Honest Reflection

         Honest Reflection: The Real Talk About Looking in the Mirror

 

Taking the time to think honestly about yourself and what you do is what requires you to reflect honestly. Being honest with yourself about what you did well and what you could do better is what it means. Things like "Why did I act that way?" or "What can I learn from this?" are examples of this.

 

Reflective thinking was initially defined by Dewey (1933) as "active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it."

This systematic method of reviewing experiences in order to truly learn something meaningful has been called "reflective practice" by psychologist Donald Schön in 1983. It challenges your own views and necessitates intellectual humility (Brookfield, 2017).

Real self-examination helps people become more self-aware and improve their ability to make decisions (Moon, 2013).

The impulse we have to minimize our achievements and place blame on others for our shortcomings is known as attribution bias by psychologists (Jones & Nisbett, 1972).

It takes courage to reflect sincerely and honestly. It details owning up to your mistakes, admitting when you could have done better, and identifying trends you'd prefer to ignore. This process is known as "transformative learning," according to Mezirow (1991), in which people critically analyze their beliefs and ideas, frequently resulting in significant changes in viewpoint.

 

ANALYZING GIBBS REFLECTIVE MODEL

 

Your experiences have shaped who you are but to grow as a person experience alone is not enough, you need to learn from your experiences to get better. This is where GIBBS reflective cycle comes in. It's a simple 6 steps process to help you reflect your experiences. You learn what went well as well as what could have gone better and put together an action plan to address your weaknesses.

 

As you can see the model is circular starting with description and this circular nature lends itself to learning from experiences overtime so you can get better about something. The first three steps focus on what happened during the experience that you were analyzing, and the second three steps focus on how you improve your experience for future similar situations. Let's look at these 6 steps in  more detail. First Simply describe what happened, don't draw any conclusions. Then describe the feelings you felt, don't evaluate those feelings, simply state what they were. After that evaluate the experience, determine what went well and what didn't go so well. Analysis what do you think might have helped/hindered the situation. Now It's time to draw some conclusions, what will you do differently next time. And in the last create a plan based on your conclusions. Commit and take action on your plan.

 

This model is easy to understand and easy to use. It allows you to learn overtime based on your experiences. Overtime it gives you more balanced and accurate judgment but there are some criticisms of the model as well as Its reactive not proactive approach to improving your skill set. It can be superficial reflection as there is no critical thinking involved nor is there any sense of looking at the situation from a different perspective and it can be difficult for many people to open up and discuss their feelings during feelings step.

 

Reflecting on a Challenging Day working with young people (Mental Health)

 

Working with young people is a difficult job and it is not for everyone. Making them feel comfortable, providing them safe environment so they can open up seemed almost impossible back in the days. I still remember initial period of my practice when dealing with them was quite challenging for me.

 Once I had session with a 12-year-old girl who arrived agitated, refusing to engage. After 10 minutes she just walked off. Her care giver also looked exhausted that time and watching both struggling made me sad. I was self-doubting my strategy and approach. My little experience in the field made me feel even more uncomfortable. I discussed that case with my senior to seek advice which helped me to improve myself for future sessions with the girl.

 I realized that my frustration was because of my own desire to fix things faster than sit with discomfort. I also noticed that I might have pressed too hard for verbal communication instead of analyzing what she exactly needed that time because recovery from mental illness isn't usually straight. I learned from my experiences, and I started using different ways to communicate like art or movement with them which ended up very effective.

REFERENCES

 

Dewey, J. (1933). How we think: A restatement of the relationship of reflective thinking to the educational process . Boston: DC Heath.

 

Jones, E.E. & Nisbett, R.E. (1972). The actor and the observer: Divergent perceptions of the causes of behavior. In EE Jones, DE Kanouse, HH Kelley, RE Nisbett, S. Valins & B. Weiner (Eds.), Attribution: Perceiving the causes of behavior (pp. 79-94). Morristown, NJ: General Learning Press.

 

Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action . New York: Basic Books.

 

Moon, J. A. (2013). Reflection in learning and professional development: Theory and practice. Routledge.

 

Brookfield, S. D. (2017). Becoming a critically reflective teacher (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.