The Use of Reflective Learning - Personal Statement Example

 Table of Contents I. Introduction …………………………………………….. 3 II. General Facts About Reflective Learning ………………………… 4 III. Importance of Reflective Learning ……………………………….. 6 IV. Techniques on How I could Develop Myself as a Reflective Learner …………………………………………………. 6 a. Writing Down My Thoughts and Emotions Regarding my Past Experiences ………………………………………. 6 b. Invest on a Long-term Diary or Notebook ……………….. 6 c. Making Reflective Thinking at Night as a Habit …………. 7 d. Go through a Series of Questioning ……………………… 7 V. My Personal Learning Journal …………………………………….. 8 a. Date: August 14, 2007 (Tuesday) ………………………… 8 b. Date: August 15, 2007 (Wednesday) …………………….. 9 c. Date: August 16, 2007 (Thursday) ……………………… 10 VI. Conclusion ……………………………………………….. 10 References ………………………………………………………. 11 Introduction Learning is essential in our lives. It is a very broad subject wherein a person could acquire by simply attending in a university, reading a book, going through a training program, or through our personal interaction with other people. Some people learn through memorization while other people learn through the use of reflective learning. It is a fact that learning takes place not only in school but also in our personal experience in the events that we encounter in everyday life. This type of learning cannot be achieved by going through a formal education within an educational institution but through our personal reflection upon the daily experiences we get from our surroundings. (Houle, 1980: 221) In order for us to understand better the importance of reflective learning, it is necessary for us to know about the four stages that each person has to go through within the learning process as described by David A. Kolb together with Roger Fry back in 1975. The authors noted the four stages as: concrete experience abilities (feeling), observation and reflection abilities (watching), forming abstract concepts abilities (thinking), and testing in new situations abilities (doing). (Kolb and Fry, 1975: 35 – 36) David Kolb was able to successfully explain the intimate relationship between learning and knowledge. (Jarvis, 1987) It means that each person is expected to use the acquired knowledge as he / she constantly search for something new to experience and learn. This can be achieved through reflective learning. Since reflective learning is not something that one can acquire through memorization, it is necessary for each individual to learn more about the proper techniques on how to become a reflective learner. For the purpose of this study, the researcher will discuss about the general facts on reflective learning and the importance of reflective learning based on some researched materials. The researcher will also elaborate on some techniques that will enable me to develop myself as a reflective learner. At the end of the study, the researcher will construct a personal learning journal. General Facts About Reflective Learning Reflection has been defined as the act wherein an individual is able to “recapture their personal experience, think about it, mull it over, and evaluate it.” (Boud, Koegh, and Walker, 1985: 19) According to the authors, reflection involves the person’s ability to return, recall, or detailing their personal experiences or events; attend to or being able to connect with feelings; and lastly, to evaluate these experiences. (Boud, Koegh, and Walker, 1985: 26 – 31) As we re-think about what we have experienced in the past, we are able to justify whether our past actions is effective and ineffective. For instance, Joey was not able to submit his project to his professor on time. For this reason, he was able to receive a failing mark in which he has to repeat the course again. In the process, each time Joey will have to submit a project to any of his professors, we would recall the fact that he was given a failing mark for not being able to submit his course work on time. Since then, he learned to systematically work on his projects ahead of time. In this example, we have clearly seen how effective Joey’s ability to recall his past experience in terms of his current ability to prioritize his daily tasks as he learns the value of time. ‘Connect with feelings’ simple means that the learner must have the ability to use their positive emotions in order to motivate them and at the same time remove the negative ones that could create an obstruction in their learning process. Emotional factor is very sensitive and an important factor that all of us need to learn how to address. The inability to control our personal emotions could eventually cause our inability to learn something new or become unproductive along the way. Negative emotions such as anger, distress, self-pity should never be considered as a hindrance or an obstacle when we started to go through the process of reflective learning. When we talk about ‘evaluating experiences’, we are simply referring to the person’s ability to re-examine their past or current experiences in accordance to their existing knowledge. Therefore, reflective learners are those individuals who are able to satisfy the three components of reflection as stated above. For example, in the case of Joey as we have stated earlier, he was able to evaluate the possible end-results when he fail to submit his project on time. He knew how bad it feels to fail in a subject because of late submission of a project. Since he does not want to experience the same bad feelings again in the future, he keeps his past emotional experience and is very much determined never to forget doing his projects ahead of time. In the absence of reflective learning, a person may not be able to learn from his / her past experiences which enables them to commit the same mistake over and over again. In other words, there is simply no growth and development in the case of learners who uses non-reflective learning techniques. Importance of Reflective Learning According to Donald Schön (1983), the act of reflecting what we have experienced is very important since it allows us to be engaged in the process of continuous learning. In general reflective learning enables us to think rationally and be able to apply what we have learned either through our personal experience with other people or even the information that we have read or have heard on the radio news reports, etc. By going through the reflection stage of learning, the learner could eventually develop a more logical and acceptable idea. Rational thinking is very important in the real world. For instance, a student who have learn much in his / her academic challenges but has chosen to remain inexperience or is incapable of applying what he / she have learned within the educational institution will remain ineffective once he / she started to join in the national work force. Techniques on How I could Develop Myself as a Reflective Learner Writing Down My Thoughts and Emotions Regarding my Past Experiences According to Yinger and Clark (1981), writing down our personal reflection is more effective than stating them verbally. It is through writing that we could effectively think deeply about our thoughts and emotions about our learning experiences in each event. Another good point about writing down our thoughts in