I got on the train at Harrogate. I sat behind a man who got up soon after we had pulled out of the station \u2013 he went to the toilet. The train pulled into the next station which is only about a mile from Harrogate Station, and he suddenly left the toilet and got off the train. He hadn\u2019t left himself much time, I thought. Then he looked back into the train from the platform \u2013 he seemed to be looking at his seat. Why did he go to the toilet directly before the station he was getting off at? Why was he rushing? Why did he look back at his seat? I had so many questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of us sit happily in the \u2018Reviewing the Experience\u2019 stage of Kolb\u2019s Experiential Learning Cycle (ELC) or are shown to be strong Reflectors having undertaken Honey and Mumford\u2019s Learning Styles questionnaire. For others, this reviewing or reflecting is not a strength, not something that comes easily or naturally. As you can probably tell from the first paragraph, it sits very comfortably with me \u2026 or should that be too comfortably?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is this process? Rowntree (1988) says reflection is, \u201c\u2026 studying one\u2019s own study methods as seriously as one studies the subject and thinking about a learning task after you have done it\u201d. Unless you do this, he says, the task \u2013 as a learning experience \u2013 will almost certainly be wasted. In any learning situation, he adds, you should prepare for it beforehand, participate actively during it, and reflect on it afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Donald Schon (1983) suggested that to reflect \u201con action\u201d so as to engage in a process of continuous learning is one of the defining characteristics of professional practice. He argued that the model of professional training which loads students up with knowledge in training schools so that they can then discharge it when they enter the world of practice has never been a particularly good description of how professionals \u201cthink in action\u201d, and is quite inappropriate to practice in a fast-changing world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cultivation of the capacity to reflect \u201con<\/strong> action\u201d (after you have done it, retrospective thinking) and \u201cin<\/strong> action\u201d (while doing something, thinking on your feet) has rightly become an important feature of professional training programmes in many disciplines. It can also be argued that effective reflective practice needs another person such as a mentor or coach, who can ask appropriate questions to ensure that the reflection goes somewhere, and does not get bogged down in self-justification, self-indulgence or self-pity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the student can be coached to identify the feelings they have experienced and the thought processes they have used \u2013 to reflect on his\/her own learning \u2013 then learning will continue at a much swifter pace and ultimately with less support from the coach or mentor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the makers of the man\u2019s iPhone say, \u201cThink Different\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Enabling a person to initially reflect \u2018on action\u2019, and subsequently reflect \u2018in action\u2019 is the key to sustainable self-development. Due to its importance, trainers, coaches and facilitators have a responsibility to ensure that this is a golden thread throughout all their contact time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Returning to the man on the train \u2026 I got to ask him all the questions I listed above. That\u2019s because having seen him looking back into the train, I had a look around his seat \u2013 and I found his iPhone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I returned it to him a couple of days later he explained that he had fallen asleep. When he awoke he needed the toilet, but didn\u2019t realise how close to his station he was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If he had reflected in action \u2013 as opposed to on action \u2013 he may well have not gone to the toilet, and thus not lost his phone \u2013 a significant potential return on investment! And whilst I accept that most of us are not at our most effective when we wake from a sleep, the more practiced and engrained reflection is, the more likely it is to become the default position, and so just happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It all made me reflect on how my son had left his iPhone on a bus a year or so ago \u2013 he also spoke to the person who found it, but they didn\u2019t return it. Not all reflection is helpful \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I got on the train at Harrogate. I sat behind a man who got up soon after we had pulled out of the station \u2013 he went to the toilet. The train pulled into the next station which is only about a mile from Harrogate Station, and he suddenly left the toilet and got off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,8,13,21,30,1],"tags":[217,305,304,229,231,61,306,237,194],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions\/323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/breathe-pod.org.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}