2016 reflective writing for professional practice

Reflective Writing for
Professional Practice
• Reflection
• Structuring a reflective journal entry
Centre for Teaching and Learning, Library Level 3
slc-alb@massey.ac.nz 09 441 8143
• Elements of reflective writing
• Evaluating a reflective journal entry
See these slides at: http://tinyurl.com/MBSreflection

• What is reflection?
• What do you need to write in your
reflective journal for this paper?
• Have you done reflective writing before?
Discuss for five minutes
• How does reflective writing differ from
other forms of academic writing?
• What’s the difference between ‘good’
and ‘bad reflective writing?
We’ll return to these questions at the end!

Differences
other academic writing reflective writing
harmonious
strong
static
classical
vulnerable
post-modern

A classic definition: “the active, persistent, and
careful consideration of any belief or supposed form
of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support
it and the further conclusions to which it tends”
(Dewey, 1933, p. 6). (In other words, critical
thinking about your experience)
What is reflection?
For the purposes of this course, the 10
entries in your reflective journal should:
… focus on a personal experience …
… which took place in a professional context
… and relates to a specific Management topic
each be about 500 words long and …

Evaluation Task 1
You’ll see an example of a reflective journal entry written
by a student.
Identify two or more strengths as a piece of academic
writing?
Identify two or more weaknesses as a piece of reflective
writing?

This week, our team had to decide how we are going to plan our
project. Decision making is the process of making choices between
alternative courses of action (Author, 2006). One of the important
issues in decision making is the choice of whether to make the decision
individually or by a group.
Group decision making has clear potential advantages. Firstly it makes
it possible for managers to have more information, knowledge, and
expertise to solve problems. More members provide more alternatives
in action. Secondly the decision is made by team members; they tend
to accept it with good understanding. During the discussion, team
members can express their opinion and concerns, final decision may
make both parties happy. Thirdly, group decision making increases
passion for members to achieve final goal. Every single member thinks
that he is one of decision makers (Author, 2004)
Reflective journal entry – part 1

On the other hand, group decision making also has its potential
disadvantages. One of those is social pressure during the decision
making process. Some members follow others and do not express
their opinions. They may feel that they are forced to agree with their
more experienced or powerful colleagues. Another disadvantage is
that group decision-making can be time-consuming. One more
disadvantages is “groupthink” which means the tendency for highly
cohesive groups to lose their critical evaluative capabilities (Author,
2004).
There are a number of methods to manage group decision-making.
The first one is lack of response. Team members brainstorm all ideas
without discussion. One is selected; others are discarded without
critical evaluation. The second one is authority rule. Managers make
the decision for a team without others’ involvement. The third one is
minority rule. Few people are dominating to make a quick agreement.
The fourth one is majority rule. A decision is made by formal voting,
and the majority wins. Consensus is the fifth. The decision favoured by
most members is supported by others. The sixth one is unanimity,
which means all members agree with the decision (Author, 2004).

Among these, unanimity and consensus are the most ideal methods but
are difficult to attain in practice, so other methods have to be used in
some situations, though they have shortcomings. For example, in
majority rule, the minority may feel their ideas are not valued and
team work may be affected in the future (Author, 2004).
In conclusion, decisions can be made by an individual or a group. We
wanted to introduce group decision making in our organisation. But
before doing that, we had to know and balance the potential
advantages and disadvantages, and choose carefully from the team
decision making strategies.

Evaluation feedback
Academic writing strengths
• Clear and correct writing with effective paragraphs
• Correct use of two academic sources
Reflective writing weaknesses
• Simplistic description of theory
• No evidence of reflection
Overall evaluation: Writing a high school essay about a
Management topic connected in some way to your
experience is NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

Key elements of reflective
writing
Description of an experience
Analysis of the experience
Critical response to the experience
For your reflective journal entries, you could
write 1 paragraph of each kind of reflection

Reflection part 1:
Description of experience
A complete description of experience is a story,
consisting of four stages:
situation
For example: where and when did this take place? Who was involved?
What were their roles? What was going on at the time? How does this
link to previous entries?
event
For example: a problem; a threat; a misunderstanding; a challenge; an
opportunity.
response
For example: an attempt to solve the problem, to neutralise the threat,
to clear up the misunderstanding, to exploit the opportunity.
outcome
For example: a new strategy; satisfaction; resentment.

