Moon’s model describes five stages of learning: noticing, making sense, making meaning, working with meaning, and transformative learning. It is useful for examining how deeply you have understood an experience. These stages are not five compulsory paragraph headings for every reflective assignment.
This guide explains the distinction and provides an original student-feedback example. For a broader choice of frameworks, see our reflective learning and referencing resources.
The Essence of Reflective Learning
Reflection involves examining an experience rather than only reporting that it happened. In an assignment, ask what evidence supports your interpretation, what you previously assumed, and what you would now do differently. A detailed account of events can still lack analysis.
Keep the learning process separate from the structure of your writing. A tutor may require an introduction, analysis and conclusion even when you use Moon to examine your learning.
Concepts in Moon’s Reflective Learning Model
The stage descriptions below follow the University of North Carolina Greensboro’s teaching summary of Moon’s model. The framework distinguishes initial understanding from deeper integration and changed understanding. It should not be presented simply as an event-description cycle.
For your own work, distinguish the source you actually read from a book discussed by that source. Reading a university summary does not mean you have consulted every passage in Moon’s original work.
The Five Stages of Reflective Learning in Moon’s Model
- Noticing: Paying attention to new information or an experience.
- Making Sense: Understanding the material at an initial level without yet integrating it with existing knowledge.
- Making Meaning: Developing a meaningful understanding of the material, while remaining largely within what has been presented.
- Working with Meaning: Bringing new understanding into relation with earlier knowledge and other ideas.
- Transformative Learning: Reorganising an existing understanding or developing a substantially new perspective.
The distinction matters: noticing feedback is not the same as changing your understanding because of it. Do not claim a major transformation simply because you completed all five headings.
Applications and Implications of Moon’s Model
Worked example: learning from assignment feedback
Original hypothetical example, not a quotation from Moon: A student receives feedback that an essay describes sources but does not compare them.
- Noticing: I identify the tutor’s comment and the paragraph it refers to.
- Making sense: I can explain that summarising one author after another is different from comparing their arguments.
- Making meaning: I examine the marked paragraph and identify where a comparison could answer the essay question more directly.
- Working with meaning: I connect the feedback with a previous lesson about evidence. I compare the authors’ methods, assumptions and conclusions, then explain why those differences matter.
- Possible transformative learning: I reconsider my assumption that including more references automatically makes an argument stronger. I now judge sources by what they contribute to a claim, not just how many I can cite.
An action follows from this analysis: revise one paragraph, explain the reason for each change, and ask whether the new version answers the question more clearly. The evidence of learning is the reasoned change in the work, not a claim that the model guarantees higher marks.
Turning the example into your own reflection
Select one specific learning moment. Separate what you observed from what you inferred. Explain an alternative interpretation and identify evidence that could help you choose between them. Finish with a realistic action and a way to review its usefulness. Use your own experience; do not submit this hypothetical example as personal evidence.
Why Moon’s Model Is Important
The framework gives you a vocabulary for checking the depth of an explanation. If a paragraph only recounts events, ask what changed in your understanding. If it claims a new perspective, identify the evidence and reasoning behind that claim.
Its limitation is equally important: a framework cannot supply missing evidence or make every experience transformative. Follow your assignment brief, acknowledge uncertainty, and avoid adding dramatic claims merely to fill a final stage.
If your assignment instead asks for a structured account of an event, compare the options in our Gibbs guide and Driscoll guide. These are related approaches, not interchangeable names for Moon’s stages.
Conclusion
Use Moon’s model to examine the depth of your learning, not as a checklist that automatically proves reflection. A useful response shows a specific experience, a supported interpretation, and a clear explanation of what has or has not changed in your understanding.
References of Moon’s Model of Reflective Learning
- University of North Carolina Greensboro, University Teaching and Learning Commons. Moon’s Model for Reflective Learning. University teaching summary used for the stage descriptions above.
- Further reading: Moon, J. A. (2004). A handbook of reflective and experiential learning: Theory and practice. Routledge. Check the edition you consult before citing a specific page.
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