Reflective writing monash

Reflective writing monash

Reflective writing is increasingly common in university assessment tasks. Reflection is also an important employability skill. Reflective practice assists employees in thinking about what went well in a work task and how they might improve it next time. This applies to university assessment tasks as well. At university, students are expected to develop not just knowledge about their discipline, but also the View Reflective Writing - MGWpdf from MGW at Monash University. REFLECTIVE WRITING MONASH UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA, LIBRARY AND LEARNING COMMONS Esmael Yahya Learning Skills Adviser, School [Monash University logo] An introduction to reflective writing. Reflective writing has become increasingly common in university courses. Yet we don’t often think about it as being something we’d do for assessment. We often think of reflection as something we’d do in a

Reflective writing and critical incidents - Research & Learning Online

View our latest COVID updates. Reflection on practice is an important aspect of your ongoing professional learning. In your course, this may take the form of a critical incident report. However, the focus is less on the event or incident or experience in itself — what is reflective writing monash is your reaction to it, and how it has informed your thinking and your learning. Assessment tends to focus on how successfully you have demonstrated a capacity to analyse and reflect on events in order to learn from them.

Also relevant to assessment is how much you are able to relate your current theoretical learning for example, about the doctor-patient relationship, reflective writing monash, or about what constitutes effective reflective writing monash to a real life situation. This section explains what is meant by reflective writing and the term "critical incident"and helps you explore the reflective learning process. You will also find a format for the critical incident reporta sample piece of student writingcriteria for assessment and suggestions to help avoid some common errors in reflective writing.

In medical and health science courses you reflective writing monash required to produce reflective writing in order to learn from educational and practical experiences, and to develop the habit of critical reflection as a future health professional. Students sometimes view reflective writing as an annoying interruption to the serious business of developing content knowledge in their reflective writing monash area, reflective writing monash.

However, there are sound reasons why reflective writing is included in student assessment, reflective writing monash. Reflective writing tasks are given to students to help students learn through reflective writing monash, precisely because of the established link between reflection and deeper learning. As well as facilitating learning and monitoring learning, the intention is to produce graduates who have acquired the habit of reflection as a means of continuing to learn and grow in their professions.

Reflection can lead to:. Reflection can lead to greater self-awareness, which in turn is a first step to positive change — it is a necessary stage in identifying areas for improvement and growth in both personal and professional contexts. Taking time to reflect can help you identify approaches that have worked well, and in that way reinforce good practice. You should be thinking about possible subjects and opportunities for reflective writing before and during your placements, not only after them.

In the workplace, lack of time frequently limits opportunities for learning through reflection. People may not have time to stop and think. Similarly, time is an issue for students. For students, perhaps the major obstacle to learning through reflection is devoting insufficient time to it, and consequently failing to explore the experience in depth.

Students sometimes write simply to meet the assessment requirements, without genuinely engaging in the process, reflective writing monash. In the activity-reflection model there are four stages to the cycle of reflection:. Reflective writing often requires movement between past and reflective writing monash tenses, depending on whether you are recounting the actual events or making a more general comment for example, on the doctor-patient relationship, reflective writing monash, or on an aspect of your current course.

Generally, when recounting a particular experience or incident, past tense is used. As part of my placement at a small rural hospital in north-west Victoria, I worked closely with the nursing staff, reflective writing monash.

I was impressed by the rapport they had with their patients — while performing their duties professionally they often joked with the patients, and in that way maintained a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere on the ward.

I noticed that the nurses had more regular contact with patients than the doctors, and consequently seemed to develop a closer relationship.

When two of the patients became agitated I did not know what to do. I asked them to return to their beds, but they simply ignored me. I did not know what the correct procedure was in this situation. When making a general comment, reflective writing monash, or relating an incident to current practice or to a particular theoretical perspective, reflective writing monash, present tense is normally used. It seems that the roles of nurses and doctors are quite different, and that doctors need to acknowledge the importance of the nurse-patient relationship.

Clearly making new staff aware of the procedures and rules is important when they join a new workplace or institution. It's always good to stop and reflect on what you have written. Have your views been affected by your personal or reflective writing monash experiences? Think about your use of tenses. Check that you have written your reflections in a non-judgemental way. In reflective writing you may be asked to speculate about the future, or about a hypothetical situation.

For example, you may be asked to comment on whether you would like to practice in a rural area reflective writing monash your future career, reflective writing monash. Notice in the example below the movement between past and present tenses, and the use of 'would' when speculating about the future. Although my rural placement was a very positive experience, I would not like to work in the country when I first graduate.

There are several reasons for this. Firstly, being a country doctor is more challenging — you do not have the support networks available in the city, so you have to cope with many different situations. Also, you have less privacy. In the country I would have to behave as the local doctor all the reflective writing monash, 24 hours a day. There would not be an opportunity to just be myself and not worry about what people think. Living in the country I would be far away from my family, and might feel lonely for that reason.

Finally, I would have to focus on general practice, whereas my interest lies reflective writing monash more specialized areas of medicine. As soon as I started there, I could see that having a good working relationship with the nurses would make my job much easier, and would possibly result in better health care for patients.

Some writers become confused between self-reflection and self-criticism. You need to go beyond simply admitting a weakness or mistake or failure — what is important is not only what you did, but how you felt, what you have learnt from that experience, and how it will inform your behaviour in the future.