Example description of
experience
My focus this week is on the communication aspect of team
leadership. I can’t often meet my team face-to-face, as most
are part-time, hourly paid staff and work at different centres
and times. This means I rely on group emails as my primary
channel of communication. On Monday, I emailed the group to
remind them to use our branding on training materials. I’d found
some handouts in the photocopier with the logo of a competitor
one trainer had worked for. This trainer (who I hadn’t named in
my email) sent an angry response complaining that she had no
time to produce new materials. She used ‘reply all’, so the whole
team became involved. Several phone calls were required to sort
out the confusion and calm everyone down. It was a classic
‘storm in a teacup’.
What stages can you identify?

My focus this week is on the communication aspect of
team leadership. I can’t often meet my team face-to-
face, as most are part-time, hourly paid staff and work
at different centres and times. This means I rely on
group emails as my primary channel of communication.
On Monday, I emailed the group to remind them to use
our branding on training materials. I’d found some
handouts in the photocopier with the logo of a
competitor one trainer had worked for. This trainer
(who I hadn’t named in my email) sent an angry
response complaining that she had no time to produce
new materials. She used ‘reply all’, so the whole team
became involved. Several phone calls were required to
sort out the confusion and calm everyone down. It was
a classic ‘storm in a teacup’.
situation
event
response
outcome

Reflection part 2:
Analysis of experience
possible causes
For example: Why did this happen? What were its immediate and
underlying causes?
effects
For example: Who or what aspect(s) of the organisation were affected?
How were they affected? Were the effects short or long-term?
questions
For example: What did this event make you realise / think / ask
yourself / wonder? Which aspect or concept of management do your
questions relate to?

Example analysis of
experience
Clearly, email was an inappropriate channel of communication;
any message that can be perceived as disciplinary is best
delivered face-to-face (Simon, 2015). It reinforced an
impression of distance between the staff and me (as a
representative of institutional bureaucracy). It is another
reminder for me that in order to build a more collaborative
culture, “every discussion and interaction has an element of re-
establishing trust” (Kaats & Opheij, 2014, p. 2.2.2). At a deeper
level, it also made me wonder: If staff feel the branding is
irrelevant, do they also feel their work is no different from any
other institution? How can I help these part-time, casual staff
develop a sense of common purpose, which is recognised as a
hallmark of effective teams (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993; Parker
Follett, 1987)?
What aspects of analysis can you identify?

Clearly, email was an inappropriate channel of
communication; any message that can be perceived as
disciplinary is best delivered face-to-face (Simon,
2015). It reinforced an impression of distance between
the staff and me (as a representative of institutional
bureaucracy). It is another reminder for me that in
order to build a more collaborative culture, “every
discussion and interaction has an element of re-
establishing trust” (Kaats & Opheij, 2014, p. 2.2.2). At
a deeper level, it also made me wonder: If staff feel
the branding is irrelevant, do they also feel their work
is no different from any other institution? How can I
help these part-time, casual staff develop a sense of
common purpose, which is recognised as a hallmark of
effective teams (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993; Parker
Follett, 1987)?
immediate
cause and
effect
related
Management
concept
questions
about
underlying
causes
related
Management
concept

Reflection part 3:
Critical response to experience
link to the bigger picture
For example: What are your overall learning needs and goals for this
placement? What particular Management approach are you exploring?
How does this analysis relate to them?
objectives and strategy
For example: What objectives will you set in order to answer your
questions or improve the situation? What strategy will you follow in
order to achieve them? What Management ideas or approaches do
these objectives and strategy relate to?
actions
For example: What will you or others do in order to implement this
strategy? When, where and how will these actions take place?

This relates to my overall challenge of developing leadership within a
loosely-coupled organisation (Author, 2001). I need to develop a
more ‘respectful leadership’: tolerating error, respecting boundaries
and encouraging potential (Author, 2010). I’m applying this in a ‘fine-
tuning’ approach (Author, 1993) towards the photocopying issue;
instead of the ‘stick’ of disciplinary warnings, I’m offering trainers the
‘carrot’ of having all their copying done for them. And to develop a
team-based culture, I’m proposing for pairs of trainers to share
professional development projects and to present their ‘best practice’
at monthly meetings.
What aspects of a critical response to experience can you
identify?

