Introduction to Reflective Models
Reflective models provide a framework through which one’s personal and professional episodes can be understood. It encourages critical thinking that in turn strengthens it by increasing self-awareness and improvement. These models ensure reflection by setting up an overall structured approach so that ‘something learned from past experience can be applied to similar situations in the future’.
There is a great demand for reflective models in this fast-paced knowledge world because they ensure that there is always a gap between theory and practice, thus increasing conscious and intentional growth in a classroom, healthcare, business, and personal development. Importance of reflective models and their vast applications in the sectors are based on personal growth formed at the core of decision-making.
Key concepts of reflective practice
Reflective practice is based on a few quite simple ideas that are deeply personal and professional in nature:
Self-awareness: Identification of the best thoughts, feelings, and actions at a given time in order to judge correctly and know where one needs to improve.
Critical thinking: The reflection enables placing everything into perspective, therefore enabling the facilitation of objective thoughts concerning what is right or wrong and why.
Experience: While personal experiences are tapped into and understood, reflective models may also determine the path that future action will take.
Continuity of improvement: Reflective practice is an evolving process for assessment and development. Reflecting repeatedly changes individuals on both personal and professional bases.
Common Reflective Models
1. Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle
The best known is probably Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle. Developed first by Graham Gibbs in 1988, it consists of six stages:
Description: What happened at the event. A straightforward factual account, without comment or opinion.
Emotions: What are the emotions you remember feeling at the time? How would you say those situations affected your behavior?.
Evaluation: Assess what worked and what didn’t, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the situation.
Analysis: What made such events occur as they occurred may also help determine why.
Conclusion: Summarize what you learned from the experience and think about how things may have been done differently.
Action Plan: An action plan would comprise of planning on how one should react if similar situations came around again.
Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle is particularly well-suited for structured and detailed reflection, generally used in education and healthcare to improve practice.
2. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle
Kolb’s Experiential Model 1984 Learning by Experience: It has a cycle containing four stages.
Concrete Experience: It is an experience or situation facing.
Reflective Observation: It talks about the post experience with varied viewpoints.
Abstract Conceptualization: He or she uses their thoughts to conceptualize theories or concepts that explain the experience.
Active Experimentation: these new ideas are tested on future situations.
Kolb’s cycle, in contrast, is widely used in educational settings to encourage greater engagement with the learning process and greater understanding through experience.
3. Schön’s Reflection-in-Action and Reflection-on-Action
Donald Schon speaks of two forms of reflection relevant in dynamic practical environments:
Reflection-in-Action: Occurs during the action itself, allowing individuals to take self-corrective actions in real-time, particularly crucial in fields like healthcare and business.
Reflection-on-Action: This more traditional approach happens post-event, with allowing close scrutiny of what really did happen and also attention to understanding consequences. Then, this learning is transferred forward.
This model by Schön, as an activity of reflection and responsiveness, forms the core of any sphere that demands instant decision-making and problem solving.
4. Driscoll’s What? Model
Driscoll’s model simplifies reflection into three straightforward questions:
What?: Tell me about the experience. What occurred in this process?
So what? What’s the big idea in what just took place? Why does that matter and what do you take away?
Now What? What would you do in this situation if this were to happen in the future?
This is an easy and friendly model to use. It, therefore, makes it suitable for new reflective practice students.
5 John’s Model of Reflective Practice
A model of Johns in health care- The model is applicable to other professions, and it helps in a very minute reflection of the experiences while emphasizing five basic features.
Describe your experience: what happened?
Reflection: What were your thoughts and feelings? How did they impact your actions?
Influencers: What external or internal factors influenced your behavior?
Alternative strategies: What else would you have done? What else could you have done?
Learning: What do you learn from this? How will it inform your future actions?
Johns’s model encourages and facilitates deep reflection that would be most valuable in high-stake settings, specifically something like healthcare.
Taking of Reflective Models to Other Fields
The reflective models are very versatile and applicable in all fields.
Education: Faculties evaluate their practice to improve the interaction and learning in class.
Healthcare: Models like Johns’ are applied to evaluate practices, identify improvement areas, and maintain high-quality patient care.
Business and Management: Reflective practice helps leaders assess the process of making decisions, their leadership style, and performance of their teams as well.
Personal Development: Reflective models help in understanding behavior and growth opportunities and guide towards better decisions in personal and professional contexts.
Advantages of Reflective Models
Reflective practice offers the following benefits:
Self-awareness: Reflexive thought continuously builds self-awareness regarding thoughts, emotions, and behavior leading toward better-conscious decision-making.
Better decision making: The more a person learns from their mistakes, the better their decision-making would be.
Improved problem-solving skills: Reflective models encourage critical thinking and problem-solving or discovering solutions to problems.
Lifelong learning culture: The reflective practice helps to generate the learning culture of lifelong improvement for personal self and organizations.
Obstacles of Reflective Practice
Despite its advantages, reflective practice also faces challenges
This is never taken at most workplaces, as they are always busy. Human factor: Self-criticism hurts especially on sensitive subjects hence may be difficult to do.
Absence of a defined objective: Reflective practice that has no real model can be circular and meaningless.
Overcoming biases: Personal biases could obstruct judgment, making it difficult to honestly reflect upon oneself.
Norms of Reflective Practice
Some other examples of the effective reflective practices are:
Select an appropriate model : Different models will fulfill different needs, so pick the one that suits the situation most and your needs.
Dedicate time for reflection: Incorporate reflection into your daily routine, even small moments can lead to meaningful insights.
Use reflective journals: Writing down one’s thoughts and ideas helps to systematize reflection and track progress over time.
Seek feedback: Talking with colleagues or mentors about reflections provides alternative perspectives and enhances understanding.
Case Studies
Reflective models have been used in practice for individual and organizational development:
Education: The teacher uses Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle for the assessment and development of teaching plans and classroom activities.
Healthcare: Nursing and doctors use the model by Johns to continually strive improving care service.
Business: Managers apply the Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle to facilitate reflective thinking upon the project results for a better teamwork and innovative culture.
Reflective Practice Toolkits and Resources
Many tools enhance reflection for individuals and organizations:
Digital apps: For instance, Day One and Evernote provide those spaces to write journals and notes.
Books and scholarly references: The books Learning by doing by Graham Gibbs have insights about the reflective models, application and their use.
Organisations that provide training: There are many organizations that provide workshop and training for professionals on reflective practice.