reflective report on group assignment

How to write a Reflection on Group Work Essay

Here are the exact steps you need to follow for a reflection on group work essay.

• Explain what Reflection Is
• Explore the benefits of group work
• Explore the challenges group
• Give examples of the benefits and challenges your group faced
• Discuss how your group handled your challenges
• Discuss what you will do differently next time

Do you have to reflect on how your group work project went?

This is a super common essay that teachers assign. So, let’s have a look at how you can go about writing a superb reflection on your group work project that should get great grades.

The essay structure I outline below takes the funnel approach to essay writing: it starts broad and general, then zooms in on your specific group’s situation.

Disclaimer: Make sure you check with your teacher to see if this is a good style to use for your essay. Take a draft to your teacher to get their feedback on whether it’s what they’re looking for!

This is a 6-step essay (the 7 th step is editing!). Here’s a general rule for how much depth to go into depending on your word count:

• 1500 word essay – one paragraph for each step, plus a paragraph each for the introduction and conclusion ;
• 3000 word essay – two paragraphs for each step, plus a paragraph each for the introduction and conclusion;
• 300 – 500 word essay – one or two sentences for each step.

Adjust this essay plan depending on your teacher’s requirements and remember to always ask your teacher, a classmate or a professional tutor to review the piece before submitting.

Here’s the steps I’ll outline for you in this advice article:

Step 1. Explain what ‘Reflection’ Is

You might have heard that you need to define your terms in essays. Well, the most important term in this essay is ‘reflection’.

So, let’s have a look at what reflection is…

Reflection is the process of:

• Pausing and looking back at what has just happened; then
• Thinking about how you can get better next time.

Reflection is encouraged in most professions because it’s believed that reflection helps you to become better at your job – we could say ‘reflection makes you a better practitioner’.

Think about it: let’s say you did a speech in front of a crowd. Then, you looked at video footage of that speech and realised you said ‘um’ and ‘ah’ too many times. Next time, you’re going to focus on not saying ‘um’ so that you’ll do a better job next time, right?

Well, that’s reflection: thinking about what happened and how you can do better next time.

It’s really important that you do both of the above two points in your essay. You can’t just say what happened. You need to say how you will do better next time in order to get a top grade on this group work reflection essay.

Scholarly Sources to Cite for Step 1

Okay, so you have a good general idea of what reflection is. Now, what scholarly sources should you use when explaining reflection? Below, I’m going to give you two basic sources that would usually be enough for an undergraduate essay. I’ll also suggest two more sources for further reading if you really want to shine!

I recommend these two sources to cite when explaining what reflective practice is and how it occurs. They are two of the central sources on reflective practice:

• Describe what happened during the group work process
• Explain how you felt during the group work process
• Look at the good and bad aspects of the group work process
• What were some of the things that got in the way of success? What were some things that helped you succeed?
• What could you have done differently to improve the situation?
• Action plan. What are you going to do next time to make the group work process better?
• What? Explain what happened
• So What? Explain what you learned
• Now What? What can I do next time to make the group work process better?

Possible Sources:

Bassot, B. (2015).  The reflective practice guide: An interdisciplinary approach to critical reflection . Routledge.

Brock, A. (2014). What is reflection and reflective practice?. In  The Early Years Reflective Practice Handbook  (pp. 25-39). Routledge.

Gibbs, G. (1988)  Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods . Further Education Unit, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford.

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001). Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Extension Sources for Top Students

Now, if you want to go deeper and really show off your knowledge, have a look at these two scholars:

• John Dewey – the first major scholar to come up with the idea of reflective practice
• Donald Schön – technical rationality, reflection in action vs. reflection on action

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Step 2. Explore the general benefits of group work for learning

Once you have given an explanation of what group work is (and hopefully cited Gibbs, Rolfe, Dewey or Schon), I recommend digging into the benefits of group work for your own learning.

The teacher gave you a group work task for a reason: what is that reason?

You’ll need to explain the reasons group work is beneficial for you. This will show your teacher that you understand what group work is supposed to achieve. Here’s some ideas:

• Multiple Perspectives. Group work helps you to see things from other people’s perspectives. If you did the task on your own, you might not have thought of some of the ideas that your team members contributed to the project.
• Contribution of Unique Skills. Each team member might have a different set of skills they can bring to the table. You can explain how groups can make the most of different team members’ strengths to make the final contribution as good as it can be. For example, one team member might be good at IT and might be able to put together a strong final presentation, while another member might be a pro at researching using google scholar so they got the task of doing the initial scholarly research.
• Improved Communication Skills. Group work projects help you to work on your communication skills. Communication skills required in group work projects include speaking in turn, speaking up when you have ideas, actively listening to other team members’ contributions, and crucially making compromises for the good of the team.
• Learn to Manage Workplace Conflict. Lastly, your teachers often assign you group work tasks so you can learn to manage conflict and disagreement. You’ll come across this a whole lot in the workplace, so your teachers want you to have some experience being professional while handling disagreements.

You might be able to add more ideas to this list, or you might just want to select one or two from that list to write about depending on the length requirements for the essay.

Scholarly Sources for Step 3

Make sure you provide citations for these points above. You might want to use google scholar or google books and type in ‘Benefits of group work’ to find some quality scholarly sources to cite.

Step 3. Explore the general challenges group work can cause

Step 3 is the mirror image of Step 2. For this step, explore the challenges posed by group work.

Students are usually pretty good at this step because you can usually think of some aspects of group work that made you anxious or frustrated. Here are a few common challenges that group work causes:

• Time Consuming. You need to organize meetups and often can’t move onto the next component of the project until everyone has agree to move on. When working on your own you can just crack on and get it done. So, team work often takes a lot of time and requires significant pre-planning so you don’t miss your submission deadlines!
• Learning Style Conflicts. Different people learn in different ways. Some of us like to get everything done at the last minute or are not very meticulous in our writing. Others of us are very organized and detailed and get anxious when things don’t go exactly how we expect. This leads to conflict and frustration in a group work setting.
• Free Loaders. Usually in a group work project there’s people who do more work than others. The issue of free loaders is always going to be a challenge in group work, and you can discuss in this section how ensuring individual accountability to the group is a common group work issue.
• Communication Breakdown. This is one especially for online students. It’s often the case that you email team members your ideas or to ask them to reply by a deadline and you don’t hear back from them. Regular communication is an important part of group work, yet sometimes your team members will let you down on this part.

As with Step 3, consider adding more points to this list if you need to, or selecting one or two if your essay is only a short one.

8 Pros And Cons Of Group Work At University

You’ll probably find you can cite the same scholarly sources for both steps 2 and 3 because if a source discusses the benefits of group work it’ll probably also discuss the challenges.

Step 4. Explore the specific benefits and challenges your group faced

Step 4 is where you zoom in on your group’s specific challenges. Have a think: what were the issues you really struggled with as a group?

• Was one team member absent for a few of the group meetings?
• Did the group have to change some deadlines due to lack of time?
• Were there any specific disagreements you had to work through?
• Did a group member drop out of the group part way through?
• Were there any communication break downs?

Feel free to also mention some things your group did really well. Have a think about these examples:

• Was one member of the group really good at organizing you all?
• Did you make some good professional relationships?
• Did a group member help you to see something from an entirely new perspective?
• Did working in a group help you to feel like you weren’t lost and alone in the process of completing the group work component of your course?

Here, because you’re talking about your own perspectives, it’s usually okay to use first person language (but check with your teacher). You are also talking about your own point of view so citations might not be quite as necessary, but it’s still a good idea to add in one or two citations – perhaps to the sources you cited in Steps 2 and 3?

Step 5. Discuss how your group managed your challenges

Step 5 is where you can explore how you worked to overcome some of the challenges you mentioned in Step 4.

So, have a think:

• Did your group make any changes part way through the project to address some challenges you faced?
• Did you set roles or delegate tasks to help ensure the group work process went smoothly?
• Did you contact your teacher at any point for advice on how to progress in the group work scenario?
• Did you use technology such as Google Docs or Facebook Messenger to help you to collaborate more effectively as a team?

In this step, you should be showing how your team was proactive in reflecting on your group work progress and making changes throughout the process to ensure it ran as smoothly as possible. This act of making little changes throughout the group work process is what’s called ‘Reflection in Action’ (Schön, 2017).

Scholarly Source for Step 5

Schön, D. A. (2017).  The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action . Routledge.

Step 6. Conclude by exploring what you will do differently next time

Step 6 is the most important step, and the one far too many students skip. For Step 6, you need to show how you not only reflected on what happened but also are able to use that reflection for personal growth into the future.

This is the heart and soul of your piece: here, you’re tying everything together and showing why reflection is so important!

This is the ‘action plan’ step in Gibbs’ cycle (you might want to cite Gibbs in this section!).

For Step 6, make some suggestions about how (based on your reflection) you now have some takeaway tips that you’ll bring forward to improve your group work skills next time. Here’s some ideas:

• Will you work harder next time to set deadlines in advance?
• Will you ensure you set clearer group roles next time to ensure the process runs more smoothly?
• Will you use a different type of technology (such as Google Docs) to ensure group communication goes more smoothly?
• Will you make sure you ask for help from your teacher earlier on in the process when you face challenges?
• Will you try harder to see things from everyone’s perspectives so there’s less conflict?

This step will be personalized based upon your own group work challenges and how you felt about the group work process. Even if you think your group worked really well together, I recommend you still come up with one or two ideas for continual improvement. Your teacher will want to see that you used reflection to strive for continual self-improvement.

Scholarly Source for Step 6

Step 7. edit.

Okay, you’ve got the nuts and bolts of the assessment put together now! Next, all you’ve got to do is write up the introduction and conclusion then edit the piece to make sure you keep growing your grades.

Here’s a few important suggestions for this last point:

• You should always write your introduction and conclusion last. They will be easier to write now that you’ve completed the main ‘body’ of the essay;
• Use my 5-step I.N.T.R.O method to write your introduction;
• Use my 5 C’s Conclusion method to write your conclusion;
• Use my 5 tips for editing an essay to edit it;
• Use the ProWritingAid app to get advice on how to improve your grammar and spelling. Make sure to also use the report on sentence length. It finds sentences that are too long and gives you advice on how to shorten them – such a good strategy for improving evaluative essay  quality!
• Make sure you contact your teacher and ask for a one-to-one tutorial to go through the piece before submitting. This article only gives general advice, and you might need to make changes based upon the specific essay requirements that your teacher has provided.

That’s it! 7 steps to writing a quality group work reflection essay. I hope you found it useful. If you liked this post and want more clear and specific advice on writing great essays, I recommend signing up to my personal tutor mailing list.

Let’s sum up with those 7 steps one last time:

• Explain what ‘Reflection’ Is
• Explore the benefits of group work for learning
• Explore the challenges of group work for learning
• Explore the specific benefits and challenges your group faced
• Discuss how your group managed your challenges
• Conclude by exploring what you will do differently next time

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 15 Animism Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 10 Magical Thinking Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ Social-Emotional Learning (Definition, Examples, Pros & Cons)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ What is Educational Psychology?

2 thoughts on “How to write a Reflection on Group Work Essay”

Great instructions on writing a reflection essay. I would not change anything.

Thanks so much for your feedback! I really appreciate it. – Chris.

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Supporting Students to Reflect on their Group Work

To develop group skills, students need to do more than just complete group tasks. Along the way, it's important that they reflect on group processes. Reflection can be informal or formal (built into assessment). Students can reflect individually or in groups.

Students can reflect on both the processes and products of group work. When incorporating reflective activities into group work, it is important that students have the opportunity to apply what they have learnt through their reflections to future tasks to improve their learning. This section outlines a number of ways to build reflection into group tasks and projects.

Helping students monitor their development and reflect on their performance

Reflective activities.

To develop effective group skills, students need to practise using their skills and reflect on what worked and did not work. This helps them form generalised principles based on their experience, which then inform their future actions.

You can use one or more of the following strategies to help your students reflect on their group work skills. Depending on the nature of your group task or project, you might include a reflective activity during the task or at its completion. For example, at the end of the group task, students could submit a collaborative reflective report on group processes, or they could reflect on how to in the future by completing the student exercise: Planning ahead—What can I do better next time? ).

Helping students identify how they can improve

The following exercise helps students to think about their experiences in groups, about the group's functioning and about their individual roles and contributions to the group. Importantly, it also helps students to identify how the group might function more effectively next time. Using the prompts, students can reflect individually, then discuss their responses in groups or as a class.

Student exercise

• Active learning spaces
• Blended and online
• Brainstorming
• Case studies
• Flipped classroom
• Questioning
• Simulations
• Teaching diverse groups
• Helping Students Reflect
• Teaching Settings

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How to write a reflective report on group work

• 🗔 July 5, 2018
• 🖉 Advik Patel
• Assignment Help Tips

What is a reflective report? | How to write a reflective report on group work?

Searching for how to write a reflective report on group work? First, we’ll need to discuss that what a reflective report is. A reflective report is a detailed critical analysis from the student’s point of view. The student needs to clearly define the aim of the topic, efforts in the project and learning from the project. The reflective writing can also include general feedback on the topic, the student’s opinion and the student’s personal strengths and weaknesses that were revealed during the project.

Tips on how to write a reflective report on group work

Group work is an activity that builds the entire personality of the student. Based upon his participation, he can either become a leader or be an indifferent person. It is imperative for any student to undertake group work as in the real world there is nothing that can be achieved with solitude. Group exercises bring out the best and the worst of a person in times of distress. So a student’s view on group exercise can range from negative to skeptical to positive.

For writing a reflective report on group work, we first should understand the main aim as to why group the group work was given. Group works are assigned to the students to imbibe a congenial and pleasant personality to students. While in a job or as an entrepreneur, a person needs to be adaptable to work with people who are not like him. It can be excessively frustrating if you don’t develop these qualities as a student. For a group work, it is advised to be the most resourceful member of the group. The more efforts you put in, the more you’ll learn.

Often people who are introverts are able to overcome their shyness while working in a group task. So to write a good reflective report on group work one needs to clearly identify the weaknesses and strengths prior to the start of the assignment and then the weaknesses overcame by the student after the completion of the assignment. A student needs to work on his weaknesses for his personal development and put his strengths to work for the upliftment of the team as a whole. So a reflective report on group work can only be student-specific.

