CRITICAL REFLECTION
"Critical reflection is a process specifically structured to help examine the frameworks that we use to interpret experience; critical reflection pushes us to step outside of the old and familiar and to reframe our questions and our conclusions in innovative and more effective terms."

John "Dewey held that reflective thinking was the key to making experience educative. Reflective thinking provides the bridge between the world of observed and experienced facts with ideas."


REFLECTION IDEAS
We cannot separate the emotional from the intellectual.

Whether you are preparing your portfolio or writing a journal about your internship experience, knowing some basic reflection questions can help you analyze and process the experience. This involves really taking some time to think and perhaps discuss the different issues that came up during the experience, the thoughts, feelings and challenges you had, the new things you learned. Remember the importance of setting personal goals at the beginning of your experience and then part of your reflection can focus on if and how they were attained through the experience.

These questions can be used in a group discussion, answered in journal form or self-asked but remember that a discussion in a group setting with ideas thrown back and forth has the most impact on one’s thinking process.

Name three things that stuck in your mind about the experience?

What are your learning goals for this experience?

Describe some of your interactions.

How were you different when you completed the experience compared to when you started?

Were you similar/different to the other people you came in contact with at your experience?

In what ways did being different help/hinder you?

What have you learned about yourself?

How did this experience compare to others you had?

What connections do you see between this experience and what you’ve learned in your college courses?

What did you learn and what did it mean to you?

Has this experience contributed to your growth in any of these areas: civic responsibility, political consciousness, professional development, spiritual fulfillment, social understanding, intellectual pursuit?

What have you learned about a particular community or societal issue?

How did this experience challenge your assumptions and stereotypes?

Do you think these people (or situations) are unique? Why or why not?

What was the best/worst/most challenging thing that happened?

Reflective Teaching Strategies

Readings/Creative Projects

Journal Writings

Directed Writings

"Feelings-Oriented" Oral Reflection

"Student as Expert" Oral Reflection

"Cognitive Teaching" Oral Reflection


Other Resources:

A Practitioner’s Guide to Reflection in Service Learning by Janet Eyler, Dwight E. Giles, Jr. and Angela Schmiede, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. 1996 (available from the Experiential Education Coordinator – mmitzel@binghamton.edu

Campus Compact