a diary is the fact that we could anytime read through what we have written in it without the hesitation of what other people might think or say about us. When writing down a reflective diary, it is possible not to limit the writings with words. Using picture, charts, or other form of diagrams is also considered as an effective tool since it could save a lot of time on the part of the learner when he / she has decided to go through the diary again. In fact, drawings will enable the learner to easily recall what he / she has written on his / her reflective learning diary / journal. By going through the reflective diary from time to time, the learner could easily track down his / her learning progress. Investing on a Long-term Diary or Notebook It is advisable to invest on a long-term diary or notebook exclusively for the use on reflective thinking and learning. This book will serve as a long-term diary wherein we could write down our own personal learning reflection. Making Reflective Thinking at Night as a Habit In the absence of writing materials, it is still possible to make reflection through thinking as a habit. Considering that environment is an external factor that could affect our reflective thinking, it is necessary that our surrounding is as peaceful as possible when we start going through our reflective thinking. The silence would eventually allow us to effectively go back and recall our past experiences without having to worry about possible distraction such as noise coming from the television, other people’s conversations, ambient noise, poor ventilation, etc. For this reason, the best time to reflect our thoughts is a few minutes before we sleep. Go through a Series of Questioning As a reflective learner, it is advisable to constantly ask ourselves the questions ‘why’, ‘what’, ‘how’, ‘where’, ‘who’, ‘when’, etc about something. For example, what will happen if I decided to take up another course after graduation? Should I take up BS-Law or BS-Nursing? What is it that I really want to be for a long-term profession? Does my personal character suites the law or nursing profession? How long will it take for me to finish law or nursing school? Can I afford the tuition? Through a series of questions, a reflective thinker could eventually come up with an end solution to the main issue. The same procedure applies to reflective learner except that we use the series of questions in tracing back what we have learned in the past. By going through the process of questioning, the learner could eventually end up with a deeper understanding of his personal experiences. It is our ability to understand things around us that could enable us to influence the current and future situations that we are or we will be going through. At the end of the day, reflective learning will enable us to become an independent learner. My Personal Learning Journal Date: August 14, 2007 (Tuesday) After having gone through the research paper regarding the importance of reflective learning, I have totally changed my outlook in learning. I feel more motivated and challenged with the new learning technique that I have learned today. During my elementary days, I used to fully depend on pure memorization when studying each of the subjects. Applying pure memorization in learning different subjects is really an ineffective way of learning things. For instance, math subjects really need a good analysis to be able to solve a problem. No wonder I used to have a lot of difficulties passing that subject. Now I can’t help but laugh. It was really funny of me to use memorization techniques in solving math problems. Considering all the efforts that I have spent on memorization, I couldn’t even remember the things I have memorized in the past. This makes me unable to use what I have really learned during my elementary days. After finishing this sentence, I will start developing my reflective thinking by going back with my past experiences in life. I believe that throughout my life journey, there are some areas in my life that I would like to change for the better. Date: August 15, 2007 (Wednesday) I feel extremely good after having gone through my past experiences. I was able to weigh the success and failure that I have experienced so far. One of my weaknesses is my inability to think deeply before I say something out loud. In most cases, this kind of attitude really puts me into shameful situations. After going through a series of questioning, I asked myself the factors that triggers me to say something before I think. I have noticed I tend to do that habit when I really get excited about something. For this reason, I really need to look out for my own actions whenever I feel excited. I believe that having a precautionary thought would eventually help me break the habit. I guess it is a very good thing to know our own weaknesses since it will enable us to have the opportunity to become a better person at the end of the day. I guess that is the beauty of self-awareness. *smile!* Date: August 16, 2007 (Thursday) Today, I have been very busy reading trying to finish reading one of the most popular literature book entitled ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’ Although I am not finished with the book yet, I have read how badly the African Americans were treated in the past. I couldn’t imaging living my life in that kind of situation. I wouldn’t even know what I would do if I were in their shoe. I do have a good friend who is an African American. Even though sometimes he acts like he is the best person living in this world, I still could feel the low self-confidence which he tries to hide by acting superior to other people. Sometimes I ask myself whether the racial discrimination that I have read from the literature book has something to do with it. Anyway, I still think that he is one of the best friends that I have ever had. Maybe if there were no racial discrimination all over the world, life would have been so much different for all of us. Conclusion Reflective thinking is very important since it allows us to learn from our previous and current experiences in life. In the absence of reflective learning, it would be very difficult for each individual to learn something from our own past experiences. The best way to keep track on our reflective learning is to keep a reflective learning diary. This book will not only limit us in recalling what we have learned during a specific day. It will also encourage us to keep track on our learning progress too. References: 1 Boud D., Koegh, and Walker (1985) ‘Reflection: Turning Experience into Learning’ London: Kogan. 2 Houle, C. (1980) ‘Continuing Learning in the Professions’ San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. p. 221 3 Jarvis, P. (1987) ‘Adult Learning in the Social Context’ London: Croom Helm. 4 Kolb, DA. and Fry, R. (1975) ‘Toward an Applied Theory of Experiential learning’ in Cooper, C. (Eds) ‘Theories of Group Process’ London: John Wiley. pp. 35 – 36. 5 Schön, DA. (1983) ‘The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action’ London: Temple Smith. 6 Yinger, R. and Clark, M. (1981) ‘Reflective Journal Writing: Theory and Practice’ Occasional Paper No. 50. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University, Institute for Research on Teaching. Read More