Now you are able to answer the question of How to write a reflective report on group work. If you still face any difficulties just come at Mentyor.

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Reflective writing is a process of identifying, questioning, and critically evaluating course-based learning opportunities, integrated with your own observations, experiences, impressions, beliefs, assumptions, or biases, and which describes how this process stimulated new or creative understanding about the content of the course.

A reflective paper describes and explains in an introspective, first person narrative, your reactions and feelings about either a specific element of the class [e.g., a required reading; a film shown in class] or more generally how you experienced learning throughout the course. Reflective writing assignments can be in the form of a single paper, essays, portfolios, journals, diaries, or blogs. In some cases, your professor may include a reflective writing assignment as a way to obtain student feedback that helps improve the course, either in the moment or for when the class is taught again.

How to Write a Reflection Paper . Academic Skills, Trent University; Writing a Reflection Paper . Writing Center, Lewis University; Critical Reflection . Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo; Tsingos-Lucas et al. "Using Reflective Writing as a Predictor of Academic Success in Different Assessment Formats." American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 81 (2017): Article 8.

Benefits of Reflective Writing Assignments

As the term implies, a reflective paper involves looking inward at oneself in contemplating and bringing meaning to the relationship between course content and the acquisition of new knowledge . Educational research [Bolton, 2010; Ryan, 2011; Tsingos-Lucas et al., 2017] demonstrates that assigning reflective writing tasks enhances learning because it challenges students to confront their own assumptions, biases, and belief systems around what is being taught in class and, in so doing, stimulate student’s decisions, actions, attitudes, and understanding about themselves as learners and in relation to having mastery over their learning. Reflection assignments are also an opportunity to write in a first person narrative about elements of the course, such as the required readings, separate from the exegetic and analytical prose of academic research papers.

Reflection writing often serves multiple purposes simultaneously. In no particular order, here are some of reasons why professors assign reflection papers:

• Enhances learning from previous knowledge and experience in order to improve future decision-making and reasoning in practice . Reflective writing in the applied social sciences enhances decision-making skills and academic performance in ways that can inform professional practice. The act of reflective writing creates self-awareness and understanding of others. This is particularly important in clinical and service-oriented professional settings.
• Allows students to make sense of classroom content and overall learning experiences in relation to oneself, others, and the conditions that shaped the content and classroom experiences . Reflective writing places you within the course content in ways that can deepen your understanding of the material. Because reflective thinking can help reveal hidden biases, it can help you critically interrogate moments when you do not like or agree with discussions, readings, or other aspects of the course.
• Increases awareness of one’s cognitive abilities and the evidence for these attributes . Reflective writing can break down personal doubts about yourself as a learner and highlight specific abilities that may have been hidden or suppressed due to prior assumptions about the strength of your academic abilities [e.g., reading comprehension; problem-solving skills]. Reflective writing, therefore, can have a positive affective [i.e., emotional] impact on your sense of self-worth.
• Applying theoretical knowledge and frameworks to real experiences . Reflective writing can help build a bridge of relevancy between theoretical knowledge and the real world. In so doing, this form of writing can lead to a better understanding of underlying theories and their analytical properties applied to professional practice.
• Reveals shortcomings that the reader will identify . Evidence suggests that reflective writing can uncover your own shortcomings as a learner, thereby, creating opportunities to anticipate the responses of your professor may have about the quality of your coursework. This can be particularly productive if the reflective paper is written before final submission of an assignment.
• Helps students identify their tacit [a.k.a., implicit] knowledge and possible gaps in that knowledge . Tacit knowledge refers to ways of knowing rooted in lived experience, insight, and intuition rather than formal, codified, categorical, or explicit knowledge. In so doing, reflective writing can stimulate students to question their beliefs about a research problem or an element of the course content beyond positivist modes of understanding and representation.
• Encourages students to actively monitor their learning processes over a period of time . On-going reflective writing in journals or blogs, for example, can help you maintain or adapt learning strategies in other contexts. The regular, purposeful act of reflection can facilitate continuous deep thinking about the course content as it evolves and changes throughout the term. This, in turn, can increase your overall confidence as a learner.
• Relates a student’s personal experience to a wider perspective . Reflection papers can help you see the big picture associated with the content of a course by forcing you to think about the connections between scholarly content and your lived experiences outside of school. It can provide a macro-level understanding of one’s own experiences in relation to the specifics of what is being taught.
• If reflective writing is shared, students can exchange stories about their learning experiences, thereby, creating an opportunity to reevaluate their original assumptions or perspectives . In most cases, reflective writing is only viewed by your professor in order to ensure candid feedback from students. However, occasionally, reflective writing is shared and openly discussed in class. During these discussions, new or different perspectives and alternative approaches to solving problems can be generated that would otherwise be hidden. Sharing student's reflections can also reveal collective patterns of thought and emotions about a particular element of the course.

Bolton, Gillie. Reflective Practice: Writing and Professional Development . London: Sage, 2010; Chang, Bo. "Reflection in Learning." Online Learning 23 (2019), 95-110; Cavilla, Derek. "The Effects of Student Reflection on Academic Performance and Motivation." Sage Open 7 (July-September 2017): 1–13; Culbert, Patrick. “Better Teaching? You Can Write On It “ Liberal Education (February 2022); McCabe, Gavin and Tobias Thejll-Madsen. The Reflection Toolkit . University of Edinburgh; The Purpose of Reflection . Introductory Composition at Purdue University; Practice-based and Reflective Learning . Study Advice Study Guides, University of Reading; Ryan, Mary. "Improving Reflective Writing in Higher Education: A Social Semiotic Perspective." Teaching in Higher Education 16 (2011): 99-111; Tsingos-Lucas et al. "Using Reflective Writing as a Predictor of Academic Success in Different Assessment Formats." American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 81 (2017): Article 8; What Benefits Might Reflective Writing Have for My Students? Writing Across the Curriculum Clearinghouse; Rykkje, Linda. "The Tacit Care Knowledge in Reflective Writing: A Practical Wisdom." International Practice Development Journal 7 (September 2017): Article 5; Using Reflective Writing to Deepen Student Learning . Center for Writing, University of Minnesota.

How to Approach Writing a Reflection Paper

Thinking About Reflective Thinking

Educational theorists have developed numerous models of reflective thinking that your professor may use to frame a reflective writing assignment. These models can help you systematically interpret your learning experiences, thereby ensuring that you ask the right questions and have a clear understanding of what should be covered. A model can also represent the overall structure of a reflective paper. Each model establishes a different approach to reflection and will require you to think about your writing differently. If you are unclear how to fit your writing within a particular reflective model, seek clarification from your professor. There are generally two types of reflective writing assignments, each approached in slightly different ways.

1.  Reflective Thinking about Course Readings

This type of reflective writing focuses on thoughtfully thinking about the course readings that underpin how most students acquire new knowledge and understanding about the subject of a course. Reflecting on course readings is often assigned in freshmen-level, interdisciplinary courses where the required readings examine topics viewed from multiple perspectives and, as such, provide different ways of analyzing a topic, issue, event, or phenomenon. The purpose of reflective thinking about course readings in the social and behavioral sciences is to elicit your opinions, beliefs, and feelings about the research and its significance. This type of writing can provide an opportunity to break down key assumptions you may have and, in so doing, reveal potential biases in how you interpret the scholarship.

If you are assigned to reflect on course readings, consider the following methods of analysis as prompts that can help you get started :

• Examine carefully the main introductory elements of the reading, including the purpose of the study, the theoretical framework being used to test assumptions, and the research questions being addressed. Think about what ideas stood out to you. Why did they? Were these ideas new to you or familiar in some way based on your own lived experiences or prior knowledge?
• Develop your ideas around the readings by asking yourself, what do I know about this topic? Where does my existing knowledge about this topic come from? What are the observations or experiences in my life that influence my understanding of the topic? Do I agree or disagree with the main arguments, recommended course of actions, or conclusions made by the author(s)? Why do I feel this way and what is the basis of these feelings?
• Make connections between the text and your own beliefs, opinions, or feelings by considering questions like, how do the readings reinforce my existing ideas or assumptions? How the readings challenge these ideas or assumptions? How does this text help me to better understand this topic or research in ways that motivate me to learn more about this area of study?

2.  Reflective Thinking about Course Experiences

This type of reflective writing asks you to critically reflect on locating yourself at the conceptual intersection of theory and practice. The purpose of experiential reflection is to evaluate theories or disciplinary-based analytical models based on your introspective assessment of the relationship between hypothetical thinking and practical reality; it offers a way to consider how your own knowledge and skills fit within professional practice. This type of writing also provides an opportunity to evaluate your decisions and actions, as well as how you managed your subsequent successes and failures, within a specific theoretical framework. As a result, abstract concepts can crystallize and become more relevant to you when considered within your own experiences. This can help you formulate plans for self-improvement as you learn.

If you are assigned to reflect on your experiences, consider the following questions as prompts to help you get started :

• Contextualize your reflection in relation to the overarching purpose of the course by asking yourself, what did you hope to learn from this course? What were the learning objectives for the course and how did I fit within each of them? How did these goals relate to the main themes or concepts of the course?
• Analyze how you experienced the course by asking yourself, what did I learn from this experience? What did I learn about myself? About working in this area of research and study? About how the course relates to my place in society? What assumptions about the course were supported or refuted?
• Think introspectively about the ways you experienced learning during the course by asking yourself, did your learning experiences align with the goals or concepts of the course? Why or why do you not feel this way? What was successful and why do you believe this? What would you do differently and why is this important? How will you prepare for a future experience in this area of study?

NOTE: If you are assigned to write a journal or other type of on-going reflection exercise, a helpful approach is to reflect on your reflections by re-reading what you have already written. In other words, review your previous entries as a way to contextualize your feelings, opinions, or beliefs regarding your overall learning experiences. Over time, this can also help reveal hidden patterns or themes related to how you processed your learning experiences. Consider concluding your reflective journal with a summary of how you felt about your learning experiences at critical junctures throughout the course, then use these to write about how you grew as a student learner and how the act of reflecting helped you gain new understanding about the subject of the course and its content.

ANOTHER NOTE: Regardless of whether you write a reflection paper or a journal, do not focus your writing on the past. The act of reflection is intended to think introspectively about previous learning experiences. However, reflective thinking should document the ways in which you progressed in obtaining new insights and understandings about your growth as a learner that can be carried forward in subsequent coursework or in future professional practice. Your writing should reflect a furtherance of increasing personal autonomy and confidence gained from understanding more about yourself as a learner.

Structure and Writing Style

There are no strict academic rules for writing a reflective paper. Reflective writing may be assigned in any class taught in the social and behavioral sciences and, therefore, requirements for the assignment can vary depending on disciplinary-based models of inquiry and learning. The organization of content can also depend on what your professor wants you to write about or based on the type of reflective model used to frame the writing assignment. Despite these possible variations, below is a basic approach to organizing and writing a good reflective paper, followed by a list of problems to avoid.

Pre-flection

In most cases, it's helpful to begin by thinking about your learning experiences and outline what you want to focus on before you begin to write the paper. This can help you organize your thoughts around what was most important to you and what experiences [good or bad] had the most impact on your learning. As described by the University of Waterloo Writing and Communication Centre, preparing to write a reflective paper involves a process of self-analysis that can help organize your thoughts around significant moments of in-class knowledge discovery.

• Using a thesis statement as a guide, note what experiences or course content stood out to you , then place these within the context of your observations, reactions, feelings, and opinions. This will help you develop a rough outline of key moments during the course that reflect your growth as a learner. To identify these moments, pose these questions to yourself: What happened? What was my reaction? What were my expectations and how were they different from what transpired? What did I learn?
• Critically think about your learning experiences and the course content . This will help you develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding about why these moments were significant or relevant to you. Use the ideas you formulated during the first stage of reflecting to help you think through these moments from both an academic and personal perspective. From an academic perspective, contemplate how the experience enhanced your understanding of a concept, theory, or skill. Ask yourself, did the experience confirm my previous understanding or challenge it in some way. As a result, did this highlight strengths or gaps in your current knowledge? From a personal perspective, think introspectively about why these experiences mattered, if previous expectations or assumptions were confirmed or refuted, and if this surprised, confused, or unnerved you in some way.
• Analyze how these experiences and your reactions to them will shape your future thinking and behavior . Reflection implies looking back, but the most important act of reflective writing is considering how beliefs, assumptions, opinions, and feelings were transformed in ways that better prepare you as a learner in the future. Note how this reflective analysis can lead to actions you will take as a result of your experiences, what you will do differently, and how you will apply what you learned in other courses or in professional practice.

Basic Structure and Writing Style

Reflective Background and Context

The first part of your reflection paper should briefly provide background and context in relation to the content or experiences that stood out to you. Highlight the settings, summarize the key readings, or narrate the experiences in relation to the course objectives. Provide background that sets the stage for your reflection. You do not need to go into great detail, but you should provide enough information for the reader to understand what sources of learning you are writing about [e.g., course readings, field experience, guest lecture, class discussions] and why they were important. This section should end with an explanatory thesis statement that expresses the central ideas of your paper and what you want the readers to know, believe, or understand after they finish reading your paper.

Reflective Interpretation

Drawing from your reflective analysis, this is where you can be personal, critical, and creative in expressing how you felt about the course content and learning experiences and how they influenced or altered your feelings, beliefs, assumptions, or biases about the subject of the course. This section is also where you explore the meaning of these experiences in the context of the course and how you gained an awareness of the connections between these moments and your own prior knowledge.

Guided by your thesis statement, a helpful approach is to interpret your learning throughout the course with a series of specific examples drawn from the course content and your learning experiences. These examples should be arranged in sequential order that illustrate your growth as a learner. Reflecting on each example can be done by: 1)  introducing a theme or moment that was meaningful to you, 2) describing your previous position about the learning moment and what you thought about it, 3) explaining how your perspective was challenged and/or changed and why, and 4) introspectively stating your current or new feelings, opinions, or beliefs about that experience in class.