This relates to my overall challenge of developing
leadership within a loosely-coupled organisation
(Author, 2001). I need to develop a more ‘respectful
leadership’: tolerating error, respecting boundaries
and encouraging potential (Author, 2010). I’m
applying this in a ‘fine-tuning’ approach (Author,
1993) towards the photocopying issue; instead of the
‘stick’ of disciplinary warnings, I’m offering trainers
the ‘carrot’ of having all their copying done for them.
And to develop a team-based culture, I’m proposing
for pairs of trainers to share professional
development projects and to present their ‘best
practice’ at monthly meetings.
bigger
picture
strategy
action
goal
action

Reflective writing checklist
Describes a personal experience in a professional context
Provides relevant information about the situation
Summarises a specific problem or challenge
Describes one or two responses and the outcome
Descriptive
Suggests immediate and underlying causes of the problem or challenge
Explores effects of the problem or challenge from an organisational and/or management
perspective
Raises questions of relevance to ongoing development as a manager
Analytical
Critical
Makes meaningful reference to management theories or concepts
Provides evidence of learning through experience and reading
Applies this learning to management decision-making

Evaluation task 2: description
A member of our senior management team has been causing conflict
lately with what has been described as her “assertive behaviour”. On
one hand this leader is bolshie and dominating, though on the other
hand she is perceived as confident and in control. As defined by the
Oxford Dictionary, assertive means: Having or showing a confident
and forceful personality.
This is particularly interesting to me for several reasons. As a
woman and an aspiring leader my desire is to be able to authentically
lead with strength and conviction. I expect that this will require
assertive action at times. So, I need to determine whether as a
woman it is necessary to be assertive. If so, what does being
assertive look like? And how will I know if I am assertive?
• How effective is this as a description of experience?
• How could it be improved?
• It’s an interesting and personally relevant situation
• She could have included examples of the manager’s
behaviour, responses and outcome

Evaluation task 2: analysis
One of the challenges women face is Role Congruity Theory (RCT); where
one is evaluated according to the alignment of their characteristics
according to social norms (Eagly, & Karau, 2002). Social norms would
describe women as being caring and mild, and men as being powerful
and strong. RCT forecasts prejudices against women who display
“masculine” characteristics - such as assertiveness. In contrast however
(and this is promising progress!), women also display prejudice towards
other women who fail to display assertive communication whilst in
leadership roles (Bongiorno, Bain, & David, 2014). Further, assertive
women are as likeable and influential as assertive men! Heed caution;
when women show tentative behavior whilst in leadership roles, their
likeability and influence are reduced (Bongiorno et al., 2014). Why the
change in perception from RCT to the appreciation of assertiveness of
women? Perceptions and expectations of women are changing
(Bongiorno et al., 2014).
• How effective is this as an analysis of experience?
• Theory used to explain perceptions of female managers
• Lack of detail in the description means there’s no experiential
focus for this discussion – it could also be more concise.

Evaluation task 2: Critical response
Having given myself some reflection time and thinking space on the issue
of assertiveness in women leaders, I have identified that it is critical for
me to adapt assertive behaviour moving forward. For me, this means
being (or at the very least conveying!) confidence. This also means
understanding and practicing how to be assertive without being
unprofessional or disrespectful. In practice I acknowledge that my
confidence will grow with experience, but I also think that I need to
practice more resilience and learn to think more objectively. Regarding
self-awareness I will make a conscious effort to look at things objectively,
rather than take things personally, let myself emotionally react and make
decisions based on emotions. This issue is something that is important
to me, and having gained these insights this is something I wish to
develop further. I have made an action to pursue options for leadership
courses, professional women’s groups, as well as explore Amazon for
some reading material to deepen my understanding.
• How effective is this as an critical response to experience?
• Plans are convincingly developed from the analysis
• Could be more concise and actions could be more precise

• What is reflection?
• What do you need to write in your
reflective journal for this paper?
What can you say about these questions now?
• How does reflective writing differ from
other forms of academic writing?
• What’s the difference between ‘good’
and ‘bad reflective writing?

Selecting an interesting and relevant experience
Your reflective journal is evidence that you can use critical
thinking to learn from your experience by:
Describing the experience concisely, without irrelevant detail
Analysing the possible causes and effects of actions (or inaction)
Identifying significant issues and questions arising from the
experience
Relating these issues and questions to personal learning
Making meaningful references to ideas from the literature
Providing evidence of learning in the form of credible plans
Conclusion
See these slides at: http://tinyurl.com/MBSreflection

2016 reflective writing for professional practice

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2016 reflective writing for professional practice