Online Group Discussion - Monday 4th December
Last week I attended an online discussion with Adesola, Jae, Matt D and Matt S. We all seem to be in a similar place; working on essay drafts and writing blog entries to support our essays. Adesola reminded us to make sure we are using our time in the best way - she reiterated that our blog entries are not assessed and so shouldn't take time away from our essays. If we haven't done the tasks, there is no point going back and doing them for the sake of it. Their benefit lies in the support they provide for our essays. We can/should use individual blog entries as appendices to evidence our learning and what we write.
Matt D (I think) wanted to clarify whether we should include other people's views/ideas/theories in our essays. Adesola's immediate response was "why wouldn't you?". We discussed how the purpose of our essay is to summarise our learning so far, which has involved looking at existing ideas on communication technologies, networking and reflection. It is unrealistic to think that we create our ideas and opinions completely independently - we draw them from reading literature, communicating with others and experiencing things. Therefore we need to acknowledge this in our writing, explain how it made us think and relate it to our own practice. Adesola also raised a point I hadn't considered - citing literature counts as a network.
Writing my reflective essay and wanting to get it just right, I began to question my understanding of reflection. I asked two of my colleagues what they understood of reflection and one compared it to evaluating. Initially I liked this comparison because it made reflection seem more factual, scientific and familiar. However, I think the reason I have struggled to get my head around reflection is because it is NOT factual and scientific, so comparing it to evaluation was like making reflection fit my thinking rather than the other way around. Our discussion helped me make sense of my new confusion. The clarification I came away with was:
Matt D (I think) wanted to clarify whether we should include other people's views/ideas/theories in our essays. Adesola's immediate response was "why wouldn't you?". We discussed how the purpose of our essay is to summarise our learning so far, which has involved looking at existing ideas on communication technologies, networking and reflection. It is unrealistic to think that we create our ideas and opinions completely independently - we draw them from reading literature, communicating with others and experiencing things. Therefore we need to acknowledge this in our writing, explain how it made us think and relate it to our own practice. Adesola also raised a point I hadn't considered - citing literature counts as a network.
Writing my reflective essay and wanting to get it just right, I began to question my understanding of reflection. I asked two of my colleagues what they understood of reflection and one compared it to evaluating. Initially I liked this comparison because it made reflection seem more factual, scientific and familiar. However, I think the reason I have struggled to get my head around reflection is because it is NOT factual and scientific, so comparing it to evaluation was like making reflection fit my thinking rather than the other way around. Our discussion helped me make sense of my new confusion. The clarification I came away with was:
- Evaluation - made from the word 'value' - judging something for its value. Gives a fixed answer that cannot shift when you learn/develop/realise something new. Evaluation is looking to fix a problem.
- Reflection is an ongoing process - your answer is always changing and developing with you. Reflection is noticing but not necessarily trying to fix something.
I think I have a clearer understanding of reflection now and I think I have been mostly on the right track so far. Fingers crossed I can communicate my reflection clearly in my essay!
I find your ideas on reflection very interesting. This is a concept which I have also been struggling to grasp as I am someone who finds sense easier in things that are factual and scientific. I too came to a similar conclusion but in a different way. It was when I became at peace with the fact that there is no right or wrong to reflection that I realised it was an evolution of my development. It is an ongoing going question rather than a definite answer. A good way that has helped me to develop my way of reflection was by constantly having relevant questions in my head that i was go back to regularly and answering to see the development in my thought. I am so glad I came across your blog!
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