It is important to include specific examples drawn from the course and placed within the context of your assumptions, thoughts, opinions, and feelings. A reflective narrative without specific examples does not provide an effective way for the reader to understand the relationship between the course content and how you grew as a learner.

Reflective Conclusions

The conclusion of your reflective paper should provide a summary of your thoughts, feelings, or opinions regarding what you learned about yourself as a result of taking the course. Here are several ways you can frame your conclusions based on the examples you interpreted and reflected on what they meant to you. Each example would need to be tied to the basic theme [thesis statement] of your reflective background section.

• Your reflective conclusions can be described in relation to any expectations you had before taking the class [e.g., “I expected the readings to not be relevant to my own experiences growing up in a rural community, but the research actually helped me see that the challenges of developing my identity as a child of immigrants was not that unusual...”].
• Your reflective conclusions can explain how what you learned about yourself will change your actions in the future [e.g., “During a discussion in class about the challenges of helping homeless people, I realized that many of these people hate living on the street but lack the ability to see a way out. This made me realize that I wanted to take more classes in psychology...”].
• Your reflective conclusions can describe major insights you experienced a critical junctures during the course and how these moments enhanced how you see yourself as a student learner [e.g., "The guest speaker from the Head Start program made me realize why I wanted to pursue a career in elementary education..."].
• Your reflective conclusions can reconfigure or reframe how you will approach professional practice and your understanding of your future career aspirations [e.g.,, "The course changed my perceptions about seeking a career in business finance because it made me realize I want to be more engaged in customer service..."]
• Your reflective conclusions can explore any learning you derived from the act of reflecting itself [e.g., “Reflecting on the course readings that described how minority students perceive campus activities helped me identify my own biases about the benefits of those activities in acclimating to campus life...”].

NOTE: The length of a reflective paper in the social sciences is usually less than a traditional research paper. However, don’t assume that writing a reflective paper is easier than writing a research paper. A well-conceived critical reflection paper often requires as much time and effort as a research paper because you must purposeful engage in thinking about your learning in ways that you may not be comfortable with or used to. This is particular true while preparing to write because reflective papers are not as structured as a traditional research paper and, therefore, you have to think deliberately about how you want to organize the paper and what elements of the course you want to reflect upon.

ANOTHER NOTE: Do not limit yourself to using only text in reflecting on your learning. If you believe it would be helpful, consider using creative modes of thought or expression such as, illustrations, photographs, or material objects that reflects an experience related to the subject of the course that was important to you [e.g., like a ticket stub to a renowned speaker on campus]. Whatever non-textual element you include, be sure to describe the object's relevance to your personal relationship to the course content.

Problems to Avoid

A reflective paper is not a “mind dump” . Reflective papers document your personal and emotional experiences and, therefore, they do not conform to rigid structures, or schema, to organize information. However, the paper should not be a disjointed, stream-of-consciousness narrative. Reflective papers are still academic pieces of writing that require organized thought, that use academic language and tone , and that apply intellectually-driven critical thinking to the course content and your learning experiences and their significance.

A reflective paper is not a research paper . If you are asked to reflect on a course reading, the reflection will obviously include some description of the research. However, the goal of reflective writing is not to present extraneous ideas to the reader or to "educate" them about the course. The goal is to share a story about your relationship with the learning objectives of the course. Therefore, unlike research papers, you are expected to write from a first person point of view which includes an introspective examination of your own opinions, feelings, and personal assumptions.

A reflection paper is not a book review . Descriptions of the course readings using your own words is not a reflective paper. Reflective writing should focus on how you understood the implications of and were challenged by the course in relation to your own lived experiences or personal assumptions, combined with explanations of how you grew as a student learner based on this internal dialogue. Remember that you are the central object of the paper, not the research materials.

A reflective paper is not an all-inclusive meditation. Do not try to cover everything. The scope of your paper should be well-defined and limited to your specific opinions, feelings, and beliefs about what you determine to be the most significant content of the course and in relation to the learning that took place. Reflections should be detailed enough to covey what you think is important, but your thoughts should be expressed concisely and coherently [as is true for any academic writing assignment].

Critical Reflection . Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo; Critical Reflection: Journals, Opinions, & Reactions . University Writing Center, Texas A&M University; Connor-Greene, Patricia A. “Making Connections: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Journal Writing in Enhancing Student Learning.” Teaching of Psychology 27 (2000): 44-46; Good vs. Bad Reflection Papers , Franklin University; Dyment, Janet E. and Timothy S. O’Connell. "The Quality of Reflection in Student Journals: A Review of Limiting and Enabling Factors." Innovative Higher Education 35 (2010): 233-244: How to Write a Reflection Paper . Academic Skills, Trent University; Amelia TaraJane House. Reflection Paper . Cordia Harrington Center for Excellence, University of Arkansas; Ramlal, Alana, and Désirée S. Augustin. “Engaging Students in Reflective Writing: An Action Research Project.” Educational Action Research 28 (2020): 518-533; Writing a Reflection Paper . Writing Center, Lewis University; McGuire, Lisa, Kathy Lay, and Jon Peters. “Pedagogy of Reflective Writing in Professional Education.” Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2009): 93-107; Critical Reflection . Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo; How Do I Write Reflectively? Academic Skills Toolkit, University of New South Wales Sydney; Reflective Writing . Skills@Library. University of Leeds; Walling, Anne, Johanna Shapiro, and Terry Ast. “What Makes a Good Reflective Paper?” Family Medicine 45 (2013): 7-12; Williams, Kate, Mary Woolliams, and Jane Spiro. Reflective Writing . 2nd edition. London: Red Globe Press, 2020; Yeh, Hui-Chin, Shih-hsien Yang, Jo Shan Fu, and Yen-Chen Shih. “Developing College Students’ Critical Thinking through Reflective Writing.” Higher Education Research and Development (2022): 1-16.

Writing Tip

Focus on Reflecting, Not on Describing

Minimal time and effort should be spent describing the course content you are asked to reflect upon. The purpose of a reflection assignment is to introspectively contemplate your reactions to and feeling about an element of the course. D eflecting the focus away from your own feelings by concentrating on describing the course content can happen particularly if "talking about yourself" [i.e., reflecting] makes you uncomfortable or it is intimidating. However, the intent of reflective writing is to overcome these inhibitions so as to maximize the benefits of introspectively assessing your learning experiences. Keep in mind that, if it is relevant, your feelings of discomfort could be a part of how you critically reflect on any challenges you had during the course [e.g., you realize this discomfort inhibited your willingness to ask questions during class, it fed into your propensity to procrastinate, or it made it difficult participating in groups].

Writing a Reflection Paper . Writing Center, Lewis University; Reflection Paper . Cordia Harrington Center for Excellence, University of Arkansas.

Another Writing Tip

Helpful Videos about Reflective Writing

These two short videos succinctly describe how to approach a reflective writing assignment. They are produced by the Academic Skills department at the University of Melbourne and the Skills Team of the University of Hull, respectively.

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Reflection on Group Assignments and What Worked This Time

Group assignments often come with challenges. In the past many of us have handled most or close to none of a group project. Students may have different goals, different deadlines, and even different understandings of the assignment. However, there are ways to mitigate challenges when, and even before, they arise.

ESLTECH provided our class the opportunity to engage in a group project. Unlike past assignments in other classes, where the work is distributed among the group early, only for communication to arise toward the deadline, and finding out that little of the project is completed and some students have done nothing, this project was intended for us to use different strategies within group projects.

Our project focused on analyzing a case study where a student, Sarah, was having difficulty with her group project. We were to analyze and identify her problems, provide solutions and recommendations, and include an intro and conclusion, add audio, and create a PowerPoint presentation. This project required a fair and early distribution of work, but was also an online project, where as face to face interaction was limited. However, we worked through the project quickly, communicatively, and with little stress by mitigating problems before they arose and mitigating them when they did.

Here’s what worked for us:

Finding an early means of communication:

• Early in the project our group emailed each other and discussed the most effective means of communication. We found that our group would work best by using text messaging. This is the primary form of communication that we used throughout the project. Identifying this allowed for the group to communicate with ease, individually, and within a group message.

Responding quickly:

• Our group typically responded promptly to messages from other group members. Questions and group conversations were answered and scheduled quickly, usually within the day, but sometimes within the hour. I feel this was one of the largest contributors to our group’s success. It showed that every member of the group was willing to work effectively and to contribute to the project. It also allowed for ease of setting up an online discussion.

Can’t communicate face to face? Communicate in an online forum:

• We decided to set up an online discussion for our group on the OSU Carmen Canvas page. From such, we were able to all come together to discuss important aspects of the project in one place. While we did not meet face to face, we were able to tell who was present within the meeting. Each member attended the discussion.

Identifying purpose, goals, expectations, internal deadlines:

• In our online Carmen discussion, we identified important aspects of the project, including the distribution of work, expectations of the work, and our own deadlines. We agreed to finish the work at least a day ahead so each member could finish their part and so we could have an extra day in case anything would arise. The distribution of work was fairly equated and discussed. Each member picked what they wanted to work on.

Problems arise, finding a means of compromise:

• Toward the last day of the project our group was finding little time to record audio due to outside circumstances. As such, the member who was unable to record audio compromised by writing a script for their audio. The script was recorded by another group member. In past projects I have worked on, if there are outside circumstances limiting the time for work, the member of the group would often not due the work at all and would expect another group member to finish their part. However, in this case, the compromise allowed for the project to be completed fairly, with no hard feelings.

Personal – working on my slide throughout the project:

• One aspect that eased stress during the project was working on the project throughout several days. One day I set out the layout for my slide. The next, I specifically found what I wanted to talk about. Following, on the last day, recorded the audio. Breaking my part into smaller parts meant that I wouldn’t have to work on the entire slide on the last day.

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“Do We Have to Work in Groups?”: Foundations, Ground Rules, and Reflections Improve Group Work

Group work has been used to help aid in learning, but it needs to be properly structured to be successful. Students often respond to group work assignments with the question, “Do we have to work in groups?” However, there are tools such as a foundational presentation, ground rules designation, and midsemester reflections that help students better understand the benefits gained from group work.

Introduction

Many successful people have recognized the value of group work, as expressed in the following quotes:

“Coming together is a beginning, Keeping together is progress, working together is success” – Henry Ford

“Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.” – Steve Jobs

It was also recognized that group work skills do not come inherently:

“Teamwork does not come naturally. Let’s face it. We are born with certain inclinations, but sharing isn’t one of them.” – Pat Summitt

Group work is often assigned to students with little to no guidance on how to best work in the group. There is a difference between working in a group and working with a group. 1 It is often assumed that students either inherently have good group work skills or have been taught these skills in their K-12 education. 2 However, it appears that many students either have forgotten those skills or have never been taught them. Nevertheless, there are tools that can be implemented to help students realize the benefits gained from group work and establish a better group environment to complete assignments successfully.

Also, it is important to note that there are times when work is assigned to groups when they are best completed individually. It will be important to first assess the assignment to see if a group setting is warranted. If so, the tools mentioned will benefit the group and hopefully increase success in working together.

Description of Teaching Activity

Group structure.

In the upper-level course, PKSC 4160 (Polymers in Packaging), students are expected to work in a lab group to complete lab report assignments based on the lab activity and data that was collected. One of the first hurdles when using groups was determining how to assign students to the groups. For this course, groups were chosen at random intentionally, as group arrangement can play a role in the group’s success, which might influence the results. 3 Personalities, abilities, and diversity can influence the group results, so this was left to chance so that the three tools could stand alone as the influence on group success. 4 In this course, group numbers often vary from four to six members and are randomly generated using the Canvas group creation tool. The students will complete the lab activities as a group and then will be expected to complete a formal lab report as a group related to those lab activities.

Introductory Group Work Presentation

The use of an introductory group work presentation sets the foundations of the importance of group work. Students will often complain about the difficulty of group work because they don’t see the value and often feel that a single person carries the bulk of the responsibility. With that in mind, an introductory PowerPoint explained the value of group work and helped students understand that it is not just a tool used in the classroom but can also apply to their careers. It also stressed that if structured properly, valuable learning occurs within a group setting.

Group Charter

The use of a group charter can help set the ground rules for a group. The group charter is a contract between group members that helps set the stage for a successful semester as a team. In the charter, the team was able to designate a team name, identify what times members are available to work on group assignments, determine how members would communicate with each other, and define how members plan to complete assignments. The team could also set potential deadlines for themselves to make sure that the team assignments were not completed at the last minute. A copy of the group charter is attached in the Appendix.

The lab group charter was administered as part of a class within the course but was not associated with a grade. The students spent thirty to forty-five minutes working together during class, completing the contract. If they were unable to submit the contract in Canvas at the end of class, they were expected to complete the document and submit it before the first lab activity was to be conducted. The group charter was also administered in class to show the value and importance of this activity. All students could refer to the contracts in Canvas if conflicts were to arise. The contract created a central location for details of the group structure and ground rules that were agreed upon for the group. The group contract is designed to improve the overall group environment due to established foundational information such as communication methods, meeting times, and goals for meeting deadlines.

Midsemester Reflection

An additional component of improving the group environment was the opportunity for students to reflect on team member contributions. The students also evaluated how they were contributing as a group member. During the self-reflection, the students evaluated how they contributed to the group and adjusted if they felt their contributions did not match the ground rules established in the group contract.

The lab group reflection was incentivized by a small amount of bonus points (5 points on a 100-point assignment; 1 of multiple assignments that make up their overall lab grade) on their lowest lab grade for completion. This method was used so that students would not feel pressured to complete the reflection and would only do so if they were going to give it serious attention. These reflections were administered midsemester to reinforce the importance of group work and allow for refinement if not contributing satisfactorily. However, the results were kept anonymous and not shared with the group members, so the adjustments would likely come from self-reflection.

The results from the reflection were not used as part of the lab assignment grade, even if other students ranked them as having poor contributions to the group. This was intentional because it was assumed that students are more hesitant to give critical feedback of their peers if the feedback influenced their peers’ grades.

