Reflection is a daily aspect of our lives whether we are fully aware we are doing it or not. This general idea of thoughts or consideration concerning a certain topic or a certain past experience that we have underwent. There are different types of reflection some in more formal circumstances where we have to be more critical in our thoughts and some more informal regarding how we simply feel about something.

Reflection is so much more than just thinking back about a past experience and remembering how you felt in that moment or following through the certain steps you took to get somewhere or achieve something. Especially in the profession that I am entering I believe that reflection plays a vital role for both the teacher and the pupil.

A teacher can reflect on circumstances in a more critical way for example lessons that you may have taught, you can reflect back on your planing and they way your lesson actually went in relation to this plan. This analyse can really highlight the points that worked well and the points which didn’t seem to go as smoothly. Therefore this use of evaluation can set you up for future lessons and act as a guidance tool. It can also act as a great confidence boost as you can gather up all this information and be sure with what your future steps should be and what things you want to stay the same and therefore build on your repertoire.

Likewise a child can use reflection in their daily life especially when it comes to taking charge of their own learning Much like a teacher a child can take responsibility for what they felt they did well and what they feel are their weak areas and want to in time improve on. This will allow them to engage more with their work and their understanding of where they perhaps went wrong. A great task that schools use commonly is the approach of ‘two stars and a wish’. This idea that after carrying out a piece of work or dealing with learning points they have to state two things they felt they did well or went well in general. Followed by a wish which entails an area that they want to improve on. This acts as an informal way of critical thinking. It is getting them to acknowledge their strong points but then making them go that one bit further in identifying areas that they need to develop in, which will get them thinking about future goals.

Taking all of this into account reflection is just as important than anything else we do in our day to day lives. As a firm believer in; you learn from past experiences and the actual doing of something. I feel that it is always important to cement what you already know and then work and plan from that.