BUSI1360

Reflections,
Critical Incidents
& Goal Setting
Outline
Reflection
• What is reflection?
• Why reflect?
• Models of reflection

Critical Incidents

Goal Setting
• SMART goals
What is reflection?
• Reflection is what
allows us to learn
from our experiences:
it is an assessment of
where we have been
and where we want to
go next.
Why reflect?
Reflection helps you to:
• understand what you already know
• identify what you need to know in order to
improve
• make sense of new information and feedback in
the context of your own experience
• guide choices for further learning and
development
Why reflect?
So, if reflection is so helpful, why doesn’t everyone do it? There are some
reasons why people don’t reflect:
 Don’t understand the process. Many people don’t know how to reflect.
 Don’t like the process. Reflection requires people to do a number of things
they typically don’t like to do: slow down, tolerate messiness and
inefficiency, and take personal responsibility. The process can lead to
valuable insights and even breakthroughs — and it can also lead to feelings
of discomfort, vulnerability, defensiveness, and irritation.
 Don’t like the results. When people reflect, they typically sees ways the
things could have done better, and often dislike the weaknesses highlighted.
Some become so defensive in the process that they don’t learn anything, so
the results are not helpful.
 Can’t see a good return on investment. Reflection takes time and resources
however, you don’t see instant return on reflection.
Models of Reflection
Using a framework gives us a way to challenge our
assumptions about why something happened the
way it did and to really think deeply about what
actions we can take as a result of our learning.
Rolfe et al (2001) Reflective Model
This is often argued to be the simplest model of
reflection.
 What? - What happened?
 So what? - What does it mean?
 Now what? - What needs to happen next?
Kolb’s Reflective Cycle 1. Concrete Experience - a
new experience or situation
is encountered, or a
reinterpretation of existing
experience.
2. Reflective Observation of
the new experience - of
particular importance are
any inconsistencies between
experience and
understanding.
3. Abstract
Conceptualization -
reflection gives rise to a
new idea, or a modification
of an existing abstract
concept.
4. Active Experimentation -
the learner applies them to
the world around them to
see what results.
Concrete Experience
1. Who was there, who were the active
participants, who said what, who was listening,
who was less involved?
2. What was the sequence of events?
3. Where did all this happen? Was the location
significant?
4. When did things happen?
Reflective Observation
• Think back over the story you have noted down.
Was it easy to identify who/where/when? Could
you really think about who said what to whom?
How did thinking about it make you feel?
• You could then frame some questions using a
mind map
Abstract Conceptualization

Could I improve
how I got my
point across?

Possible
frames for
reflection
Is there Did I react to the
person/people
something I
involved ‘as I
didn’t know always do’? Is this
about that I how I want to
could have react in the
known about? future?
Active Experimentation
• How could you change how you approach similar
situations in the future?
• Are there any skills that you want to practice to
prepare you for similar situations?
• Is there some repair work that you need to go
and do as a result of the situation? A
misunderstanding to clear up?
Gibbs Reflective Framework
The Gibbs framework provides the opportunity for a higher
level and more detailed reflection.

It was developed by Gibbs (1988) to give structure to

learning from experiences.

It can be used for examining stand alone experiences, along

repeated experiences (given its cyclic nature), allowing you
to learn and plan from things that either went well or didn’t
go well.
 Description: what
happened

Action Plan: what Feelings: what

will you do next were you thinking
time? about?

Evaluation: what
Conclusion: what
was good or bad
else could you
about the
have done?
experience?
Analysis: what
sense can you
make of the
situation?
Critical Incident Technique
Critical incident
Think of a situation that has happened in the last few
months that made you stop and think:
• What happened?
• Why was it such a seminal moment for you?
• What was your realization?
• What does this tell you about your development
need.
Goal Setting
Key references:
Locke, E. A. and Latham, G. P. (2012) Goal setting theory, In Motivation: Theory and
research, Routledge, pp. 23–40.
Locke, E. A. and Latham, G. P. (2006) New directions in goal-setting theory, Current
directions in psychological science, 15(5), pp. 265–268.

Why set goals?

• Goal setting provides a clear focus
• Setting a learning goal can be more powerful than setting an outcome
goal
• Plan, act and review to continuously develop
• Critical incidents allow us to get to the root cause of the issue
SMART Plan
SMART Plan
The SMART approach is a
technique that can be used
for goal setting.
Reading List - Reflection
Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and
learning methods, London, FEU.
Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential learning: experience as the
source of learning & development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Moon. J. (1999a) Learning Journals: A handbook for
Academics, Students and Professional Development. Kogan
Page, London.
Moon, J. (1999b) Reflection in Learning and Professional
Development: Theory & Practice. Kogan Page, London
Any questions?

Module Leader


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