For the reflection, the following scale was used: Outstanding, Adequate, Needs Improvement, or Unacceptable. This scale was intentional as it gave students several options in both a positive and negative selection as the choice of ‘Unacceptable’ seemed like a strong designation that students might shy away from even though the group mate is not participating in the group effectively. Table 1 is the midsemester survey used in this course.

Reflection Survey Contents

Table 1. Midsemester Reflection of group members, self, and general questions.

General Questions:

• Do you have any suggestions for improving the lab report assignment for this class?
• Do you feel the lab activities and the lab report exercises help to prepare you for what you might encounter in your career as a packaging scientist?
• What was your biggest takeaway from the lab group work/lab report writing assignment?

Discussion of Outcomes

When students are given the opportunity to hear the foundational information about group work, set ground rules through a group contract, and asked to reflect on group member contributions, it is evident that students better understand the value gained from group work activities based on the responses received in the midsemester reflection. The overall perception of group work seemed to shift, as represented in the statements made in the reflection section. One of the more interesting data points included responses to the question, “Please rate this participant on how well they were prepared.” As seen in table 2, the students tend to be slightly tougher on themselves than they are on their group members because the percentage of “Outstanding” responses shifted to “Adequate” when comparing group member evaluations versus self-reflections. However, no one felt like their own preparation was unacceptable, but some group members felt otherwise.

Table 2. Student response rate for the question “Please rate this participant on how well they were prepared.”

Even when students felt like their group members’ contributions mainly were ‘Needing Improvement’ or ‘Unacceptable,’ they still learned how to navigate in a team environment. Evidence of how they navigated the group environment regarding how team members contributed even when given unacceptable ratings included the following statements.

• “I learned that as the group’s appointed ‘leader’ that communication is important, and sometimes you have to pull people into conversations, or they will not communicate.”
• “I learned how to find small pockets of time to collaborate around another member’s very, very busy schedule and build on other member’s writing to improve the assignment.”
• “I learned how to teach someone else content and nicely tell someone to rework sections of the paper.”

Finally, examples with responses to the question, “What was your biggest takeaway from the lab group work/lab report writing assignment?” showed students the benefit gained from group work.

• “My biggest takeaway is that you can’t expect everyone to do the work the exact way you would do the work, and that is okay. It’s hard to not get frustrated when you feel team members are not pulling their weight; however, everyone works in their own ways! All you can do is your best and offer constructive feedback to your team members to help make the overall finished report up to your standards. You have to be patient with people and know that everything will work itself out!”
• “That I struggle in not working with someone who is not as passionate about what they do on a project. This is not at all a bash on my partner but more self-reflection. It is hard for me, who likes to put all I can and time into something, to not be with someone who doesn’t quite have the same mindset. I learned a lot from finding ways that we could productively get our report done in a manner I deem acceptable and know that I seriously didn’t do it alone.”
• “I really enjoyed doing the lab assignment as a team since we could all use our critical thinking skills together and come up with a great hypothesis and discussion. Talking it out really helped me to understand concepts more thoroughly!”
• “My biggest takeaway is that it’s important to communicate with others if you need help. My group was able to do this well, and it led us to success. We were able to work together effectively, and it showed in the work we produced.”

Reflection of Outcomes

In the past, group work for this course was given to students with no additional resources regarding effectively working in a group setting. There were often complaints about unfairness, the lack of communication among group members, and difficulty getting assignments completed in a timely manner. However, with the implementation of information that educates the students on the importance of group work and tools that help guide them on how to work in a group effectively, the number of complaints decreased greatly. Furthermore, implementing these tools helped students see that group work is intentional, has benefits, and can aid them in their career as a packaging scientist.

The student responses from the midsemester reflections reinforced the need for these tools in this course. There were fewer complaints throughout the course about the difficulty of working in a group, which can be attributed to the foundational presentation, ground rules set by the group charter, and the ability to reflect at midsemester. The increase in knowledge and decrease in complaints improved the classroom environment and helped reduce emails and questions about group complications. This will allow the instructor to focus on course content and not the management of group dynamics.

To further encourage team participation in group projects, instructors might consider including a grade associated with effort and contribution as a group member based on midsemester reflections. However, this may influence the results and must be done tactfully to ensure fairness to each group member.

Discussion of Potential for Adoption in Other Courses

If group work is a part of your course, it is recommended that you implement these tools. The tools to help improve group work could be applied in many other courses where groups work together on a semester-long project or various projects using the same team. The group charter is generic enough to be applied to most courses with a group assignment with little to no modifications.

It is strongly suggested that all three components mentioned be used together as the results received reflect on the combination of these pieces. The introductory group work presentation helps students remember the importance of group work, the team charter helps set the ground rules that are often overlooked otherwise, and the reflection allows students to pause and think about how they and their teammates are contributing.

The use of these tools can change the narrative in your class from “Do we have to work in groups?” to “Group work in this course will benefit me in my future career.”

References Cited

• Hammar Chiriac E. Group work as an incentive for learning–students’ experiences of group work. Frontiers in Psychology. 2014 Jun;5:558. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00558 .
• Chang Y, Brickman P. When group work doesn’t work: insights from students. CBE—Life Sciences Education. 2018;17(3):ar52. doi:10.1187/cbe.17-09-0199 .
• Bell ST. Deep-level composition variables as predictors of team performance: a meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology. 2007 May;92(3):595–615. doi:10.1037/0021-9010.92.3.595 .
• Manning A. The role of team composition in high performance teams [blog]. Saberr. [accessed 2023 Feb 20]. https://blog.saberr.com/team-composition .

Class Project Team Charter

Team name (create your own):, title of assignment(s):, due date(s):, team contact information.

What is the mission of your team?

What is the vision of your team?

Goals and Objectives

Goals and objectives are what the group wants/needs to accomplish during its time together. Effective goals are specific, measurable, challenging (but achievable), and accepted by the group.

What are your shared goals for the team? What does the team want to achieve?

• Describe the project challenge to ensure that everyone on the team has a sufficient understanding of the expectations for the project/course assignment.
• Discuss the possibilities. What will it look like if the team is successful? How will you know that you have succeeded?
• What does each member of the team hope to accomplish and/or learn throughout the process?
• Consolidate and agree on shared goals or objectives for the team.

Leadership Structure

Decide on what your leadership structure will look like.

Norms are a list of behaviors expected of team members. Norms create shared values and boundaries that define a team’s culture. If norms do not reflect what the team values or a member violates team norms, then mistrust and conflict arise. Norms should be developed collaboratively to ensure that everyone on the team is committed to the norms.

• What norms of behavior will support your team in meeting its goals? (e.g., standards for attendance/participation, preparation, information sharing, confidentiality, decision-making, accountability, problem-solving, conflict management)
• How will the team celebrate successes or manage violations of the agreed-upon norms?

Milestones and Timeline

It’s important to outline a timeline for the team’s work so that everyone on the team has an understanding of what the team is seeking to accomplish and when. If it is not possible to create a detailed timeline in the beginning, it is helpful to outline major milestones and then fill in the details as the team’s work progresses.

It’s important to create standard processes at the onset of the project to avoid gaps in communication and misunderstandings. This may include a range of things, such as

• When and where will the team meet? What are the attendance expectations?
• How will the team communicate and coordinate?
• Where will the team save files and manage data?
• How will decisions be made (e.g., majority rules, consensus, or some other method)?
• How will the team track its progress?

Similar to a staged play, musical group, or sport, it is important that everyone on the team understands their role. While roles may shift over the project, consider

• What tasks need to be completed (both project-related and administrative)?
• For each member of the team, what talents and expertise do they have? What new skills are they hoping to develop?

Some roles to consider include

• Project manager/task lead
• Document manager
• Feedback manager
• Logistics and communications
• Process reviews
• Accountability reviews

Feedback/Performance Assessment

How will team members provide feedback to each other, both in terms of positive and constructive feedback? What schedule and/or tools will be used to regularly assess how individuals and the team as a whole are performing?

Team Debrief *( example, to be completed later ) – Include at least two debrief sessions in your timeline ( we will have time for this in class ). The purpose of the Team Debrief session is to provide feedback to improve the general “health” of the team and encourage change for improvement with the goal of self-correction and personal growth. The chart below outlines how to identify what is working (reinforcement) and what needs to be adjusted (refinement). Each member should also assess and provide feedback for member contributions to the team to meet the goals of the project.

Names and Signatures of All Members

Your signature represents your commitment to your team’s goals, norms, and processes.

____________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________

Lisi Campbell , MS, MBA, Clemson University, Lecturer, Food, Nutrition, and Packaging Sciences Department

Campbell L. “Do We Have to Work in Groups?”: Foundations, Ground Rules, and Reflections Improve Group Work. Clemson (SC): Clemson Cooperative Extension, Land-Grant Press by Clemson Extension; 2023 Aug. LGP 1175. https://lgpress.clemson.edu/publication/do-we-have-to-work-in-groups-foundations-ground-rules-and-reflections-improve-group-work/.

Clemson University Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to people of all ages, regardless of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital or family status and is an equal opportunity employer.

The information in this publication is provided for educational and informational purposes only. The use of any brand names and any mention or listing of commercial products or services in this publication does not imply endorsement by Clemson University nor does it imply discrimination against similar products or services not mentioned. Recommendations for the use of agricultural chemicals may be included in this publication as a convenience to the reader. Individuals who use agricultural chemicals are responsible for ensuring that their intended use of the chemical complies with current regulations and conforms to the product label.

This publication may be reprinted in its entirety for distribution for educational and informational purposes only. Any reference made from this publication must use the provided citation.

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Reflecting on Group Presentation with Rolfe’s Reflective Cycle Essay

Over the course of the last decade, reflective practice in the advancement of knowledge in a plethora of areas, including business, education, social work, and healthcare, has been becoming continuously more widespread. Patel and Metersky (2021) state that reflection is considered to improve learning, which is why it is so popular in so many spheres. According to Schwind and Manankil-Rankin (2020), deliberate reflection on any experience gives meaning to people’s three ways: of being, knowing, and doing (or, alternatively, ontology, epistemology, and praxis). When it comes to the most widely used reflective models, Rolfe’s reflective cycle is one of these, and it is deemed applicable in any context due to its clarity and subsequent ease of employment (Galutira, 2018). The following reflective essay uses this model to guide my thinking about teamwork, leadership, and time management in relation to creating a group Powerpoint presentation. The aims of this essay are to evaluate the experience of such a type of work and to describe how the things I have learned can be applied to my future nursing practice.

Rolfe’s reflective cycle is a reflective model created to help people assess their experiences or empirical learning activities. In terms of group and teamwork, Rolfe’s model is an effective tool for each member to evaluate how they can improve their teamwork skills ( Use the ‘What? So what? Now what?’ model, no date). This method’s history dates back to the 1970s when an American schoolteacher Terry Borton wrote a book in which he proposed a reflective practice framework founded on three questions: what? so what? and now what?

Borton’s scheme was adapted for clinical use by John Driscoll, although his version could be implemented in various disciplines. In addition to that, Rolfe et al. took Borton’s model and refined it further for use in a clinical setting and pastoral work ( What? So what? Now what? model of reflection , no date). Rolfe and his colleagues left the structure of Borton’s scheme unchanged but expanded each question to include extra questions to stimulate deeper reflection. As stated by Business Bliss Consultants FZE (2018), this is aimed at increasing self-awareness, analysis skills, and skills of problem-solving. The ‘what?’ phase of Rolfe’s model contains questions to help objectively review what took place. The ‘so what?’ phase is a more subjective study of the consequences. Finally, the ‘now what?’ phase is a look at the way the lessons learned can be beneficial for the future.

I believe that the main reason why my group succeeded in creating a presentation without major quarrels or disagreements was because of our good teamwork, which was due to the strategy we all agreed upon for the working process. This strategy consisted of having each member of the team assigned a specific task in the beginning based on what each person is good at – for instance, finding appropriate references, doing research, or creating presentations. We communicated to check where everyone was with their part of the work every week. However, it would have been harder to do had our group been larger; but since there were five of us, communication was effective, and each person’s voice was always heard. To interact with one another, we created a WhatsApp group chat, and while it proved to be productive, we still felt that a lack of face-to-face meetings was a significant drawback. Moreover, for our work to be more organized, we selected a team leader, Wendy, who was chosen due to her having had experience with working in groups and making presentations before.

In addition to that, one unfortunate circumstance that I found myself facing was my poor time management skills. It seems that I had initially underestimated the amount of work it would take for me to finish my part of the task. As a result, in the final stages of preparation, I worked for hours in the end and felt exhausted when it was done. However, since our group scored an A, I consider it all to have been worth it.

What this experience tells me about myself is that I have to be less confident when approaching such tasks and put more effort into planning how, when, and what exactly to do. This is especially important when working in groups or teams because other people rely on you to do your work efficiently and timely. Academic literature on effective team communication points at the necessity of each member of the team to feel that they are responsible for the final outcome (Harris and Sherblom, 2018). In addition to that, according to Marlow et al. (2018), when it comes to a successful group, it is not the frequency of communication but its quality that matters. It explains why us discussing things in a group chat once a week was more than enough for the eventual success of the project.

Moreover, this experience taught me that for group work to be productive, there must be a leader in a team. As I have mentioned earlier, we appointed Wendy to be our leader, and I believe that had it not been for her, it would have been more difficult for us to make progress. As per Northouse (2021), a true leader is someone who is focused on developing others, leads by example, and ensures that the communication between team members is effective. All of this is about Wendy, who was an inspiration for all of us to aim to work harder and was always there to help anyone who struggled with anything.

I believe that I have learned a lot from working on this project with my peers. First of all, for the sake of not only my mental health but also other people succeeding, I plan to start working on my time management skills. In addition to that, I will ensure that I remember everything that I have learned about group work and apply it to the next team project in which I will participate. In terms of how I can apply the reflections on our work to my future nursing practice, I now have an understanding of how to be an effective team player and a good leader. Both of these qualities are important to deliver safe and high-quality nursing care, which is my, and every other nurse’s, ultimate goal.

