What is Critical Reflection? 什么是反思？

What is Critical Reflection?什么是反思？

“批判性反思是指一个深思熟虑的过程,当候选人在工作的过程中需要时间,并关注他们的表现和仔细思考的思维导致特定的行为以及发生了什么,他们正在学习的经验,为了让他们将来可能做什么。”

"Critical Reflection is taken to mean a deliberate process when the candidate takes time, within the course of their work, to focus on their performance and think carefully about the thinking that led to particular actions, what happened and what they are learning from the experience, in order to inform what they might do in the future."
(UK Qualification and Curriculum Authority 2001)

The ability to reflect and critically evaluate are associated with the higher levels of learning, these higher levels are expected to be demonstrated at postgraduate level.

From your participation in the module, your understanding of the learning outcomes will develop and you will achieve a certain level of command. This assessment requires you to reflect upon your progress and achievement, evaluate what you have learnt and give evidence of the level of command you have achieved.The Assignment is provided by  UK Assignment

You may reflect and evaluate on;
• your expectations of what the module would achieve for you and how you    planned to take responsibility for your learning
• what prior knowledge & skill the module assumed you had. 
• the understanding of the learning outcomes which you possessed prior to starting  the module and what experiences gave you that understanding
• how this understanding has changed as a result of the module, what additional  understanding, knowledge and skill you had acquired on completion of the  session
• your views of the process i.e. what you have done, how the process helped your  learning, what worked and what didn't
• how you are going to build on what you have learnt to improve your knowledge,  understanding and skills
• the delivery of the module, the use of case studies and exercises, etc… but  remember, the focus of this evaluation is on your learning, not on the teaching.
• what changes you feel need to be made to increase the value of the  module/sessions and to enable the learning outcomes of the module to be better  achieved
• in particular, consider and comment on how you felt when you were undergoing  the process

A reflective process is one that involves thinking critically about your experiences and giving evidence that you have learnt from the experience you are reflecting on. You should avoid a purely narrative approach that gives an account of ordered events like, 'this happened, then this, then this’. Instead you should be looking behind these events and trying to uncover the reasons why particular things happened, why you made the choices you did, what the consequences were and how you might use the experience to help you in the future.

 
Reflecting on Your Learning – an example.

A narrative approach tends to provide answers to what and how. A reflective approach goes deeper and also addresses why and what were the consequences. Here are two examples.The Assignment is provided by  UK Assignment。

A narrative account about understanding an article found as a result of a literature search might look like this.

I approached this article by first reading through the abstract and keywords and then looked at the headings and subheadings. My tutor suggested that I look also for boldface and italicised words but the only ones I found looked like subheadings. I looked at all the figures and tables too. I noted down some questions that I thought the article might answer. After this, I read through the article from beginning to end. If I came across a word I didn't understand I looked it up in my dictionary and made a note of the meaning in my logbook. Then I tried to answer my own questions about the article. At the end of it all I wrote my own summary of what the article was about and filed it away in my logbook.

A reflective response to the same activity might look like this.

I usually jump straight into an article and read it from start to finish, making some spray diagram notes as I go. I've generally found this to be a good method for helping me to draw out the main points. Occasionally I've started my reading by doing an initial survey of the article but I've never come across the idea suggested by my tutor of noting down any questions I have at this stage. I decided to give this a try and I wrote down three or four questions I hoped I would find the answers for. This did work quite well for me because it prompted me to read the document far more actively than I would have done otherwise. However, I think it changed my focus and I may have concentrated too much on the specific points I was looking for. Next time I would read the whole article though again to get a more balanced overview of it.

Notice how the reflective answer doesn't just relate a series of events. It started with a bit of scene setting ('I usually jump straight in...') and goes on to explain why ('I've generally found this to be a good method...'). The author then identified an idea for a different approach ('.. .the idea of noting down any questions...') and explains why she or he decided to give it a try ('...suggested by my tutor...'). Next, the consequences of this method are discussed (This did work quite well for me...' and 'However, I think it changed my focus...'). Notice how the author also provides some reasoning for these consequences ('.. .it prompted me to read the document far more actively...' and '.. .I may have concentrated too much on the specific points...'). The reflection ends with the lessons learned for the future ('Next time I would...').