and haunt you in the future? It was sort of a joke, but not really, because Alex and I have both had to. Well, actually, no, we've both wanted to reflect quite deeply on our personal circumstances, our lives and where we were at, because of situations that were happening around us. So for example, about two years ago, the university that we worked for was going was undergoing a restructuring, excellent exercise. So that was kind of one trigger for us. And you will probably find as you go through life, I mean, we've lived a fairly long time now but as you go through life, things will kind of happen around you and to you, that will just make you want to evaluate how your life is going. And perhaps you might choose to pivot and take a different direction,
Alexandra Patel
it can also be a really useful way of dealing with the feelings that have come up, if you can kind of think through that situation, almost relive some of those motions. Again, sometimes, it does depend very much on your own personal preferences. But just to kind of wrap this up. So in terms of these images that you can see here, these are all examples of reflections that I've put together to help kind of work out what I wanted in life. And you know, how to deal with certain emotions and lack of self confidence and all those sorts of things. And it is really useful for some people.
Tracy Dix
Imposter syndrome is quite a big one, isn't it? Now, can I can I quickly draw attention to the dragon image, please, Alex. So Alex created a lovely piece of art for me. And it was my Christmas present one year. And so as positive reflective exercise, actually, it can be quite useful to think about what other people what impressions and things and compliments and praise, let's keep it positive. Other people have said about you. And one of the things that Alex has said about me for example, you can see on this image, it says where bearded men see Archaeopteryx bones, you help me see here, there be dragons. And one of the things that Alex has always said about me is that I ask interesting questions, is not something that would have occurred to me on a conscious level. So it can be interesting to think about what people around you are saying, as part of your reflection. But obviously, you do want to kind of pick carefully, you know, positive people who have your back, as opposed to, you know, there going to be some salty people out there who just resent, like your victories in life and stuff like that. You don't necessarily want to listen to those people. So do be kind of quite tactical about how you go about,this.
Alexandra Patel
Yeah, but that's exactly it. It's being critical is looking at different perspectives, but also being critical about those. And that includes your own perspective, you know, how you tend to feel about yourself, you know, can you take compliments? Or do you always try and kind of problem often and to critical of yourself and to negative?
Tracy Dix
Yes, because I so I've just been listening to one of my audiobooks, and it was talking about imposter syndrome, and how so particularly with women, we're not very good at taking compliments. And so for example, the author says that, you know, even when Maya Angelou had won her multiple awards for her amazing writing, we all know, she's an amazing writer. She kept talking about imposter syndrome, and how she believed she would be found out someday. And that, you know, people would just hate her next piece of work. So it affects the best of us. I mean, Michelle Obama has also talked about imposter syndrome, you know, to not just reflect on the positives, but also think about how you can kind of lift yourself up and how you're perhaps underselling yourself in some way.
Alexandra Patel
Yeah, yeah. So one of my bits of wisdom that I, you know, it's a bit like an epiphany that came to me through this kind of process, is that the most important persons kind of opinion of what I'm like is my own, because everyone around me can be saying, You're absolutely awesome. But if I am negative and down on myself, I won't believe them. You say, Oh, no, they're saying that they want something or, you know, they're deluded. So, yeah, my own opinion, and how I value my own worth, is the most important thing for me. And that has done a lot for my self esteem.
Tracy Dix
I think that's absolutely true. But at the same time, why is it that very often people tend to internalize the negative, you know, the kind of negative feedback that we get, we internalize it reads well on it a lot longer than the positive feedback with the positive feedback. You know, many of us are kind of like, No, you're just making it out. Boy, you know, you're just saying that to be nice. Whereas, you know, someone has slightly negative feedback or constructive criticism about your work. We might take it a lot harder and start going oh, so someone said such and such did I say mean or it was really really bad, but they're just dressing it up to be a bit polite, so I wouldn't take it too. Too much to heart. So I don't know perhaps this is just our own feelings but and perhaps the listener, you are the best person to tell us Whether this is resonating with you, or if you have a completely different perspective, it'd be really good to hear your views on how you respond to other people's feedback and how you how you reflect on it.
Alexandra Patel
Yeah, so in short, we really believe that reflection is a very powerful tool. One thing I've learned about it is that it's very difficult, because it is so powerful. I almost tend to think that you know, your mind your subconscious has defense mechanisms, that mean, it's difficult to pull apart and experience, and to really work out why something happened, why you've responded in such a way. But the harder it is probably the more beneficial it's going to be. And the good thing is, it's something that gets easier and easier with practice.