In conclusion, reflective practice is essential to improving learning and evaluating one’s skills for future development. One of the most effective and popular reflective models is Rolfe’s reflective cycle, which is based on a person asking themselves three simple questions: what? so what, and now what? When expanded into a series of additional queries, these give one an opportunity to analyze their work and think of ways to enhance it. I applied it in assessing the work of my group on a presentation and found that it is extremely efficient in supplying one with food for thought and identifying benefits and drawbacks. I will use the knowledge that I have gained from working with this reflective model in my future nursing practice to be a great team player and a successful leader.

Reference List

Business Bliss Consultants FZE (2018) Rolfe’s reflective cycle . Web.

Galutira, G.D. (2018) ‘Theory of reflective practice in nursing’, International Journal of Nursing Science , 8(3), pp. 51-56.

Harris, T.E. and Sherblom, J.C. (2018) Small group and team communication . Waveland Press.

Marlow, S.L., Lacerenza, C.N., Paoletti, J., Burke, C.S. and Salas, E. (2018) ‘Does team communication represent a one-size-fits-all approach?: a meta-analysis of team communication and performance’, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes , 144, pp.145-170.

Northouse, P.G. (2021) Leadership: theory and practice . Sage Publications.

Patel, K.M. and Metersky, K. (2021) ‘Reflective practice in nursing: a concept analysis’, International Journal of Nursing Knowledge , 33(3), pp. 180-187.

Schwind, J. K. and Manankil-Rankin, L. (2020) ‘Using narrative reflective process to augment personal and aesthetic ways of knowing to support holistic person-centred relational practice’, Reflective Practice , 21(4), pp. 473–483.

Use the ‘What? So what? Now what?’ model: a great example of reflective questioning (no date). Web.

What? So what? Now what? model of reflection (no date). Web.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Teamwork — Individual Report: Personal Reflection on Teamwork Experience

Individual Report: Personal Reflection on Teamwork Experience

• Categories: Personal Experience Teamwork

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Words: 1583 |

Published: Jul 3, 2023

Words: 1583 | Pages: 3 | 8 min read

Table of contents

Personal reflection on teamwork experience, explanation of the fundamental 5 stages, forming the team, storming in the group.

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• A Guide on How to Write a Teamwork Reflection with Examples

“The strength of the team is each individual member and the strength of each member is the team.” Phil Jackson

Reflective practices have always been a great way to look back on your experience and improve your actions for the future. For those who are not aware of the term reflection, it refers to an examination of one’s actions, experiences, and perspectives in order to find critical areas for improvement. Simply put, it is more like learning from the past in order to enhance future scenarios.

Table of Contents

Step 1 - describe the main focus of the reflection, step 2 - elaborate on the objective of the project, step 3 - elucidate the responsibilities of the team, step 4 - highlight the status of the objective, step 5 - underline the challenges, step 6 - emphasize learnings, step 7 - accentuate changes in future endeavors.

• Teamwork reflection examples

Reflecting on our actions or decisions is our path to enlightenment and it does add immensely to our vision and future goals. From students to employees, everyone needs to work in teams quite often in their pursuit of meeting their goals. Having said that, it is essential for you to know how to write a teamwork reflection.

This is your complete guide on writing a teamwork reflection that is inclusive of a stepwise approach to writing a reflection of your participation in a team project. Besides, the guide includes three effective examples for greater understanding. So, to begin with, let us get started with the process of writing a teamwork reflection. To assist you with a better comprehension of the writing of a teamwork reflection, every step covers the same example elaborating on the teamwork reflection of performing surgery in the operations room.

How to write a teamwork reflection in 7 easy steps

The first and foremost step in writing a teamwork reflection is to describe the main focus of the reflection i.e. describing the experience you want to reflect upon. Along with this, you will also describe whether your reflection talks about teamwork or it is a self-reflection. To simplify, this section in-depth will talk about the whole central idea of reflection on the event including all the main aspects that contributed to the occurrence of the event. While describing the main focus of the reflection, you need to keep 5Ws and 1H in mind where 5Ws and 1H stand for

When - In this, you will describe the time of the occurrence of the event.

Where - This will focus on the location where the event took place.

What - Through this, you will describe what exactly happened during the event.

Why - While answering why, you will focus on highlighting the reasons things happened in the way they did.

Who - Who part will answer the question by describing which all people were involved in the event.

How - Lastly, you will include how everyone including you contributed to the occurrence of the event

Effectively answering the 5Ws and 1H will give you a detailed description of the whole incident you want to express in terms of an engaging reflection write-up. However, you have to ensure that the main focus of the reflection should be concise and meticulous enough that it should clearly highlight the central idea to the readers.

Introduction

This teamwork reflection is regarding a leg surgery we performed at The Alfred last month. We needed to perform surgery on a patient who got an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury on his leg in a car accident. We were a team of 5 including nurses and doctors. The surgery was successful because everyone performed their tasks responsibly.

After describing the main focus of the reflection, you are ready to move on to the next step i.e. elaborating on the objective of the whole project. Simply put, you have to describe the key objectives of the project that you wish to achieve through your teamwork.

The main objective of the surgery was to rebuild the ligament with a tissue graft in order to ensure that the patient can smoothly perform his regular day to day basis tasks on his own.

Succeeding that, you will elaborate on the responsibilities of the team in detail. To elaborate, you will effectively define which team member of your group was assigned which task. Here, you can also elaborate on the various leadership theories that were applied at the team level. Following that, you will also provide detailed information on whether your team members were successful in completing their responsibilities on an individual level and the team level.

We were a total of five members were responsible for performing the surgery

1. Surgeon - He was responsible for taking out the graft from other tendons in the knee or thigh areas.

2. Anesthesiologist - I was responsible for deciding the level of anesthesia that needs to be given to the patient from time to time.

3. Nurse anesthetist - She was the assistant to the anesthesiologist and was supposed to take care of the temperature of the patient and other functional changes occurring in the body.

4. Circulating nurse - He was responsible for helping the surgeon throughout the process of surgery.

5. Surgical tech - Surgical tech was responsible for ensuring that all the tools are available in the surgery room and will hand them out as per the surgeon’s instructions.

In this section, after describing the roles and responsibilities, you will further elaborate on the status of the objective. In this section, you will highlight the correlation between the efforts of your team members and how their efforts contributed to the successful completion of your overall objective. Along with this, you will also highlight the reason why the objective was achieved or why it was not achieved.

The operation was successful and we were successfully able to remove the graft from a cadaver and deposit it in the injured area. The reason that the operation was successful was that everybody knew their responsibility beforehand and the whole surgery was performed with cordiality.

Coming to the next step, next you will emphasize the challenges that you faced during the completion of the team task. In this, challenges will be described in both the senses mentioned below.

The challenges you faced at the individual level

The challenges you encountered at the team level.

For instance, if ethical issues proved to be a hindrance to the accomplishment of the objectives, you ought to highlight them. Underlining the challenges will assist you in further indicating the key pitfalls that would have contributed to delay or inefficient results. After this, you can significantly conduct a gap analysis that will highlight the major reason why pitfalls occurred. Results of the gap analysis will also assist you in making future strategies to avoid these challenges.

During the surgery, we were a group of diverse teams in which the members were of different social groups. Hence, during the operation, we faced the challenge of understanding each other’s non-verbal language signs. On a personal level, as I was an intern in nursing, I faced the challenge of coping with the senior members’ speed. They were moving really fast with every step during the surgery, so, I got a little anxious through the whole surgery.

After underlining the challenges, comes another crucial step in reflection writing. In this step, you will significantly elaborate on the learnings of the whole experience. Again, one of the crucial notable points over here is that you need to accentuate both the learnings at a personal level and at the group level. Highlighting your learnings will assist you in creating a roadmap on how you can improve for the future.

Through this surgery, we all learned irrespective of our different backgrounds, that if you have cordiality and collaboration in the team, you can carry out any major operation successfully. Personally, I learned that with time and experience, people gradually build their speed in performing different tasks. Additionally, I also got to learn how to work professionally with a team of highly skilled surgeons.

With this, we have come to our last but definitely not the least step of the writing teamwork reflection is focusing on the changes that you will make for the future. To elaborate, lastly, you will focus on how you need to change your strategies in order to come up with more efficient results. On the other side of it, you are done with your well-written reflection on teamwork.

During future operations, we will ensure to cross-check whether everyone has been very well prepared for the operation and all the apparatus are available for the operations. On the other hand, in the future, I will ensure that I come with a free mind in the operation room. Besides, if anything goes wrong, I would take deep breaths to calm myself down and continue the progress to complete the assigned task.

At last, another important consideration in writing a reflection using the above-given steps is subject to change until you are not using any particular reflection out of several prominent reflection models .

To continue, to give you a better comprehension of how to write a reflection about teamwork, we have two completely different samples of teamwork reflection. Firstly, an example of teamwork reflection will be about teamwork and collaboration in nursing. Following that, an example of teamwork reflection as a nursing student is highlighted. Lastly, an effective example of teamwork reflection in the workplace will be provided.

Group teamwork reflection examples

Example 1 - sample of group teamwork reflection as a nursing practitioner.

Assessment task - Teamwork reflection by nursing practitioners

For - Nursing practitioners

Task - Team reflection on the duties performed in the context of nursing practices for old age care

Working center - Berengarra Residential Aged Care Facility

Step 1 - Describe the main focus of reflection

Gone are the days when a single doctor or dentist or other health organization practitioners could solely deliver high-quality care that could easily satisfy their patients. Today, it requires a good tea to offer satisfactory service to the patients. The complexity of the care that patients need today highlights the need for health professionals to collaborate and communicate clearly with each other (Eddy, Jordan & Stephenson, 2016). We learned this through our recent experience which will be described in this reflection.

This teamwork reflection will confer our experience of taking care of old age people about a week ago. We were 4 team members that were supposed to visit Berengarra Residential Aged Care Facility and take care of old aged people. The reason that we were assigned this job was that the previously assigned team failed in performing their duty due to a lack of responsibility. Although we also faced some challenges, eventually we took care of everything and successfully performed our duty because of our collaboration and teamwork.

Step 2 - Elaborate on the objectives of the project

The main objective of this project was to effectively take care of the elderly people that need the utmost care and support because of a lack of energy to even perform basic daily tasks. Moreover, most of the people in old age care centers are suffering from worry or distress due to leaving their homes because of ample reasons such as abandonment from their homes. People living in the old age care center often experience depression and in old age. This is either the result of living alone or due to a lack of connection breakage with their culture of origin. This results in an incapacity to actively participate in the activities of the community (Singh & Misra, 2009). Hence, another objective of this project was to connect with the old age people and give them the support and care they deserve at this age.

We were a team of 5 people and we all divided our responsibilities as per the handling of different essential activities every day. To maintain confidentiality, I will address each member as members 1, 2, 3, and 4. Team member one was responsible for the food committee and was supposed to look after all the meals in terms of their quality and the timely serving of the meals. In different old age centers, old people often lack the energy to perform daily personal tasks such as changing and bathing.

So, team member 2 was responsible for taking care of the bathing and dressing assistance of elderly people. Team member 3 was me and I was accountable for medication assistance for the elderly people and for ensuring that every patient gets their medications on time. Lastly, team member 5 was responsible for coordinating with the housekeeping team and ensuring proper sanitation at the whole place, and keeping the place disinfected.

Step 4 - Final status of the objective

After a month, we were relieved from the duty, and in our final evaluation our supervisors evaluated the place and took the feedback and we got good feedback and ratings. This implies that we were successful in achieving our ultimate goal and providing efficient service to the old age center. Secondly, we got blessings from the elderly and this indicated that we were successful in achieving the second objective of providing a satisfactory service to the old age people.

Step 5 - Highlight the main challenges

Through the whole tenure we worked at that old age center, we encountered a few challenges. Firstly, as it was a completely new place to us, So, it was challenging for all of us to adjust to the new environment. So, it took us some time to adjust to their daily routines and learn their daily routines. Besides, the last team that was in charge was accused of a lack of responsibility, so it was pressure on us to avoid that tag for us.

On a personal level, as I was in charge of medication for the patient, there were 20 patients under my supervision. Hence, it was quite challenging for me to keep a record of all the patients and the time and name of the medicines that were supposed to get delivered to the target audience. So, I took assistance from team member 1 who was in charge of the food committee. He had this tool on his iPad where he stored all the data and kept a track of all the medication easily and suggested the same to me. He assisted me effectively and we divided up the number of patients to effectively maintain the record.

Through this whole experience we learned how crucial coordination and collaboration are in the healthcare sector. If we would have not divided our work or assisted each other, it would not have been possible for us to successfully take care of the old age people. It was our collaboration and trust in each other as a team that made us successful in achieving the target and getting good feedback from our superiors.

On a personal level, I learned that there will always be difficulty in handling different situations and it is always good to ask for help if needed rather than handling it all on your own and messing it up by doing it alone. Besides, I also learned that technology can be a great helping hand if used effectively.

On a team level, for the future we would ensure that we calm ourselves down and try our best to adapt and blend the environment as soon as possible to effectively work on giving the best services. Besides, we would also have frequent team meetings every day to ensure that if any team member needs any sort of help or assistance with their tasks.

On the other hand, if similar situations occur again, on a personal level, I would definitely ensure that I would learn more about different applications that can offer assistance to me in managing different records.

Example 2 - Sample of group teamwork reflection as a nursing student

Assessment task - Teamwork reflection by nursing students

For - Nursing students

Task - Team reflection on the PowerPoint presentation by nursing students

Working center - University of Texas Arlington

I have always believed that teamwork always brings out the dreamwork. But, in order for a team to give efficient results, every team member needs to collaborate and engage in teamwork (Schmutz, Meier & Manser, 2019). I learned this through the effective experience I had in my second year of doing a Master's in Nursing with a Specialty in Nursing Administration and Management at the University of Texas Arlington. I was in a group of 5 people and we were assigned the task of creating a PowerPoint presentation.

We all agreed on the topic, “How health practitioners can support families of children with autism spectrum disorders”. All the team members together decided and made me the team leader and on their suggestion only I distributed the tasks among the teams.

