Explore your feelings, thoughts at the time and any impact they had on your behaviour / actions.
Move then into an evaluation phase and consider how things went and why, positive or negative. You can then move to the analysis stage of reflection to examine the experience in depth and begin to theorise about key aspects e.g. ineffective communication may have played a central part in your group experience. Does theory about communication help you make more sense of the situation? Sum up your key learning points and finally identify what action you will take in the future. Could you develop your skills further and if so how?
Ensure you cover all stages of the reflective cycle Josh to show what learning has taken place. Reflection allows you to ask the question: what did I learn through this experience and how will it influence what I do in the future? You may find it useful to use a model of reflection to guide you through the process until you feel more confident. The Editor
Dear Editor,
I have just received feedback on my first assignment in which I had to reflect on team working and group exercises I had been involved in at university. The lecturer said it was too descriptive. I thought I needed to write a description so they would know what I was talking about. What do they want? Josh, Student
Dear Josh,
This is a common problem for students. The description is important and helps you set the scene. In your written assignments you will need to give some kind of description of the issue / event. You need to give a concise, factual account of what happened and provide only the relevant details. Ensure you don't waffle and stay focussed. You are then required to move to the next stage of the reflection process which you may not have given enough attention to in your assignment.