Models for Structuring Reflection

Introduction

Reflection has become an important part of academic practice in many subject areas.
Reflective writing can take a number of forms: it may be part of your everyday
practice as a student, it can be a requirement during a placement, or it might be set
as an assignment. Reflection is a helpful skill to master both in your academic work
and in your professional life, as it can be used to improve how you do things.

During your time at university, reflective practice provides a space for you to think
deeply about actions, situations, skills and experiences. Moreover, it enables you to
learn from them. This is actually something we do all the time without realising it – for
instance, you might change a route you take on a walk after reflecting on which parts
are difficult or boring. Here, reflection helps you to improve your route, just as
reflective writing helps you to improve in your area of study.

Reflective writing also involves an academic element. Much like other forms of
academic writing, it includes research and analysis of others’ ideas.

To make the most of your reflections, it’s best to use a structured method. There are
a number of models available to follow. Sometimes, it can be hard to begin the
process on your own. Give the models below a try and see what works for you.*

Models

Follow one of the models below as you write. Think of each stage in the model as a
section of your assignment and make sure you write about each one. It’s important to
use ideas from your reading for your course to support your ideas, too. Include
references just like you would for any other essay.

Kolb’s Learning Cycle

This well-known model for reflective practice is based upon the premise that we learn
from our everyday experiences. For the educational theorist David A. Kolb (1984), the
learning process follows a four-stage cycle. This is illustrated and summarised below.

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Stage 1: Experience

We learn new things on a daily basis from our experiences. There are countless
opportunities to begin the learning cycle, whether at home, at work or out and about.
In the context of your studies, you might reflect on your experience of producing an
essay or another piece of academic work. You may also be asked to produce a
reflective journal or assignment when on placement.

Stage 2: Reflect

In order to reflect, we need to think about our experiences and activities. Some
people find this easy and are able to make it part of their everyday outlook. Others
find that they need structure and training to help them become more deliberate in
observing and recording their experiences.

Stage 3: Conceptualise

When we move from just observing and recording our experiences to interpreting
them, we enter the realm of what Kolb called ‘conceptualisation’. This involves
producing a hypothesis about the meaning of our experiences: asking ‘why?’ as well
as ‘what?’ and ‘where?’.

Stage 4: Plan

This stage is where we test out our hypotheses, leading to actions and opportunities
for learning. Kolb referred to this stage as ‘active experimentation’ for a reason!
Having experiences will only get us to stage one of the cycle; this final stage puts into
action what we have interpreted and tested through reflection and conceptualisation.

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Gibb’s reflective cycle

Gibbs' (1998) reflective cycle guides us through six stages of reflection:

What, where and when? Who did/said what? What did you
1. Description: what
do/read/see hear? In what order did things happen? What
happened.
were the circumstances? What were you responsible for?

2. Feelings: what were What was your initial gut reaction and what does it tell you?
you thinking about? Did your feelings change? What were you thinking?

3. Evaluation: what What pleased, interested or was important to you? What

was good or bad made you unhappy? What difficulties were there? Who/what
about the experience? was unhelpful? Why? What needs improvement?

Compare theory and practice. What similarities or

4. Analysis: what
differences are there between this experience and other
sense can you make
experiences? Think about what actually happened. What
of the situation?
choices did you make and what effect did they have?

5. Conclusion: what
What have you learnt for the future? What else could you
else could you have
have done?
done?

6. Action Plan: what

If a similar situation arose again, what would you do?
will you do next time?

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Johns’ model for structured reflection

Johns' model (Johns, 2000) was developed for nursing practitioners but is applicable
to any field. Johns suggests that this ‘Model for Structured Reflection’ is especially
useful in the early stages of learning how to reflect. The 'looking in' and 'looking out'
method is a way of challenging our natural tendency to judge ourselves too harshly.
The model can be applied by using the series of questions outlined below.

Model for Structured Reflection, adapted from Johns (2000)

Looking in:
 Find a space to focus on self.
 Pay attention to your thoughts and emotions.
 Write down these thoughts and emotions.

Looking out:
 Write a description of the situation.
 What issues seem significant?

 Aesthetics – ‘the art of what we do – our own experiences’.

- What was I trying to achieve?
- Why did I respond as I did?
- What were the consequences for me and for others?
- How were others feeling?
- How did I know this?

 Personal – self-awareness.
- Why did I feel the way I did within this situation?

 Ethics – moral knowledge.

- Did I act for the best?
- What factors were influencing me?
- What knowledge informed (or could have informed) me?

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  Reflexivity – what other choices did I have?
- How does this situation relate to previous experiences?
- How could I have handled this better?
- What would have been the consequences of alternative actions?
- How do I feel now about the experience?
- How can I support myself and others better in the future?

Bain’s framework – the 5 Rs

Bain's model (Bain et al., 1999) was developed from research done with student
teachers. It has been used by many other scholars writing about reflection. Bain's
framework is commonly referred to as the '5 Rs' (or sometimes as the '4 Rs', where
the 'Reporting' and 'Responding' levels are merged together and called 'Reporting
and Responding').

 Student describes what happened with little or no

Level 1: Reporting comment or interpretation of the event(s)
attempted.

 Student describes how they feel about the

Level 2: Responding
event(s) and might pose some questions.

 Student tries to explain what happened, possibly

with reference to their personal experience, and
Level 3: Relating
might identify some areas which could be
improved.

 Student looks for a better understanding of what

happened and considers what the literature tells
Level 4: Reasoning them about the issue(s). Bain et al. (1999) refer to
a process of 'transformation' here, meaning that
the student is looking to create new ideas.

 Student works out their own position or theory on

a particular issue or set of events. They decide
how they would respond to similar challenges in
Level 5:
the future. In their study, Bain et al. found that
Reconstructing
students who made daily notes about their
reflections were more likely to reach this highest
level.

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Moon’s levels of learning

Moon (1999) outlines five stages of learning:

The student has to register the topic, event or

Stage 1: Noticing incident as being interesting or important in some
way.

The student thinks more about what they have

Stage 2: Making sense
noticed and tries to understand it better. 

The student starts to ask questions and to

Stage 3: Making meaning
connect ideas together.

The student makes links with other ideas and

events. They will probably refer to literature and
Stage 4: Working with meaning
other research here. At this point, reflection on the
learning is likely to be taking place.

The student has reached the point where they can

formulate new ideas of their own. They know what
Stage 5: Transformative learning
they would do if a similar situation arose in the
future.

It is only when we get to the last two stages – 'working with meaning' and
'transformative learning' – that reflection on the learning is likely to take place.

McDrury and Alterio (2003) mapped the practice of learning or reflecting using
storytelling on to Moon's levels, as shown in this table:

McDrury and Alterio's stages of learning through

Moon's levels of learning
storytelling

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Noticing Stage 1: Story finding

Making sense Stage 2: Storytelling

Making meaning Stage 3: Story expanding

Working with meaning Stage 4: Story processing

Transformative learning Stage 5: Story reconstructing

(From McDrury and Alterio 2003, p. 47)

*NB: Always check your assignment brief, as you may be required by your tutor to
use a specific model.

ACTIVITY
Think about a recent experience you had on your course. This might be a group
presentation, an assignment, a placement, or a research trip to an archive or library.
Apply one or more of the above models to your experience.

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