There were two major objectives of this project. Firstly, we wanted to find out the different ways through which we can support families of children dealing with autism spectrum disorders. The major reason for this objective was that as nurses there often comes a time when we would have to support the families of children dealing with different disorders. While preparing for this presentation, we would understand various methods through which we can offer support to the families of children dealing with ASD.

The second crucial objective of this task was our teachers wanted us to know how to work in teams effectively. The major reason behind the same is that nursing teams are often instructed to handle a bunch of patients or wards in different sections. Learning how to work in a team would give us clarity on how we can work together effectively to get the desired results.

We were in a group of 5 members and to maintain the confidentiality of the names, I would refer to each member as Student A, Student B, Student C, Student D, and me. While keeping in mind the capabilities and key skills of all my team members, I decided to give them the task that suited their capabilities. Student A - Student A was very good with research and had in-depth knowledge about how to find relevant and high authority-certified research papers. Besides, the topic of the presentation majorly required in-depth research about finding different ways to support families of children with ASD. Hence, student A was responsible for finding all the relevant research papers, theses, and dissertations related to the topic of the presentation.

Student B voluntarily decided to take the responsibility of digging out the relevant information because she liked reading. Once all the relevant literature had been selected, then Student B was responsible for shunting out all the relevant information that needed to be added to the PowerPoint presentation. For student C, we decided to give the responsibility of arranging the data in a presentable form. The major reason behind the same was that it was pre-decided that C might not be able to get the task done because of his interview round. So, as part of the contingency plan we decided to give student C the minimum work because even if the work doesn't get done, nobody has to bear an extra burden. Student D had a specialized certification in PowerPoint presentation so we decided to give him the duty of creating the final presentation. Me, as everybody decided, I would be the team lead so I was responsible to give the final presentation in front of the whole class.

Step 4 - Describe the final status of the objectives

Everybody in my team did proper work as per their assigned responsibilities. Although as a part of the contingency plan we decided to give student C minimal responsibilities possible he also finished his work on time before going to the interview. I believe this objective was successfully attained because we had everything planned in advance along with pre-decided responsibilities for everyone. As everyone knew what they had to do even when we faced challenges during the language barriers or lack of coordination, everybody did their part very well. However, when it was my turn to present the presentation in front of the whole class, I got a little nervous and even fumbled in some places during delivering my presentation. But in the end, we were successful in achieving the main objective of working together irrespective of some challenges we faced. Moreover, we also learn so much about how to support families of children with autism syndrome disorder.

We had to encounter various types of challenges that we had to face during this presentation. Even I personally had to experience some of the challenges. At the team level - as we were still studying under a remote structure, for the team level we faced communication challenges because there were many people who did not have high-quality internet connections in their homes. Besides, two of the team members belong to other nationalities so we also faced language barriers as a major challenge during communication with them. Language barriers in a multinational team often lead to reduced participation in team communication (Tenzer, Pudelko & Zellmer-Bruhn, 2021).

On a personal level, I am an introvert by nature and somehow also lacked confidence in public speaking. As I was the one who had to present it in front of the entire class, I was a little nervous and also thought that I would not be able to present it meticulously.

Through the whole experience, on a personal level, I learned how crucial communication skills are in my nursing profession. The reason is irrespective of this presentation in the future as well I would have to interact with the families of the patient or with the patient. Hence, I have to socialize and would have to work on my communication skills as well. Good communication skill does not only rely on the physical abilities of nurses, but also on education and experience (Kourkouta & Papathanasiou, 2014).

On the team level, I gotta know that cordiality and planning are really crucial in any team for the successful accomplishment of the desired goal. Irrespective of the fact that we had a language barrier or connectivity issue, as everything was well-planned everybody did their part very well.

In the future, I personally feel that I would like to make two changes to the action plan that we followed in this experience. On an individual level, I would definitely take some of the communication skill courses from different learning apps and would even practice public speaking to socialize comparatively better to this experience. On the team level, if the situation occurs in the remote working structure again, then I would prefer to use various project management software or different applications that could help us with coordination and planning more effectively.

Example 3 - Sample of group teamwork reflection in the workplace

Assessment task - Teamwork reflection by employees in a workplace

For - Employees

Task - Team reflection on the achieving a target in a workplace

Workplace - AB Enterprises

The success of any workplace majorly depends on teamwork and collaboration between its employees. A group accomplishes the highest amount of accomplishments when it is completely focused on a task and completely utilizes every participant’s ability. The most important factor that impacts the success of team collaboration is trust. Without trust, the team significantly runs the risk of deteriorating over time (Bennett & Gadlin, 2012). I learned this from a recent experience I had in my company when we were assigned a task that we have to perform in a group.

Last month, the superiors of our AB enterprise company assigned us the target of making our website rank in the top 10 search engine results for some particular keywords in the span of 3 months. We were a total of 5 people in the marketing team that was assigned this task 4 months back. After effectively planning everything and using different strategies and tactics, we successfully achieved our target.

The main objective of this project was to convert our website into a revenue-generating website. The first step for achieving the same was it was essential that our website should rank on the first pages of the search engines. Secondly, we were a newly formed team, our employer wanted us to understand the true meaning of the team, collaboration, and trust. Hence, he assigned us this task to let us understand the true meaning of the team.

We were a team of 5 members and out of which I was the SEO content writer with another junior content writer. Along with this, we had 2 members of the technical SEO team and 1 member was from the development team. Both of the content writers including me were responsible for creating engaging content for the website. Technical SEO members were responsible for optimizing the content and pitching for gaining backlinks in order to make the website rank higher. Besides, the responsibility of the developer was to upload the content, set the structure, and ensure that there remains no errors in the development phase so that the target can be achieved.

After working hard for 3 months and working overtime as well, we finally achieved the target and made our website rank for 10 keywords that were related to our niche. Moreover, when we worked together for three months as a team, we bonded and collaborated effectively to get the desired results. We trusted and assisted each other in understanding things and getting the work going so that we can achieve the target by the assigned deadline.

Throughout the whole process, we faced many challenges down the line. On a team level, the senior technical SEO got a stomach infection and was on leave for almost 15 days. In her absence, the other member faced many issues in handling the work alone. But here he asked for my assistance and for this, I had to learn about technical SEO first, and then I assisted him with all his doubts.

On a personal level, as I was leading this project, I also had other responsibilities along with writing the content. So, I faced challenges in managing my work of content writing and other responsibilities. Hence to ensure a proper balance and clear my pendencies, I did work some of the work after office hours as well.

Through this whole project, we all learned that if we collaborate effectively and work together, we can easily achieve any target. Moreover, we realized that trust is really important for the successful accomplishment of the project. Trusting teams can effectively assist in enhancing cooperation and collaboration in processes. Furthermore, this will assist them in managing their interdependencies among their respective areas of expertise (Bond-Barnard, Fletcher & Steyn, 2018). We had three subteams in a bigger circle of the marketing team. None of the subteams interfered with each other’s tasks and everyone took accountability for performing their assigned tasks with utmost efficiency.

On a personal level, I learned that although we together achieved the desired results, taking over responsibilities disrupted my work-life balance and I felt stressed from time to time due to this. Hence, I learned that I need to manage my time during working hours more effectively so that I would not have to do work from home.

On a group level, in the planning phase only, we will break our bigger target into smaller ones. So that, we would effectively be able to keep track of our overall levels of accomplishments. Moreover, in the future, if similar situations occur, we would create contingency plans as well. For example, in this situation, our team member got sick, and the burden of the same was on the other members. So, we would learn little of everything from the next time onward. So that, if anything goes wrong, we would have each other’s support to handle the crisis.

On a personal level, as I have too many responsibilities to handle, I would try to delegate some of my tasks to my juniors. So that, I would be able to focus more on the tasks that need my most attention. The next time, I would also take help from various productivity and time management tools to keep a track of all time I am spending on all the necessary and unnecessary tasks.

To conclude, teamwork is an important part of the work irrespective of the industry you work in. Hence, it is really essential to look back and reflect on the incidents to learn something every time that can assist in enhancing your efficiency. Moreover, the above-given information will effectively assist you in writing a good teamwork reflection as well.

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How important is self-assessment in a teamwork reflection?

Self-assessment is a crucial aspect of a teamwork reflection. It allows you to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses as a team member, leading to personal growth and development in future collaborative endeavors.

Should I include any references or citations in my teamwork reflection?

In most cases, teamwork reflections do not require formal references or citations unless you are referring to specific external sources. The reflection is a personal account of your experiences and insights rather than an academic or research paper.

Schmutz, J., Meier, L., & Manser, T. (2019). How effective is teamwork really? The relationship between teamwork and performance in healthcare teams: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Open, 9(9), e028280. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-028280

Tenzer, H., Pudelko, M., & Zellmer-Bruhn, M. (2021). The impact of language barriers on knowledge processing in multinational teams. Journal Of World Business, 56(2), 101184. doi: 10.1016/j.jwb.2020.101184

Kourkouta, L., & Papathanasiou, I. (2014). Communication in Nursing Practice. Materia Socio Medica, 26(1), 65. doi: 10.5455/msm.2014.26.65-67

Singh, A., & Misra, N. (2009). Loneliness, depression and sociability in old age. Industrial Psychiatry Journal, 18(1), 51. doi: 10.4103/0972-6748.57861

Bond-Barnard, T., Fletcher, L., & Steyn, H. (2018). Linking trust and collaboration in project teams to project management success. International Journal Of Managing Projects In Business, 11(2), 432-457. doi: 10.1108/ijmpb-06-2017-0068

Bennett, L., & Gadlin, H. (2012). Collaboration and Team Science. Journal Of Investigative Medicine, 60(5), 768-775. doi: 10.2310/jim.0b013e318250871d

Eddy, K., Jordan, Z., & Stephenson, M. (2016). Health professionals’ experience of teamwork education in acute hospital settings. JBI Database Of Systematic Reviews And Implementation Reports, 14(4), 96-137. doi: 10.11124/jbisrir-2016-1843

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Structure of academic reflections

Guidance on the structure of academic reflections.

Academic reflections or reflective writing completed for assessment often require a clear structure. Contrary to some people’s belief, reflection is not just a personal diary talking about your day and your feelings.

Both the language and the structure are important for academic reflective writing. For the structure you want to mirror an academic essay closely. You want an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion.

Academic reflection will require you to both describe the context, analyse it, and make conclusions. However, there is not one set of rules for the proportion of your reflection that should be spent describing the context, and what proportion should be spent on analysing and concluding. That being said, as learning tends to happen when analysing and synthesising rather than describing, a good rule of thumb is to describe just enough such that the reader understands your context.

Example structure for academic reflections

Below is an example of how you might structure an academic reflection if you were given no other guidance and what each section might contain.  Remember this is only a suggestion and you must consider what is appropriate for the task at hand and for you yourself.

Introduction

Identifies and introduces your experience or learning

• This can be a critical incident
• This can be the reflective prompt you were given
• A particular learning you have gained

When structuring your academic reflections it might make sense to start with what you have learned and then use the main body to evidence that learning, using specific experiences and events. Alternatively, start with the event and build up your argument. This is a question of personal preference – if you aren’t given explicit guidance you can ask the assessor if they have a preference, however both can work.

Highlights why it was important

• This can be suggesting why this event was important for the learning you gained
• This can be why the learning you gained will benefit you or why you appreciate it in your context

You might find that it is not natural to highlight the importance of an event before you have developed your argument for what you gained from it. It can be okay not to explicitly state the importance in the introduction, but leave it to develop throughout your reflection.

Outline key themes that will appear in the reflection (optional – but particularly relevant when answering a reflective prompt or essay)

• This can be an introduction to your argument, introducing the elements that you will explore, or that builds to the learning you have already gained.

This might not make sense if you are reflecting on a particular experience, but is extremely valuable if you are answering a reflective prompt or writing an essay that includes multiple learning points. A type of prompt or question that could particularly benefit from this would be ‘Reflect on how the skills and theory within this course have helped you meet the benchmark statements of your degree’

It can be helpful to explore one theme/learning per paragraph.

Explore experiences

• You should highlight and explore the experience you introduced in the introduction
• If you are building toward answering a reflective prompt, explore each relevant experience.

As reflection is centred around an individual’s personal experience, it is very important to make experiences a main component of reflection. This does not mean that the majority of the reflective piece should be on describing an event – in fact you should only describe enough such that the reader can follow your analysis.

Analyse and synthesise

• You should analyse each of your experiences and from them synthesise new learning

Depending on the requirements of the assessment, you may need to use theoretical literature in your analysis. Theoretical literature is a part of perspective taking which is relevant for reflection, and will happen as a part of your analysis.  

Restate or state your learning

• Make a conclusion based on your analysis and synthesis.
• If you have many themes in your reflection, it can be helpful to restate them here.

Plan for the future

• Highlight and discuss how your new-found learnings will influence your future practice

Answer the question or prompt (if applicable)

• If you are answering an essay question or reflective prompt, make sure that your conclusion provides a succinct response using your main body as evidence.  

Using a reflective model to structure academic reflections

You might recognise that most reflective models mirror this structure; that is why a lot of the reflective models can be really useful to structure reflective assignments. Models are naturally structured to focus on a single experience – if the assignment requires you to focus on multiple experiences, it can be helpful to simply repeat each step of a model for each experience.

One difference between the structure of reflective writing and the structure of models is that sometimes you may choose to present your learning in the introduction of a piece of writing, whereas models (given that they support working through the reflective process) will have learning appearing at later stages.

However, generally structuring a piece of academic writing around a reflective model will ensure that it involves the correct components, reads coherently and logically, as well as having an appropriate structure.

Reflective journals/diaries/blogs and other pieces of assessed reflection

The example structure above works particularly well for formal assignments such as reflective essays and reports.  Reflective journal/blogs and other pieces of assessed reflections tend to be less formal both in language and structure, however you can easily adapt the structure for journals and other reflective assignments if you find that helpful.

That is, if you are asked to produce a reflective journal with multiple entries it will most often (always check with the person who issued the assignment) be a successful journal if each entry mirrors the structure above and the language highlighted in the section on academic language. However, often you can be less concerned with form when producing reflective journals/diaries.

When producing reflective journals, it is often okay to include your original reflection as long as you are comfortable with sharing the content with others, and that the information included is not too personal for an assessor to read.