Tracy Dix
The other thing is, it's it's incredibly difficult to be objective about your own thoughts and about the, you know, your own communication style, your own behavior, it's very difficult to think outside of it. And one example is, so now Alex and I have been colleagues for what, five years, maybe a little bit longer than that.
Alexandra Patel
And I Spy thought longer. I think, I think a good thing Oh, no,
Tracy Dix
it's not a bad thing. I mean, we're still talking to each other. So okay, so we've been colleagues for over five years now. And and as you can see, we're working very closely together. And I can safely say that I have not lived in someone's brain as much as I do with Alex. Oh, wow. And, yes, not even my own husband, just because of the nature of this partnership. And the thing I've learned is that human brains are incredibly different. So and that's really interesting, because what you would assume to kind of be truth, your reality, and all of these things might be so far removed from someone else's experience that it's like not even on their radar, or it's not, you know, that they're just like what you're talking about. It's super, super interesting. But I think that's also why it's, you know, I think it's important to reflect on alternative perspectives. And to kind of think of the possibilities beyond the scope of your own experience and your own knowledge.
Alexandra Patel
Definitely, one of the things I like to try and do is, you know, if somebody's introducing an idea where I straightaway kind of think, well, no, no, fit in with how I see the world. I like to try and, you know, just spend my criticism and disbelief and try it on for a little bit, kind of play around with the idea, and then come to some kind of conclusion. Sometimes I do that better than others.
Tracy Dix
I think that's a really good approach to take, actually, I mean, so both of us are quite open minded, or at least we like to think we're open minded. And I think the sort of main takeaway when it comes to different ways of doing things is to try on and see how it works for you. Not everything well. And that's fine. At least you've tried it. Yeah. So shall we, we're going to just talk about a couple of reflective models weren't we?
Alexandra Patel
Yes. Would you like to introduce this one?
Tracy Dix
I can. So this apparently is Rolls, reflective model, it's attributed to Roll but Atel suggest that there might be other people who have collaborated on it as well. I am not that familiar with the history. Perhaps Alex is and can tell us a little bit more about it. But it's a really simple model. And I guess the thing with simplicity is it is open to a lot of possibilities. But it does also mean that perhaps you need to refine this approach by asking more defined and specific questions.
Alexandra Patel
Yeah, I think for me, this looks too simple. I would like a bit more of a structure or, you know, questions which challenged me a bit more because it's very easy to look at this one and kind of say, What, well, I was in a classroom kids are so misbehave, stop throwing chairs at each other. So what that wasn't good. Now what? Avoid going into that classroom again, just doing it on a really kind of superficial level. So some of the other approaches I find a useful in the detail, they're going to come to the next one.
Tracy Dix
Yes, I think I think you have the spacebar or power.
Alexandra Patel
Yes. Okay. So this one is by David Kolb. And he's very famous for what is it? The learning styles, the visual? I don't know auditory kinesthetic type things.
Tracy Dix
Sorry. It's the experiential stuff, isn't it?
Alexandra Patel
Yeah, yeah, I think so what we've got up here is a bit different. But it's the experiential things like you said, but I'm sure many of you will have come across learning styles, which isn't something that people believe in quite as much nowadays. But so that's probably one for another session.
Tracy Dix
So by learning styles, what do you mean? Was that the auditory learning by listening, learning by kinesthetic, that's learning by doing?
Alexandra Patel
Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So the idea is that each person has a preference for learning in a certain way. And that's, that's come about because of how the brain is thought to be divided up into different areas. So you've got visual at the back, you've got auditory Brown, near where he is. Strangely, right, yeah. Yeah. But that was, you know, quite a simplistic way of looking at things. And nowadays, people tend to think that if you're trying to learn about images, paintings, you will learn better visually. If you're trying to learn how to do an experiment, you will learn better by doing it so kinesthetically. And that it's not really a case that some people are just visual learners, and they can't read a book and learn information from a book, because I'm pretty sure all of you out there will be able to both look at pictures and figures and read some text
Tracy Dix
It's a bit difficult to ace university without being able to learn from a book.
Alexandra Patel
Yeah, yeah. But the learning styles thing is still very popular. And you will hear it being talked about a lot. I think we might have to do a session on it at some point.
