Reflective thinking and writing
Wednesday Seminar was leaded by Amanda Thinker, an academic skills coordinator,and given us a deep understanding of what reflective writing is and how we can improve our skills in this aria,mainly because the next phase of our project ''A sense of place'' is a essay she made an extensive presentation of the lesson from the meaning of the terms to the act of writing .
The main topic of the seminar was reflective thinking and writing outlined by five main focus points: reflection, when and where it happens,models of reflective learning, reflective writing examples and the process and practice of reflection;all developed one by one with expressive illustrations and key word.
Reflection is an ongoing process of thinking and recording your own work while tracking your development in relation to your art.Keeping a description of your projects together with an analysis and evaluation of your work will serve later as a devises that can offer you new perspectives on yourself and they way you can create an alternative and novel solution.
My approach to this is a ''drawing'' journey where develop not only the concept behind my work but also my personal touch, from feeling that are awaken thru shapes and to secondary research,in this way I can connect the quality and even the style of my work to specific outside influences,such as weather,certain moods and environment.
Your Reflective Writing should include the following:
- a description of events, experiences and processes
- an indication of your feelings about these events
- both positive and negative experiences
- self-questioning about these experiences
- analysis of your work and evaluation of your progress
- suggestions for future practice
- an honest appraisal of your experience
- links to your coursework and theories
- extensive use of the first person (I) in your writing
The importance of the reflective practices is related mainly in our context to delivering a essay that can showcase our art as well as our further approach and proposals,this allows you to assess you work in a more detached light,as we all know the felling of typing the first words or drawing the one st line on a black piece of paper.
While analyzing your past experiences in a specific domain you can draw specific point related to your approach however you have to focus on both positive and negative experiences.
Reflection is an essential skill especially in graphic
design as it helps your public as well as your tutor to see how you have
developed your practice and ideas as well as getting a deeper understanding
about your concept.
The stages of reflection
Reflecting
before action. Weight up different courses of action before deciding what to do.
Reflecting in action. Reflecting on action during an event as it happens like analyzing your performances,is this going well?how can I improve it? Don't be distracted by the outside influences and pay attention at what is happening so you can later describe the event or process you have been through; pin point what do you find inspiring during the project;what critical incidents should you focus on.
Reflection on action. Reflect on action that have already occurred ,usually after the event have ended.
Here is a list of helpful questions that can guide you in your process:
- How do you feel about what happened
- What was good about this experience
- What did you learned from this experience?What new techniques,skills,abilities have you acquired?
- Which were the bad experiences and how you can improve them?
- What else could I do / have done?
- If so, is there a general principle here I could use again?
- If not, what could I try next, and why?
Experimental learning cycle
We took a look at the experimental learning cycles of Kolb (1983) and Pedlar (2001) where we had to follow an experience from a specific event,reflect about it and draw observations,develop and analyze what you learned and then apply and experiment.The cycle can go on an on in order to refine the reflection.
Ways to reflect on your learning:
1: Description of the activity,experience,process ,critical incidents that were an important learning experience
2: Analysis and reflection on the above experience
3: Possible documentary evidence of this learning
There are no
rules about how to write and structure a reflective evaluation; however, there
are a number of things you'll need to avoid as writing too descriptive and without much analysis,also it should not be too personal, also your writing should not just provides a general overview of events, without highlighting any critical incidents.The final
statement should capture something meaningful and let an impression for the entire essay.Other problems that can occur during the process are:if there is
little or nothing said about things that did not go well for you - only
positive events are discussed or if there's no
detailed discussion about what you've learnt, and how things could be done
differently in the future
Reflective writing examples
Account A
Account B
The first example was not suitable for reflection as it was too personal, written in a conversational style,it only resume the events without any analyse the final statement in meaningless where as the account b was a proper example as is not only telling a story ,it focus on the critical incident,the style if formal.The second example is also setting targets for improvement and identify weaknesses,strengths and key skills.
Task
Group Exercise :Recording Reflections on a sketchbook,journal and post it on the blog,focusing on your work experience,motivations,influences,the process of a design you've working on or the process of research.Sort the information in three parts:What happened,How do I feel about it? What did I learn?
The topic can be anything from a response to a film to imagining a artwork that you have seen that links to your practice.
My approach
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