Developed from:

Ryan, M., 2011. Improving reflective writing in higher education: a social semiotic perspective. Teaching in Higher Education, 16(1), 99-111.

University of Portsmouth, Department for Curriculum and Quality Enhancement (date unavailable). Reflective Writing: a basic introduction [online].  Portsmouth: University of Portsmouth.

Queen Margaret University, Effective Learning Service (date unavailable).  Reflection. [online].  Edinburgh: Queen Margaret University.

How to write a reflective report with examples

A reflective report is a written piece that summarizes the critical reflection of a person. It differs from an essay in that it is more structured. It is also personal and subjective. Here are some examples of reflective reports: Sage, UNSW, and Monash University. The models provide some ideas and can be use to guide your work.

It is a written report that summarises the critical reflection of a person.

A reflective report is a written document summarising a person’s critical reflection on an experience or a particular topic. It is usually between 250 and 750 words long and should start with a clear line of thought. It must be based on a personal experience to be meaningful.

A reflective report is a type of academic assignment that aims to give students a self-view of the topic they are studying. It should be written in the first person, with an introduction and thesis statement. The report must contain a detailed description of the event or situation and the learnings the student made from it.

It is more structured than an essay.

A reflective essay is a structure different from a report. It is structured differently and follows a stricter format. It should start with a strong introduction. List the main topics, restate the thesis statement and end with a strong conclusion. It should also include a bibliography and references. And works cited list.

A good reflective essay should reflect a specific experience. The author must honestly describe how they felt and the lesson they learned from the experience. They should also attempt to analyze the situation. This requires evaluating the thoughts, feelings, and reactions. They should also be able to judge the merit of their own experiences.

The introduction is an important part of a reflection paper. It should provide background information about the course content, summarize key readings, and narrate their experience of the course objectives. The introduction does not need to be very long but should be informative and catchy. However, it should not start with the thesis.

It is personal

When writing a reflective report, it’s important to keep your subject personal. You want the readers to know what you learned and how those experiences shaped your future. Thoughtful words can be written on various topics, including books, places, and experiences. Here are some tips to help you get start.

When writing a reflective report, you want to start with an introduction that acknowledges your subject and gives the reader an impression of what you are trying to communicate. The introduction should include a thesis statement, serving as your focal point. You can provide facts to support your thesis statement in the second body paragraph.

The body of your reflective essay should be the focus and include an appropriate critique. It should describe the experiences and how they shaped you, including the lessons you learned. Remember to proofread your reflective essay before you submit it.

It is subjective

A reflective report writing service with examples should be written in the first person, which allows you to focus on your thoughts, feelings, and experiences. It is important to state your opinion clearly, support it with arguments, and include examples from your life. Finally, in conclusion, restate your thesis statement.

While reflective reports are meant to be personal, they should still be professionally written. Avoid using slang words and double-check your grammar. Also, use transitional words that draw connections between your ideas. This will make your report look much more professional.

It is academic

When you write reflective academic reports, the goal is to convey your personal learning experiences and take the time to reflect on them. Unlike a personal journal, academic reflective writing needs to be formally structured and written in a formal language. As such, it must begin with a strong thesis statement.

An academic reflective report requires you to be critical and analytical. This means focusing on the negative aspects of the situation rather than the positive aspects. For example, suppose you observe that a leader does not follow the leadership style of his followers.

Alvin Nicolas is a research-based content writer, who works for Cognizantt, a globally recognized professional E-commerce SEO company  provider and Essays.UK,  A leading dissertation and essay writing service in the UK . Mr Alvin Nicolas holds a PhD degree in English Literature. He loves to express his views on a range of issues including education, technology, and more.

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Academic & reflective writing

Reflective writing.

  The following guide has been created for you by the  Student Learning Advisory Service . For more detailed guidance and to speak to one of our advisers, please book an  appointment  or join one of our  workshops . Alternatively, have a look at our  SkillBuilder  skills videos.  

What is reflective writing?

We all reflect naturally from time to time on things that happen to us in order to improve our performance. However, at university, students are often required to write their reflections in the form of a blog, journal or reflective report. This encourages a habit in students which is deemed to be useful in becoming a more reflective learner. 

At university , reflective writing is a technique that allows you to consider any experience associated with your studies – everything from a work placement to a group presentation – in order to learn from it. You may choose to keep a private learning journal in which to reflect informally on such experiences during your course. Alternatively, you may be given a specific reflective writing assignment. In both cases, the process involved is the same.

The reflective process

Reflective learning is based on the idea that we can improve our ability to learn by recording and thinking about the experiences we have. 

In higher education and graduate employment high value is placed on the skill of being a reflective learner. This means that students can:

• critically evaluate their learning
• identify areas of their learning that require further development
• make themselves more independent learners

There are various ‘models’ of how the ‘reflective cycle’ works, however the basic stages are as follows:

• The experience: the activity or event you wish to reflect upon
• Reflection/observation: what went well, what didn’t, how you felt about the outcome? Had you done this activity before? What struck you most about the experience
• Analysis/evaluation: why didn’t everything go as expected? What could you have done differently? What did you learn about yourself, the activity, or the associated theory?
• Action plan/improvement: based on this knowledge, what will you do to improve the outcome in a similar situation in the future?

This process can be repeated in a constant cycle of improvement and increased self-knowledge, especially if you keep a learning journal, whether privately or as part of your course.

Private learning journals

 As reflective writing begins with ‘the experience’ a learning journal entry (for example, exploring your concern over how you allocate your time) may begin with ‘I ran out of time today…’ You may then consider what parts of your course are worrying you, what study methods are (or are not) working for you and whether there are any learning issues you feel you need to address. The results of your reflections may be a to-do list of learning priorities – ‘get organised with folders’, ‘join reading group’ etc. In a private journal the style and content of what you write is, of course, entirely up to you. By contrast, formal reflective assignments, set as part of your course, will have specific requirements.

Reflective writing assignments

Whether the assignment comprises of an ongoing reflective journal charting your progress across a module, or a single piece of work reflecting on a specific experience, such as a work placement or group presentation, common principles apply.

Reflective writing assignments are designed to help you develop, and demonstrate, your ability to:

• Think critically about your own skills and practice
• Analyse rather than just describe
• Use evidence to illustrate your reflections
• Apply what you have learned

If you know reflective writing will be required on a specific event or experience, make a log (journal type entry) of the event to capture your early reflections, ready to explore in more detail afterwards.

As reflective writing is a technique to help you learn and improve it can be helpful to reflect on pivotal decisions, or aspects of an experience that you found difficult or challenging – or in which you made mistakes. This will provide good raw material for you to demonstrate your use of this technique to turn negative experience into a positive plan for the future. Additionally, you may reflect on why something went particularly well, so that the positive outcome may be duplicated in future.

Basic principles

Reflective writing assignments are different from standard essays in that, for example, parts of them may be written in the first person, ‘I felt that I should have…’. However, despite this element of informality, common academic practices apply, including the need to:

• Follow the guidelines
• Answer the question
• Present your work within an organised structure
• Use clear, coherent prose
• Support your observations with reference to academic literature and evidence
• Demonstrate critical analysis (see ‘Critical thinking’ study guide)

Linking theory and practice

Critically exploring the link between what should have happened in a given situation (according to the relevant theory), and what actually did happen, offers a level of practical insight into a topic that a standard essay cannot. Accordingly, it is a key requirement of a reflective writing assignment. You need to ask:

• Did the experience help me understand the theory?

‘It helped me understand why best practice guidelines suggest that…’

• Did the theory prepare me well for the experience?

‘According to theory xxxx I was expecting the parent to…. But instead…’

• Did the experience and the theory match up?

‘The theory didn’t allow for the eventuality of… In practice…’

• Were there conflicts between the experience and the theory? What were they?

Reflective writing, therefore, allows you more fully to assess and evaluate the theories you have learned about in lectures/seminars.

Although you should always follow instructions provided by your school or lecturer, the main components of a reflective writing assignment may be as follows:

Introduction: briefly describing the experience on which you will be reflecting (such as a work placement, a presentation you made, an article you read). What was the event? Where? When? Who was involved?

Main body: comprising a series of well-structured paragraphs.

• For a short assignment, these may comprise the four stages of the reflective process (experience, reflection, analysis, action plan) for a single experience or aspect of it.
• For longer assignments the paragraphs might each address a different aspect of the experience (reflecting on a group presentation it could be your planning process, your team dynamics, your own performance) each containing the reflective process within it.

In both cases, your analysis and ideas should be backed up with reference to relevant theories, case studies and other academic evidence, all of which should be accurately referenced.

Conclusion: summarising what happened, how you felt about it, the key things you learned and how you will use this knowledge to move forward. 

Remember: reflective writing is a tool that you can use to enhance your learning.     

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Examples of Reflective Writing

Types of reflective writing assignments.

A journal  requires you to write weekly entries throughout a semester. May require you to base your reflection on course content.

A learning diary is similar to a journal, but may require group participation. The diary then becomes a place for you to communicate in writing with other group members.

A logbook is often used in disciplines based on experimental work, such as science. You note down or 'log' what you have done. A log gives you an accurate record of a process and helps you reflect on past actions and make better decisions for future actions.

A reflective note is often used in law. A reflective note encourages you to think about your personal reaction to a legal issue raised in a course.

An essay diary  can take the form of an annotated bibliography (where you examine sources of evidence you might include in your essay) and a critique (where you reflect on your own writing and research processes).

a peer review  usually involves students showing their work to their peers for feedback.

A self-assessment task  requires you to comment on your own work.

Some examples of reflective writing

Social science fieldwork report (methods section), engineering design report, learning journal (weekly reflection).

Brookfield, S 1987, Developing critical thinkers: challenging adults to explore alternative ways of thinking and acting , Open University Press, Milton Keynes.

Mezirow, J 1990, Fostering critical reflection in adulthood: a guide to transformative and emancipatory learning , Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.

Schön, DA 1987, Educating the reflective practitioner , Jossey-Bass. San Francisco.

We thank the students who permitted us to feature examples of their writing.

Prepared by Academic Skills, UNSW. This guide may be distributed or adapted for educational purposes. Full and proper acknowledgement is required. 

Essay and assignment writing guide

• Essay writing basics
• Essay and assignment planning
• Answering assignment questions
• Editing checklist
• Writing a critical review
• Annotated bibliography
• How do I write reflectively?
• Examples of reflective writing
• ^ More support

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Just another university of brighton blog network site.

A reflection on my experience of working in a group

Introduction – The project that I have been involved in was to make a presentation for our chosen company to review their current digital marketing campaign and to make recommendations on how to improve it. The company that we chose was The Bok Shop, “a free-range and vegan fried chicken joint” (The Book Shop, 2017). They have three locations with their first and main restaurant being located in Brighton, viewable in the photo below and if you click the integrated link on the photo it will take you to their website.

History on The Bok Shop, (The Book Shop, 2017)

Planning and Organisation – Firstly, my group arranged an online meeting to discuss the task at hand, as well as identifying any key segments that we would need to include in our presentation. We planned out how and when we should set takes completed by and decided that we should have meetings every so often to ensure progress was being made.

Process – Our process was to gradually complete our slides dividend between us in our early meetings of the group work. When finding any useful sources, we would share these within a document to increase our productivity. The way we did this was via Microsoft Teams, I created a group where we could communicate, share documents and work on the presentation together.

Involvement and Collaboration – Regrettably, I believe that the involvement and collaboration from the other members of my group were not up to an acceptable standard. Although everyone eventually finished their part of the presentation, this required me constantly chasing them up on when they will be doing this work, and why no additional progress had been made. On top of this, not only did I need to complete my part of the presentation but I had to start helping other members and completing slides for them while they work on the other parts that they were allocated. I am not sure whether this was down to a lack of motivation, for example, the other members not reaching the self-actualisation step in the Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs pyramid in this project and therefore not having the motivation to fully involve themselves with this project or explore their creative side (McLeod, 2020).  However, this helped me learn some strong group leadership skills, by being able to manage when the project is not going to plan and being able to get it back on track.

Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs (McLeod, 2020)

Conclusion – In conclusion, working on this group presentation has taught me and expanded my skills when working within a group, that could help further my employability opportunities. Not only am I more confident in taking control of a poor situation and turning it around, but I am more confident in speaking in groups and presenting something I have created and practised. As well as this, I have learnt that I would start sooner after getting the assignment, compared to later on to ensure that my issues would have time to be resolved.

References:

Thebokshop.com. 2017. The Book Shop . [online] Available at: < https://www.thebokshop.com/brighton > [Accessed 7 February 2021].

McLeod, S., 2020. Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs pyramid . [image] Available at: < https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html > [Accessed 7 February 2021].

McLeod, S., 2020. Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs . [online] Simplypsychology.org. Available at: <https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html> [Accessed 7 February 2021].

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Learn How to Write a Reflective Report From Our Experts

Would you like to learn how to write a reflective report? Since you are on this page, it means that you do. The good news is that you have arrived at just the right place. Not only will we talk about the reflective report for university (or high school), we will also show you how to write a good introduction. An easy to follow template is included, but we will also discuss the Gibbs Reflection Cycle format. After reading this in-depth guide, you’ll realize that writing a reflective account is not as difficult as you had imagined.

However, you need to keep in mind that your reflective report is still an academic paper. This means that – even though you can write it in first person – you need to keep your writing objective and to the point. You must have a clear focus for your writing, of course. If the professor asks you to write a reflection report on his course, you shouldn’t attempt to lie or bend the truth. Read on to find out more important things about the reflective report!

What Is a Reflective Report: The Basics

Often, your professor will ask you to reflect on one of your most important life experiences, so you need to take a few minutes to think about a good topic before you begin writing the paper. In case you need some help with this, you can always get in touch with our ENL writers and ask for their opinion. You’ll get all the assistance you need in no time.

Two Types of Reflective Writing

Did you know that there are actually two types of reflective reports you can write?

The most popular is the experiential reflection report. It is the best way to make a strong connection between theory and practice because you are forced to evaluate and reflect critically on your own skills and experiences. You will have to think about not only your actions, but also your choices. Also, you are somewhat forced to think about how you could have done things better.