Speaker 1
Yes. So perhaps, yeah, perhaps in a couple of weeks, we've got quite a few things to cover in the coming weeks, though, haven't we? So?
Alexandra Patel
Oh, yes, yes. Yes. So hold very well known, basically. So he also did some work around the learning cycle. And it's the idea that, you know, you've got this nice red box at the top here, somebody has an experience. In psychology, they call it concrete experience, because concrete is something that's in front of you, it's there, it's solid, concrete, and you then go through some kind of reflective process, or you need to it might not be that conscious, but you need to have thought back over that experience and what happened. And then there's this idea that you will take whatever happened, and then pull out an abstract kind of principle, or a rule or a thought or an idea about what's happened during that experience. And then that leads you to then change the way you approach that situation, and to do something in a different way. So it might be a bit like, you know, positive feedback type of cycle, where it seems to have gone well, you know, you're happy with what happens. So you think, okay, that is a system that works, I will do that again. So the next time you repeat what you're doing, perhaps do it a bit more enthusiastically. But the flip side is gone.
Tracy Dix
I'm very intrigued that you're talking about concrete experience, something that definitely happened, is linked to feeling. And so looking at the kind of verbs, I suppose they are verbs are they verbs are they, they're verbs. I always, so a three time English graduate here always get confused between verbs and adjectives, because I'm not linguist, but I almost sort of feel like and here's where I am being a little bit disruptive. You know, because watching listening to reflective observation and thinking is linked to abstract conceptualization, and doing to experimentation. I sort of feel as if called didn't know whether it feeling and sort of just shoved it there with concrete experience. I suppose he could have said experiencing, but do you think I suppose we experienced things in different ways, like watching, thinking and doing so. Perhaps he thought a lot harder about this learning cycle, then I give him credit for?
Alexandra Patel
Well, I liked the cycle. But yeah, I'm a bit confused about the feeling watching thinking doing. Because, you know, you might watch the experience, you know, you can kind of swap these all around, and it's still kind of work.
Tracy Dix
Yeah, I think that's where my confusion came from.
Alexandra Patel
Yeah, yeah. And I think that's probably the tie in from the learning styles. You know, he wanted to put that in there. But the bit that appeals to me is that this is very much like almost homeostasis homeostatic system in the body. So you have sensors, receptors throughout your body. So for example, let's go with thermal regulation. So how body controls how hot you are. So if the sensor detects that you're too hot, it then brings about a change to cool you down your mindset, your capillaries dilate, and your blood goes to the surface of your skin, it cools you down, it then looks well as feedback as to whether that worked, and if it didn't work, then it would increase those actions again. Whereas if it was successful, and the body cooled down, it would feed that back in and trigger a different action.
Tracy Dix
It's so useful to have a biologist and a neurobiologist as a friend, because when he talks about thermal regulation, I was just thinking about how it gets cold in the room don't sitting in and the heater comes off.
Alexandra Patel
Exactly, yes. It's that kind of thing.
Tracy Dix
And sometimes it's good to have someone who is good at breaking things down in simple terms, rather than using homeostasis. When you did that, I was like, Oh, my God, maybe now might be time for me to run screaming.
Alexandra Patel
Yeah, but to me, that makes sense. I can relate to this model.
Tracy Dix
Good. Shall we move on?
Alexandra Patel
Yes. So this is a very famous model that's out there in the literature. Gibbs is a well respected educationalist and lots of work about how people learn basically. So again, I think we're starting off with kind of description here. So this is more of a structure. For, you know, how you would put together a piece of writing, initially, you have to describe what the situation was, you talk about how it felt? Now, that's a bit of a strange one. It doesn't feel very kind of scientific or objective. But that's one of the things that people often struggle with because of that evaluation. So that's the kind of analysis and what are you pulling out from that experience? And then you have a conclusion. So obviously, summarizing it, and then critically action plan. So when you're talking about using self reflection as a developmental process, you have to have the action plan. So what is it that you want to improve on? And how are you going to do that?
