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Reflection Toolkit

Gibbs' Reflective Cycle

One of the most famous cyclical models of reflection leading you through six stages exploring an experience: description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action plan.

Gibbs' Reflective Cycle was developed by Graham Gibbs in 1988 to give structure to learning from experiences.  It offers a framework for examining experiences, and given its cyclic nature lends itself particularly well to repeated experiences, allowing you to learn and plan from things that either went well or didn’t go well. It covers 6 stages:

  • Description of the experience
  • Feelings and thoughts about the experience
  • Evaluation of the experience, both good and bad
  • Analysis to make sense of the situation
  • Conclusion about what you learned and what you could have done differently
  • Action plan for how you would deal with similar situations in the future, or general changes you might find appropriate.

Below is further information on:

  • The model – each stage is given a fuller description, guiding questions to ask yourself and an example of how this might look in a reflection
  • Different depths of reflection – an example of reflecting more briefly using this model

This is just one model of reflection. Test it out and see how it works for you. If you find that only a few of the questions are helpful for you, focus on those. However, by thinking about each stage you are more likely to engage critically with your learning experience.

A circular diagram showing the 6 stages of Gibbs' Reflective cycle

This model is a good way to work through an experience. This can be either a stand-alone experience or a situation you go through frequently, for example meetings with a team you have to collaborate with. Gibbs originally advocated its use in repeated situations, but the stages and principles apply equally well for single experiences too. If done with a stand-alone experience, the action plan may become more general and look at how you can apply your conclusions in the future.

For each of the stages of the model a number of helpful questions are outlined below. You don’t have to answer all of them but they can guide you about what sort of things make sense to include in that stage. You might have other prompts that work better for you.

Description

Here you have a chance to describe the situation in detail. The main points to include here concern what happened. Your feelings and conclusions will come later.

Helpful questions:

  • What happened?
  • When and where did it happen?
  • Who was present?
  • What did you and the other people do?
  • What was the outcome of the situation?
  • Why were you there?
  • What did you want to happen?

Example of 'Description'

Here you can explore any feelings or thoughts that you had during the experience and how they may have impacted the experience.

  • What were you feeling during the situation?
  • What were you feeling before and after the situation?
  • What do you think other people were feeling about the situation?
  • What do you think other people feel about the situation now?
  • What were you thinking during the situation?
  • What do you think about the situation now?

Example of 'Feelings'

Here you have a chance to evaluate what worked and what didn’t work in the situation. Try to be as objective and honest as possible. To get the most out of your reflection focus on both the positive and the negative aspects of the situation, even if it was primarily one or the other.

  • What was good and bad about the experience?
  • What went well?
  • What didn’t go so well?
  • What did you and other people contribute to the situation (positively or negatively)?

Example of 'Evaluation'

The analysis step is where you have a chance to make sense of what happened. Up until now you have focused on details around what happened in the situation. Now you have a chance to extract meaning from it. You want to target the different aspects that went well or poorly and ask yourself why. If you are looking to include academic literature, this is the natural place to include it.

  • Why did things go well?
  • Why didn’t it go well?
  • What sense can I make of the situation?
  • What knowledge – my own or others (for example academic literature) can help me understand the situation?

Example of 'Analysis'

Conclusions.

In this section you can make conclusions about what happened. This is where you summarise your learning and highlight what changes to your actions could improve the outcome in the future. It should be a natural response to the previous sections.

  • What did I learn from this situation?
  • How could this have been a more positive situation for everyone involved?
  • What skills do I need to develop for me to handle a situation like this better?
  • What else could I have done?

Example of a 'Conclusion'

Action plan.

At this step you plan for what you would do differently in a similar or related situation in the future. It can also be extremely helpful to think about how you will help yourself to act differently – such that you don’t only plan what you will do differently, but also how you will make sure it happens. Sometimes just the realisation is enough, but other times reminders might be helpful.

  • If I had to do the same thing again, what would I do differently?
  • How will I develop the required skills I need?
  • How can I make sure that I can act differently next time?

Example of 'Action Plan'

Different depths of reflection.

Depending on the context you are doing the reflection in, you might want use different levels of details. Here is the same scenario, which was used in the example above, however it is presented much more briefly.

Adapted from

Gibbs G (1988). Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit. Oxford Polytechnic: Oxford.

Examples logo

Reflective Writing

Reflective Writing Examples amp Samples1

There are many existing ways on how one could be an effective writer. In addition to that, there are also a lot of ways on how one could express an opinion through writing. For the most part of writing, some of you are already familiar about application writing and summary writing .

While these are just some of the examples of free writing , we also need to remember that the whole process of writing is so vast that there could probably be thousands of writing examples you can come up with. But, if you are a true writer, you also need to be able to write something that requires internal understanding.

Nurse Reflective Writing

nurse reflective writing1

Personal Reflective Writing

personal reflective1

Academic Reflective Writing Example

academic reflective example1

What Is Reflective Writing?

Reflective formal writing is the process or the act of writing an essay or a short composition that focuses on answering the questions what and why .

As Wikipedia defines it, a reflective writing “is an analytical practice in which the writer describes a real or imaginary scene, event, interaction, passing thought, memory, form, adding a personal statement reflection on the meaning of the item or incident, thought, feeling, emotion, or situation in his or her life.”

In other words, it is the act of writing something out of your own perspective and reflection of the things that you are most aware of.

How to Analyze Reflective Writing

Reflective writing is mostly full of emotions and expression of an idea or an opinion. The word itself provides a clearer picture of what the main objective is.

To reflect is to clearly think about something, whether it is an experience or an event.

To analyze a reflective writing, you need to make sure that it has the essential components that should be found in any reflection paper or piece. That is the element of feeling and the rush of emotion. Since reflective writing revolves around the explanation or reflection of a concrete experience, you need to consider the writer’s interpretation and impact on his own personal life.

Reflective Essay Writing Outline

reflective essay writing

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Journal Reflective Writing

journal writing1

Importance of Reflective Writing

As a person who grew up an in environment where reflection is a part of the day-to-day activities, I could say that reflective writing improves ones perception and awareness of the things around you.

With reflective essay writing , you will start to appreciate even the small things that surrounds you. From the sound of the wind to the chirping of birds, everything becomes a part of your existence.

As a writer, it is important that you should be aware of your environment because not all the things that you write cannot come from within. The things that you write and the ideas that you give to your readers are a mere reflection of your outside world and how you see things.

Tips for Reflective Writing

Reflective writing examples requires inter-personal skills. You need to be able to reflect internally and try to understand the true essence of a thing or an object.

  • Start with self-awareness. The more you become aware of your existence, the more likely you would appreciate the things around you. As a result, you can start reflecting on something and dig deeper into its core.
  • Focus on something. Before you can understand the meaning of something, you need to have focus. It is important that you find the right disposition in order for you to situate yourself in a stance appropriate for reflection.

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