伯明翰大学教你如何反思性写作 A short guide to reflective writing

What is reflection, and why is it important?

Reflection is a purposeful activity in which you analyse experiences, or your own practice/skills/responses, in order to learn and improve.

什么是反思，为什么它很重要？

反思是一种有目的的活动，在这种活动中，你分析经验或者你自己的实践/技能/反应，以便学习和提高。

Reflection in academia

We reflect quite naturally in our day to day lives, thinking about things that have happened, why they happened, whether we handled them well. In academia, you may be asked to formalise your reflections to show that learning is taking place.

学术反思

我们在日常生活中很自然地反思，思考已经发生的事情，为什么会发生，我们是否处理得当。在学术界，你可能会被要求把你的反思正式化，以表明学习是一种习惯

This may involve:

Reflecting on your own professional or academic practice

Scrutinising an experience and the way you dealt with it

Evaluating a project or experiment and considering how to do it better next time

Reflecting on things you have read and linking theory with practice/reality

这可能会涉及：

反思自己的专业或学术实践

仔细审视你的经历和处理方式

评估一个项目或实验，并考虑下次如何做得更好

反思你读过的东西，并将理论与实践/现实联系起来

‘It is not sufficient to have an experience in order to learn. Without reflecting on this experience it may quickly be forgotten, or its learning potential lost.’ (Gibbs, 1988, p9)

Models of reflection

There are frameworks that you can use to aid your reflective process. Alternatively, you may want to create your own. It needs to be a set of questions that you can ask yourself about an experience, plus a process by which you apply and learn from your reflection. Here are just tWo examples of models of reflection:

反思模型

这里有一些你可以使用来帮你进行反思过程的框架。或者，你也可以建立属于自己的框架。 框架需要含有一系列关于你自身经历的问题，同时附加上一个你从反思中应用和学习的过程。以下是两个反思模型的示例：

Reflective writing for an assignment

Writing reflectively for the purposes of an assignment should not involve merely describing something that happened. Nor does it mean pouring out everything you think and feel in a totally unstructured way. Reflective writing requires a clear line of thought, use of evidence or examples to illustrate your reflections, and an analytical approach.

如何写一篇反思性的论文作业

以反思性写作为目标的论文作业不应该仅仅涉及描述发生的事情。这也不意味着以一种完全无组织的方式倾吐你的所思所感。反思式写作需要清晰的思路，使用证据或例子来说明你的思考，以及分析的方法。

You are aiming to strike a balance betWeen your personal perspective, and the requirements of good academic practice and rigorous thinking. This means:

developing a perspective, or line of reasoning

demonstrating that you are well informed, have read relevant literature and reflected on its relevance to your own development

showing that you recognise that situations are rarely simple and clear-cut

writing about the link betWeen your experiences/practice and your reading

writing in an appropriate style.

你需要寻求在个人观点与良好学术实践和严谨思考的要求之间取得平衡。这意味着：

形成一种观点或推理路线

展示出你知识渊博，阅读过相关文献，并对其与自身发展的相关性进行了思考

表明你认识到情况很少是简单明了的

写下你的经历/实践与阅读之间的联系

以适当的风格写作

As an example, consider the extract below, which is from a nursing student’s reflective essay. Consider how the writer develops a line of reasoning based on their own thoughts and experiences, and then links it to wider reading.

Please remember: different disciplines have different requirements and styles. This is an example of just one approach.

作为一个示例，请考虑下面的摘录，这是从一个护士专业学生的反思性文章。考虑一下作者是如何根据自己的想法和经验发展出一系列的推理，然后将其与更广泛的阅读联系起来的。请记住:不同的学科有不同的要求和风格。这只是其中一种方法的一个例子。

Example Extract

During term one I found myself inwardly questioning the reliability and validity of scientific journals, as I came across conflicting studies and contradictory data in our weekly research and feedback sessions.

I was surprised at how other members of the group appeared to automatically trust the content of peer-reviewed journals and I sometimes felt that what was presented back to the group was accepted as factual as long as there was a reference attached.

This prompted me to read into what I now realise is referred to as publication bias and has been widely documented in recent years.

For example, Dawes (2005) argues that, although reputable journals adopt a robust peer review process, articles still get published with significant flaws:

‘Journals have to publish to survive and they want to publish articles that deal with topical important issues of the day. Sometimes this imperative overrides the critical review process.’ (Dawes 2005:6)

Furthermore, Brooks (1997:46) highlights the fact that statistical significance increases the likelihood of a researcher’s work being published, which might tempt some researchers to tamper with the data.

I did not want to appear cynical to the rest of the group and kept these concerns to myself, which

on reflection I perhaps could have volunteered for discussion. Instead I felt that in order to construct an accurate care plan at the end of each scenario I had to adopt a more robust approach in selecting appropriate journal texts.

After these realisations, I found it more helpful to employ the use of meta-analyses and systematic reviews for assessing research. I found that using systematic reviews saved time searching through numerous journals, and I found the Cochrane Library a useful electronic information source.

Conclusion 

Reflection is a useful process even if you have not been set a specific reflective assignment. It helps you to make sense of and learn from your experiences.

Many degrees involve assessed reflective writing. This is to allow you to demonstrate that you can think critically about your own skills or practice,in order to improve and learn. It is important to analyse rather than just describe the things you are reflecting on, and to emphasise how you will apply what you have learned.

结语

即使你没有被指定一个特定的反思写作作业，反思也是一个有用的过程。它帮助你理解你的经历并从中学习。许多学位涉及评估反思性写作。这是为了让你证明你可以批判性地思考自己的技能或实践，以提高和学习。重要的是要分析，而不仅仅是描述你正在反思的事情，并强调你将如何应用你所学到的东西。

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