8 Section 3: Reflect ‘n’ learn

Overview

This section of the handbook introduces you to the practice of reflection, helping you to develop reflective learning habits. You’ll also explore how it’s possible to reflect using a variety of formats and media.

You can use a reflective model to help you learn from your experiences. The ‘What? So what? Now what?’ model for individual or collective reflection is based on Borton (1970) and was adapted by Rolfe et al. (2001).

Learning outcomes

Successful completion of this section will enable you to do the following:

Explore the meaning of the term ‘reflection’.

Develop your ability to reflect using a range of approaches.

Apply effective reflective practices to develop your own learning.

The value of reflection

Reflection is an important part of developing our skills. However, we don’t learn from our experiences automatically; instead, we learn through reflecting critically and creatively on our experiences and acting accordingly.

Sharing our reflections with others and engaging in conversations about these will:

broaden our horizons,

help us make sense of our experiences from different perspectives,

reveal our own blind spots.

Image source: Oliver Sacker.

“You do not learn to play the piano by reflecting on the piano, you have to play the piano, yes?”
(Study participant, in Nerantzi, 2017)

Creative reflection

Your reflection doesn’t need to be captured using text alone – you have the opportunity to be creative. Use your imagination and consider using visual approaches too. For example, you could:

• draw a picture,
• take a photograph,
• make a model or collage.

The opportunities are endless. Consider the following creative reflection framework (shown on the next page) developed by Brookfield and James (2014), which illustrates how criticality, creativity, playfulness and imagination are all vital ingredients of reflection.

Image source adapted from page 54: James, A. & Brookfield S. (2014) Engaging Imagination. Helping Students become creative and reflective thinkers, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

How could you use this approach to reflection during the Jam?

Developing reflective habits

The table below includes some additional ideas on how you could develop reflective habits using a range of approaches, not just text. What approaches will you use for your reflection? Try them out and share your thoughts with other group members.

Guiding questions by stage of inquiry

Stage 1: Focus	Stage 2: Investigate	Stage 3: Share
What do I/we see?	How (and where) am I/are we going to find answers?	How am I/are we going to present my/our findings?
How do I/we understand what we see?	What will I do/Who will do what and by when?	What do I/we want to share with the community?
What do I/we need to find out more about?	Are there existing solutions and why should new ideas be generated?	How can I/we provide feedback to others?
What are the learning issues and intended learning outcomes?	What main findings and solutions do I/we propose?	What reflections do I have about my learning and working with others?

Activity 3.1

By using a reflective model, you can deepen your reflection abilities and move away from solely describing your experience. To develop your ability to reflect further, you may also want to capture your observations in a notebook, blog or personal portfolio.

We invite you to consider the skills that you would like to develop during the Jam. You may wish to select from the areas included in the table below, or add your own.

 

Questions to guide inquiry through the three stages: Focus, Investigate, and Share

Stage 1: Focus	Stage 2: Investigate	Stage 3: Share
What do I/we see?	How (and where) am I/are we going to find answers?	How am I/are we going to present my/our findings?
How do I/we understand what we see?	What will I do/Who will do what and by when?	What do I/we want to share with the community?
What do I/we need to find out more about?	Are there existing solutions and why should new ideas be generated?	How can I/we provide feedback to others?
What are the learning issues and intended learning outcomes?	What main findings and solutions do I/we propose?	What reflections do I have about my learning and working with others?

To participate in this activity, take the follow steps:

• Using the column on the left-hand side, add your chosen skills in the table on the next page.
• Reflect on how well you currently perform in these areas.
• Using a scale of 1 to 5 (where 1 indicates the lowest performance and 5 indicates the highest performance), rate your current performance for each of the skills you have selected.
• Add today’s date to the column on the left-hand side so that you know when you completed your reflection.

After participating in the Jam, revisit this activity and the skills you planned to focus on. What has changed? Use the column on the right-hand side to update and re-evaluate the performance of your skills.

Skill entries with ratings from 1 to 5, organised into two sets with dates

Date:		Date:
Skills	Rating (1 to 5)	Skills	Rating (1 to 5)
Skill entry #1		Skill entry #1
Skill entry #2		Skill entry #2
Skill entry #3		Skill entry #3
Skill entry #4		Skill entry #4
Skill entry #5		Skill entry #5

 

Doodlefan for Creativity

You may also wish to access the Doodlefan for Creativity tool.

Take the following steps to get started:

Use the ‘Select scene’ dropdown menu to choose 4 Segment Wheel, 5 Segment Wheel 5, etc.

Capture your current rating of the skills you’ve chosen to focus on by adding labels to the wheels.

Add the date.

Now, spend a few minutes reflecting on your skills ratings. Consider what this means for you and how you want to develop some of these skills further during the Jam.

The What? So what? Now what? model shown on the next page will help you in this process. At the end of the Jam, reflect on your learning and the skills you’ve been developing by considering the following two questions:

1. What has changed?
2. How do you know?

Revisit the Doodlefan for Creativity tool and enter your responses. In addition, consider taking some time to engage others in conversation about your reflections. Discuss with them what you’re learning from reflecting on your experience.

It’s important to make sure that you have the permission to use resources and acknowledge this. You shouldn’t use photographs, audio or videos created by others without their consent.

What? So what? Now what?

Terry Borton’s ‘What? So what? Now what?’ model for group facilitation in the 1970s was later adapted by Rolfe et al. (2001) in healthcare settings as a tool for reflection. As the name suggests, the framework includes only three questions, as shown in the table below.

Reflective questions structured around three stages: What, So what, and Now what

1. What?	2. So what?	3. Now what?
Challenge/problem	… does this tell me/us about me/us/others/our relationship?	… do I/we need to do in order to improve/resolve the situation?
Role in situation	… did I/we base my/our actions on?	… broader issues need to be considered if this action is to be successful?
Goals	… other knowledge can I/we bring to the situation?	… might be the consequences of this action?
Actions taken	… could/should I/we have done to make it better?
Response from others	… is Additional resources What? So what? No what? Model of Reflection page on the StudyPrism website: https://studyprism.co.uk/reflective-practice/models/what-so-what-now-what-model-of-reflection/ What? So What? Now What? page on the ModelThinkers website: https://modelthinkers.com/mental-model/what-so-what-now-what Harvey, M. (2020) Reflection for learning: a scholarly practice guide. York: Advance HE, available at https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/reflection-learning-scholarly-practice-guide-educators Kolb’s model and critiques on the critiques: https://reviewing.co.uk/research/experiential.learning.htm References Borton, T. (1970) Reach, Touch, Teach. Student Concerns and Process Education, New York: McGraw-Hill. James, A. & Brookfield S. (2014) Engaging Imagination. Helping Students become creative and reflective thinkers, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001) Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Rolfe, G. (2014) Reach touch and teach: Terry Borton, Nurse Education Today, Volume 34, Issue 4, 2014, Pages 488-489, ISSN 0260-6917, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2013.11.003