Try not to confine your writing to the event and your feelings. If possible, use it to raise new questions or to speculate about possible causes and solutions. Remember where possible to link your reflections to theoretical aspects of your course.

For example:. Planning You should be thinking about possible subjects and opportunities for reflective writing before and during your placements, not only reflective writing monash them. Writing too informally : just because it is based on your experience does not mean you can ignore academic style, reflective writing monash. You need to describe the experience adequately — the reader needs to be given enough detail to understand the context in which the experience occurred. However, it is not enough just to describe the experience in great detail: you also need to analyse and evaluate the events and the thinking processes involved.

Take time to organise and structure your writing. Try to focus on what was most significant about the experience, reflective writing monash, and relate it to aspects of reflective writing monash course and future career. Be careful that your writing does not seem to simply drift without direction or focus.

A critical incident need not be a dramatic event: usually it is an incident which has significance for you. It is often an event which made you stop and think, or one that raised questions reflective writing monash you.

It may have made you question an aspect of your beliefs, values, attitude or behaviour. It is an incident which in some way has had a significant impact on your personal and professional learning. Critical incidents may relate to issues of communication, knowledge, treatment, culture, relationships, emotions or beliefs. Here is a suggested format for this report.

The writing style required in producing a critical incident report is different from that of an academic essay; however, it is still important to present ideas in a systematic and organised way, and to use appropriate language.

The sample below uses sub-headings consistent with the assignment requirements to explicitly organise the report. It is simply written, reflective writing monash, and avoids use of jargon or colloquial language. This report will outline a critical incident which occurred in Week 9, reflective writing monash, Semester 2 in my clinical reflective writing monash. The incident was initiated by my tutor, who announced that she would provide individual feedback to students on their performance in clinical tutorial discussions.

She also stated that she would be producing written comments on each student's behaviour, attitude and contribution in tutorials to be incorporated into student portfolios for Semester 2. At the end of my clinical tutorial my tutor arranged for us to meet briefly in order for her to discuss her feedback with me.

She stated that over the semester she had noticed that I very rarely spoke in the tutorials and did not appear to engage with the other students, reflective writing monash. Lecturer's comment 1: Note the use of reported speech to describe the conversations between those involved in the incident, reflective writing monash. In her view the only way to develop confidence was to participate regularly, reflective writing monash.

She asked me how I felt about this, and if there was a reason why I almost never spoke in class. I explained that in my culture students were not always encouraged to speak, reflective writing monash, and for that reason I did not find it easy. I also mentioned that I sometimes feel shy.

Lecturer's comment 2: Note the use of first person to describe the reflective writing monash reactions and feelings: - I explained… - I mentioned… - I felt embarrassed… - I was worried that… - I realised that…. At the time of this incident, many emotions were running through me. I felt reflective writing monash that my lack of confidence was so obvious to her, and also concerned about what impact it might have on my results. I was worried that she would write negative comments about my behaviour and attitude, reflective writing monash, and that these comments would be available for other lecturers to read.

At the same time, I realised that her concerns were justified — I had been aware of my lack of contribution throughout the semester, and had even avoided going to some tutorials because of those feelings.

This was also an unfamiliar situation for reflective writing monash, as I had always done very well at school and achieved good marks, so I had never had to talk with a teacher in this way before.

Although I understood that her intention was to help me to do better, I felt very uncomfortable and even ashamed to have to acknowledge my poor performance in this area. I felt guilty when I realized that in her opinion I had contributed so little to the class. This incident was very demanding because it forced me to acknowledge an area where I have always lacked confidence. Even though I preferred to focus on other areas, I knew that my tutor would be noticing my behaviour in tutorials over the rest of the semester, and that her written comments would depend on my performance, reflective writing monash, so as a consequence I felt under pressure.

I also felt anxious about confronting this issue and trying to develop the confidence I needed, reflective writing monash. Although this incident caused me discomfort and added pressure in the short term, I realise that it was a very significant event in my studies.

As a result of the conversation with my tutor I was forced to reconsider my behaviour in tutorials and became more aware of how others viewed me. I had been used to think that Reflective writing monash was 'invisible' in tutorials, but now I realised that not talking actually made me stand out more. Fortunately, the tutor gave me advice on how to gradually develop the confidence I needed, and I also sought help from some of my friends.

I even organized to have some informal tutorials with friends to give me a chance to practice. Over the final weeks of the semester I managed to talk at least once in every clinical tutorial, either asking a question or making a comment.

Reflective Writing

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The structure of reflective writing - Research & Learning Online

View Reflective Writing - MGWpdf from MGW at Monash University. REFLECTIVE WRITING MONASH UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA, LIBRARY AND LEARNING COMMONS Esmael Yahya Learning Skills Adviser, School It contains dedicated chapters on writing an essay, a reflective text, a case study analysis, a literature review, a placement report, and case notes on placement. Each chapter contains examples and activities which will help students to test their knowledge and blogger.com: Kathryn Hay, Bella Ross [Monash University logo] An introduction to reflective writing. Reflective writing has become increasingly common in university courses. Yet we don’t often think about it as being something we’d do for assessment. We often think of reflection as something we’d do in a