Tracy Dix
So I guess, all of these reflective models are cyclical, aren't they? And I guess they are designed, actually, the first one wasn't, it was just like, what, so what now what, and then it kind of finished there. And I guess for that reason, it's a little bit limiting, and the other reasons that you mentioned, but the other two are cyclical, and they're very flexible. And I guess to some extent, you have to be because the cycles are merely a framework to apply to challenge to reflect upon, and to adapt as necessary. And so throughout this episode, we have been kind of challenging the cycles a little bit as well. And it's, I think, it's interesting about the feeling, and how, as a scientist, he was, you're kind of pointing out the discomfort with it, because, you know, I studied English literature. And so feeling is very much a part of the analysis that comes with it and the emotions being evoked. So I have no problems with feelings. But also, even among scientists, you know, for example, with midwives, healthcare practitioners, and teachers, because all of them work with people. I think emotional connections and feelings are going to come into it into those relationships and into those reflections quite a lot as well. And it does go beyond like the feeling of the individual, you know, the person writing the reflection. Yep, definitely. And to, you know, how it impacts on others. So, I guess the other thing is, this, the cycles are all basically focused on in terms of the individual kind of going through this journey, you know, in the process, but actually, a lot of reflection will incorporate, like I said, before, you know, if you're working with other people, it's going to kind of consider the situation which involves circumstances. Other people, whether it's colleagues, mentors, or, you know, if your teachers, your pupils, if you're a healthcare worker, it's your patients. So there is a lot more complexity than the cycles would imply. And so with My disruptive tendencies. And one of the things I picked up on when you know, we were kind of gathering all these cycles to put on the slides was that they've all been created by men. And although I don't know, for certain, I'm kind of speculating that they've all been created by white men as well. Alex, do you know anything about this in particular, just going by the names. So if anyone knows any differently, I'm quite happy to be corrected.
Alexandra Patel
No, no, I don't.
Tracy Dix
Okay. And so I sort of feel that, because we're meant to be decolonizing the curriculum at universities and thinking about diversity and other things? Well, I kind of decided that, we would create our own model, or perhaps a metaphor, or perhaps an analogy, you know, because we want to bring the literariness into it. And the kind of more creative aspects of reflection, shall we go into the next image. So I really love this image of a ripple because the of the water droplet falling in the water, it could be AI generated, it could be heavily photoshopped, that doesn't matter. It's really about the feeling, it evokes in the viewer. And I love how it looks like a person who is creating this ripple effect. And to me, this is what reflective writing and you know, reflective practices enable you to do, it enables you to think about your impact on your environment, on the people that you work with, on the people that you serve, and to consider the potential of your actions of your experience. And you know, what, if you were to do things differently, how could you influence other people. So this, this image is very focused on the individual. And as you can see from the repple, it kind of just stops there. And some students do kind of think of reflective writing as very limiting, because, you know, they're very immersed in the situation, you know, that Alex talked about earlier on. And so they, they tend to, I suppose, just focus on that, and kind of not think about the broader context. And to me, I kind of see that as the sort of stress. So the deadline, getting to them a little bit, and perhaps this idea, you know, this impression that they kind of need to do the right thing, they need to stick to the assessment rubrics and just do what they're asked. And what I'm about to say is very much a part of the process, you know, that will that will make your reflective writing better, which is to focus also on this space of stillness on the surface of the water, because that is the untapped potential that the individual possesses. And so by reflecting on, you know, what, what are the experiences that I haven't yet tapped into? What is the knowledge that I haven't yet tapped into? That is the expansiveness of your personal potential. And that's it. So we will be offering frameworks and techniques in our workshop, to talk about how you can ask better questions to improve the quality of your professional development of your career and of your life. Okay, so if the things we have said sound good to you, you know, if you would like to enjoy reflective writing, enjoy the process, and why wouldn't you like instead of having to slog through something for a one off assignment, chances are the reason you're being asked to do a reflective assignment while you're at uni, is because you will probably need to do it later on in your career as well. And if it doesn't seem like kind of obvious trajectory on your course at the moment, while Alex and I can assure you that it will be very useful later on, even if no one asks even if no one is asking you to do a reflection. It's a very useful thing for personal practice, self education and self development. So yeah, and hopefully the things we shared in his podcasts have been helpful. And if they have to share with your friends so that you know more people can benefit from the from the things that we're talking about. And also do subscribe because then when a new episode lands, you will be the first to know about it. You will miss you will miss it.
Alexandra Patel
Thanks for your time and to your success.
Tracy Dix
Thank you for listening. Thank you for listening to the weird learning podcast with your hosts Tracy Dix and Alex Patel. The production team Patricia Marie Solis and Kim Arendt music by the fax machine on Pixabay
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