The second type of reflective writing is the reading reflection . Basically, your professor will ask you to read something (most often a specific book) and then write a reflective report about it. You will have to formulate and support informed opinions regarding various essential ideas in the book. Also, you are required to discuss your interpretation if these ideas and concepts.

How to Do Reflective Writing: Tips and Tricks

Most students don’t really know how to do reflective writing. After all, you’ve probably only written argumentative, persuasive, compare and contrast, and cause and effect essays so far. The first time you hear about the reflective essay, your world can turn upside down. This sounds like a very difficult assignment that has the potential to ruin your GPA. You shouldn’t worry too much though. Here are a few tips and tricks to help you on your journey to a stellar reflection paper:

• Make effective use of language and describe everything you’ve felt (or feel) in great detail.
• Do your best to help your readers share the emotions you’ve gone through or are trying to describe.
• You should describe all your feelings regarding the particular event you are reflecting on.
• Remember that critical and analytic thought is an absolute requirement for reflective writing.
• You should have a clear line of argument and organize your thoughts in a logical manner.
• Remember that your paper should contain a section dedicated to the things you’ve learned from your experience.
• You could discuss a different perspective on the experience, not just your own.

Learn How to Write a Reflective Report Introduction

Now that you know what a reflective paper is and have a general idea of what you need to cover in your essay, it’s time to learn how to write a reflective report introduction. This is the first part of your paper and is, in fact, one of its most important sections. A strong introduction has the potential to earn you some very nice bonus points.

To start the introduction, you should find a good hook sentence. This sentence will pull the reader in but not give away too many details. After the hook, most academic writers insert the thesis statement. This is basically the question you aim to answer (or the goal of your writing). You could continue the intro with a bit of background information about the event or experience. Finally, use a transition sentence to make a smooth transition to the first body paragraph.

Remember, the hook and thesis statement are both extremely important parts of the introduction. If you are having trouble coming up with these two parts, or if you simply don’t know how to start a reflective report, you should get in touch with our team of experienced reflective paper writers. They can send you a few ideas right away.

An Easy to Use Reflective Report Template

We know that students learn faster when they see a practical example. This is why you will be thrilled to learn that we have a reflective report template for you. Don’t worry, you don’t have to download anything. This template (which uses the 5 paragraph essay structure) is free to use:

• The introduction. We’ve already discussed the introduction in the previous section. Remember that the hook should show the reader the most exciting part of the experience with as few details as possible. Also, the thesis statement should show the reader how the experience has influenced you in just one sentence.
• 1st body paragraph. The first body paragraph is the place where you will make a detailed description of the event or experience that influenced your life. Make it a very through description and make effective use of language to help your reader feel what you’ve felt. However, try to remain objective and not sound emotional.
• 2nd body paragraph. The second body paragraph is the place where you will explain to your audience the effect the experience or even has had on your life. Again, you should be as thorough as possible in your description.
• 3rd body paragraph. The third body paragraph is very important. It is the section that describes the lessons you’ve learned from reflecting on your experience or on the event. Clearly state and discuss each and every lesson you’ve learned.
• Conclusion. The conclusion is pretty straightforward. You need to make a summary of the event or experience (a summary of the 3 body paragraphs basically). You will end the conclusion by explaining/describing the impact the experience has had on your life and the most important things you’ve learned from it.

This wasn’t so hard, was it? In case you need to discuss more than one experience, simply add more paragraphs. The 5 paragraph essay structure can have more than 3 body paragraphs. And if you want to learn how to write a reflective report on group work, take a look at the Gibbs Reflection Cycle format below.

The Gibbs Reflection Cycle Format

In case you have no idea how to write a reflective learning report, you could always use the Gibbs Reflection Cycle format. Here are the basic steps (written as questions):

• What happened? How did the experience start?
• What were your feelings the moment the experience started? What were your thoughts?
• What did you feel was positive about the experience? What were the negative aspects?
• How did you perceive the situation? What should you have done differently?
• What else could you have done differently?
• If the situation were to present itself again, what course of action would you take?

There are other models for reflective writing, of course. However, the Gibbs model is pretty easy to use and helps you structure your essay correctly. You will find that mixing the template we’ve given you and the Gibbs model can help you quickly write a great reflective report.

Getting a Top Quality Reflective Report Example

Still need help how to write a critical reflection? What better way to write such a report than by following a great reflective report example. The only problem is finding such an example. Of course, you could always ask your professor for a sample, but we sincerely doubt you will get an answer. Your classmates are also probably not going to help you with this. So, here’s perfect example from experts just for you.

Using Blanchard’s model of Situational Leadership, assess your personal strengths and weaknesses in terms of your (you) applying each of the following leadership styles:

This section illustrates a personal reflective perspective regarding the application of Blanchard’s model of Situational Leadership in ascertaining the management roles such as supporting, coaching, delegating and directing. Before getting into a deeper analysis of its application, there is need of understanding a general meaning of this situational theory. The concept asserts that; leadership is dependent on an individual’s situation, and hence there is no leadership style that can be deliberated as the best (Graeff, 1983).

For Blanchard, the organizational tasks tend to vary, and that each task should be accorded diverse leadership styles. An individual with good leadership styles should have the ability of adapting his leadership styles to the targeted goals and objectives. Through this model, it can be learned that what makes up a good leader is inclined to the capacity of setting up appropriate goals, capacity of assuming responsibility, experience and education.

In the course of utilizing supportive leadership model, there were various strengths and weaknesses that were accrued. On a positive note, this style garnered strengths from its act of reducing the employees’ frustration and stress in a workplace. The effectiveness of this style is that; it primarily assisted especially when the organizational tasks are tedious, stressful and dangerous (Leviton, 2006). Personally, the main strength lies on the personal ability of establishing appropriate goals, and setting up appropriate path of achieving these goals. On the other hand, the ultimate personal weakness was realized at the moments when the individuals were new to a given task, when looking for the new challenges, and when disillusioned.

The application of coaching leadership is very crucial in each and every organization. It offers effective outcomes in settings whereby there is need of improving the performance. They assist people in advancing their skills, building the bench strengths, as well as the provision of guidance. The effectiveness of this leadership style is in a situation whereby the followers are experienced, responsible and agreeable (Graeff, 1983). In this case, it has been realized that the personal strengths with regards to this style is on the ability and passion of encouraging and inspiring people so as to create a good working environment. The only weakness that is often faced is on some situations when the employees are incapable or unwilling to learn.

Delegative leadership style is rather a hands-off approach whereby a leader places responsibility on the lower level employees (Hersey & Blanchard, 1969). The ultimate strengths associated with this leadership style is on the capability of utilizing employees endowed with skills of analyzing situations, as well as the confidence of implementing decisions. On the other hand, it is marred with a primary weakness in that; it usually leads to lack of motivation and poorly defined roles.

Just like the other leadership styles, directive leadership is associated with various strengths and weaknesses. This is a form of leadership that is often very effective when there are relatively inexperienced followers who needs subsequent instructions. The only weakness is that; the style requires a constant closer monitoring framework just in case of the need for any additional directions. In this case, the entire process is detrimental to the employees’ motivation and performance levels.

The very first place where you can find such a sample is the Internet, of course. The only problem is that most of the examples you find online are poorly written. Also, you won’t be able to use any of the content in these samples because your professor may use a plagiarism checker on your paper.

Another way to get an example is to ask around on blogs and forums, especially those related to education. While you may get some decent examples from these sources, you won’t be able to use any of the information in your own paper.

So, what’s the best and most effective way of getting a great reflection report sample? Truth be told, we are your best option. Our experienced writers can write an example for you in no time. Because the sample is written just for you, it will be 100% original. This means you can safely use parts of it in your own paper.

Get Professional Research Paper Help

We know that writing a reflection report can be a difficult task for most students – especially for students who have not had any previous experience with this type of academic writing. This is why you will be thrilled to learn that our company offers academic writing services to students all around the world, including British university and college students.

Getting research paper help from a professional writer is easy. Just get in touch with us and tell our expert what you need. Of course, you will have to provide in-depth details about the experience or event that you want the report to be about. Our expert will take it from there and will send you the best possible report before the deadline.

• But why would you work with us? Here are just a few of the reasons we are the number one choice for students looking for top notch academic writing assistance:
• Our writing services are affordable. Unlike most other companies, we are not in it for the money. We are dedicated to helping students with their academic writing assignments.
• Our papers and reports always get top grades from even the most demanding of professors. Our writers have years of experience writing reflective reports, as well as PhD degrees in various fields.
• We always deliver top quality content. We guarantee that you will not have to edit our work or proofread it. Everything we send to our clients is 100% ready for submission.
• Everything is written from scratch by our professional writers. This means that the academic content you will receive from us will be 100 percent original. In fact, we have a Money Back guarantee in place that protects you from any kind of plagiarism or delays.

Do you have any more question about writing a reflective account? Check out our FAQ section:

Should I use references in my reflective report?

Generally speaking, you should use references whenever you are writing an academic paper. It’s something that is – in most cases – mandatory. You can get away with not including any references only if your professor told you that you don’t need them.

Can I bend the truth a little in my report?

Academic writing is unbiased, so bending the truth is not something we would advise you to try. Your professor may figure it out and you will get penalized for it. Even though you are writing a reflection report, you need to remain objective.

Is there a difference between a reflective report and a reflective essay?

A reflective report is indeed different from a reflective essay. While the essay usually covers a single experience, the report more than one experience. Also, a report uses section headings and is more structured than the essay.

Can I blame others for the failures I’ll talk about in my report?

Truth be told, you can blame others in your critical reflection. However, it does not mean it is the correct approach. Instead of trying to put the blame on other people, try to figure out what your mistakes were and how you can avoid them in the future.

How quickly can your experts write me an exceptional reflective report?

The good news is that our expert UK writers can write you a reflective report in no time. We can get your project done is as little as 3 hours, even in the middle of the night. Keep in mind that our customer support department is online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Will the report I receive from you be original?

We can guarantee that the report will be 100% original. Even though our assistance is cheap, you can rely on us for the most interesting and informative academic content. We are a trusted writing company that has helped thousands of students get top grades on their papers.

How many paragraphs should the reflective report be?

Generally speaking, you should have at least 4 paragraphs in an academic paper. However, due to the nature of this assignment, we recommend you to include at least 5 paragraphs. You will have an introduction, a conclusion, and at least 3 body paragraphs.

What is the average size of a reflection report?

While there is no absolute size for any academic paper, you should aim for at least 300 words (this would constitute the bare minimum). A report that has the potential to get an A or an A+ is anywhere from 500 to 700 words long.

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Washington Square News

Students arrested at Gould Plaza required to complete ‘dozens of writing assignments,’ faculty group says

NYU’s Office of Student Conduct is allegedly requiring that some students arrested at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment in Gould Plaza write “reflection papers” and complete “dozens of writing assignments,” a recent Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine press release stated. The release said that in emails se​nt last week, the university informed students they would receive a censure — or a “ formal reprimand for violation of university policy ” — on their transcripts if they did not submit the assignments by May 29. 

One of the assignments instructed students to write a reflection paper describing the “incident” for which they were called in the OSC and assessing whether the decision they made aligned with their “personal values.” The paper “cannot serve to justify” the student’s actions, “evaluate the actions of others, or challenge a conduct regulation,” according to the assignment’s instructions. The other assignment is a 49-page “series of readings and reflective activities” that aims to help students “learn about and understand” their own values and how their actions “affected others and the community.”

“Either they really don’t understand that these students are living their values, or this was just intended to be humiliating and infantilizing,” Sara Pursley, a CAS professor and FSJP member, said in an interview with WSN. “It’s ironic to say the least that, in an essay on integrity, they tell students they can’t actually talk about what their real values were.” 

In the May 13 press release, FSJP also criticized NYU’s use of Advocate — a higher education software created by the “behavioral intervention management” company Symplicity — which the group claims houses the OSC’s writing prompts. The group noted that Symplicity, which supplies student conduct programs to NYU and over 250 universities, pleaded guilty in federal court on criminal hacking charges in 2014. 

In a written statement to WSN, university spokesperson John Beckman called FSJP’s press release “disappointingly misleading” and said that the only people “determining the sanctions that students may receive from conduct proceedings” are staff at the OSC.

“The implication that there’s something insidious going on or that NYU has ‘outsourced’ adjudication of the university’s student conduct procedures is deceptive propaganda,” Beckman wrote. “Symplicity has nothing —  repeat, nothing — to do with the specific sanctions NYU students may receive as a result of a conduct process.”

The FSJP press release comes after the university had allegedly dropped criminal charges brought against all protesters arrested at the pro-Palestinian encampment in Gould Plaza three weeks ago, including dozens of students and faculty . Since the encampment, on-campus groups, including FSJP and the NYU Palestine Solidarity Coalition have been demanding that NYU pardon students facing disciplinary action for their involvement in pro-Palestinian demonstrations, divest from companies with ties to Israel, shut down its study away site in Tel Aviv and remove police from campus. 

NYU allegedly began disciplinary hearing for students who were involved with pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus last week, although NYU PSC did not say how many students received misconduct violations or what university policies they were accused of violating. More recently, nine students were suspended and two were given persona non grata status after a demonstration in Bobst Library on Friday, according to NYU PSC. 

Contact Dharma Niles at [email protected] .

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Tana WILLIAMS • May 16, 2024 at 11:22 am

I’m absolutely appalled by what NYU is doing to these students who actually were living their values. It seems as if they want desperately to prove that these intelligent young people were actually influenced by outsiders Rather than accept that these young people, just as we did in my generation with the Vietnam war, we’re standing up for what they Believe is right. Just how far our University officials willing to go to prove their undying loyalty to Israel no matter what Israel does . If things hadn’t ended so quickly the way they did, I, disabled and 74 years old, would have been there in solidarity with these students. Sincerely, Tana S. Williams.

Bob • May 16, 2024 at 7:55 pm

They did not ask these students to change their values. They simply asked that they reflect on the values that led them to violate University policy and communicate those values in a more effective manner. The guidelines given are meant to avoid re- litigating the issue that led to the protest.