Why Do We Reflect?

In my opinion, reflecting is a way of enhancing one’s knowledge.

Specifically, in my chosen career path, reflection is key.

We all reflect, every day, without even realising. People reflect in their heads, it’s not just about writing stuff down, it’s a process that we do constantly.

It is a lot easier through my own experience to reflect negatively on yourself, although it is hard to admit that you’re wrong, especially in the things that you expect to do well in or be right about, it is still apparent that individuals tend to be more critical during reflection. In my opinion, everyone can reflect negatively on themselves, it is in fact harder to reflect positively, is this because the process of reflection is about improving, how can you improve if everything is perfect?

I feel as though positive reflection can cause complacency, creating a lack of effort for further progression. Not in all cases but often.

For me exams at school were a big one, the subjects that came with critical feedback, were always the ones that I strived to do better in, the ones that I studied the most for and enjoyed studying for so that improvement was apparent. Not to say that the positive feedback and reflection from the other subjects wasn’t a motive to keep up the good work. But being told you are good at something doesn’t encourage as much determination as being told something can be improved on.

Moreover, reflection is crucial in gaining optimal information, relating this to my Professional Practice Placement, that will be occurring in the upcoming weeks, reflecting on my daily experiences will be one of my ways to ensure that I reach my full potential in the short time that we have. I can expect good days and bad days, thrilling lessons and problematic lessons, but throughout my whole experience my end of day reflection will be a method to ask myself, “What went wrong?”, “What made that exciting?”, “What other strategy can I use?”

It is so important to then make those changes, bettering your techniques to ensure children are learning sufficiently, changing your tone of voice to ensure children are engaging. Reflection is your tool to success, use it.

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