Learning is about making progress. We rely on our peers for feedback on how we are progressing, both professionally and personally. You need feedback from your peers, whether they be teachers or managers or fellow students on what you've done well and what you could do better in the future.
While feedback from your peers is important, you can't always rely on it. Your peers might be busy or unavailable. If you're learning in a professional workplace, your manager might be busy and unable to give you instant feedback. If you're learning in an academic environemnt, your teacher might not have the bandwidth to give every one of their learners personalised feedback on their progress. If you're learning how to do better interviews (see chapter @ref(speaking)), your interviewers may not give you any constructive feedback on how you can improve your interviewing technique, especially if you've not been successful.
This is where reflective learning is important. By learning to reflect on your progress, you can accelerate your personal and professional development by becoming a more independent and self-directed learner. You'll still need feedback from your peers, but you'll be much less dependent on them to help drive your professional development.
in this chapter you will
- Describe the importance and challenges of reflection for your personal and professional development
- Describe different models of reflective learning, from simpler models to more complex ones
- Apply some reflective prompts to help you reflect on things you've learned so far,
- Improve your self-awareness and ability to set achievable goals, both professional and personal
Feflective learning allows you to set your own goals rather than relying on others to set them for you. You probably reflect already, but you might not be reflecting frequently enough or deeply enough. Developing stronger habits of reflection can transform you from a mediocre student and professional into an extraordinary one. Experience alone does not necessarily lead to learning; deliberate reflection can help you grow more from your experiences. [@reflectivepractitioner]
However, reflection can be uncomfortable because we often learn the most when we have stepped outside of our comfort zone. This means that reflecting on your learning often involves tackling difficult emotions such as:
- Surprise
- Frustration
- Failure
So for example, if you are surprised by something it might be because you are mistaken or you held the wrong assumptions that need to be adjusted. Maybe a particular task turned out to be easier or harder than you expected. Maybe you were shocked by a colleagues or a peers reaction to something.
If you are frustrated by something it might because your goals need re-adjusting. Maybe your initial goals were not realistic or maybe they need to be adapted to fit the situations you find yourself in. Maybe you need to change your approach.
If you're failing at something, what will you do differently next time to avoid repeating those painful mistakes you've made? We often learn more from our failures than from our successes. [@failgift]
So, in this chapter we'll look at some models of reflection. The first one we've already come across in chapter @ref(starring).
A simple model of reflection is EBI/WWW
That was the www and ebi model of what's gone. Well. What went well and even better if
Another way of describing this model is as the what. So what now? What so? Unlike dub, dub, dub ebi the what is you? Describe what happened in a dispassionate way. You just described something that happened or something that you did
The so what? This is similar to the what went well. Okay so you've done something? What was good about it?
Then now what is a bit like the ebi where you have the even better if okay? So what am I going to do differently next time? How could I make this better next time I do it?
The Gibbs model of reflection is a bit more complicated
Another kind of reflection we looked at which was a longer one which was to talk about the the storytelling. Who are the characters? What's the story? What was the moral of the story?
In this chapter we've looked at some simple, reflective models. You can apply these to any learning you do, whether it's professional or personal
You may already have a habit of reflecting or you might not. However, you do it. It's usually beneficial to have set aside some time every week. When you do your reflection, you probably do it anyway. It might be in the shower. Might be on your commute. It might be wherever