Reflective writing

During your time at university you will spend a lot of your time thinking – thinking about what people have said, your reading, your own thinking and how your thinking has changed. The thinking process involves two aspects: reflective thinking and critical thinking. Rather than being two separate processes they are closely connected. (Brookfield 1987)
Reflective thinking
Reflection is a form of personal response to experiences, situations, events or new information. It is a ‘processing’ phase where thinking and learning take place. There is neither a right nor wrong way of reflective thinking; there are just questions to explore.
The reflective thinking process starts with you. Before you can begin to assess the
7. What other perspectives, theories or concepts could be applied to the situation?

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

Acknowledgement: The preceding material was adapted from The Learning Centre, The University of NSW. Used by permission.

Additional notes:
Steps for writing a reflective paper:
1. Start your self-reflection paper with an introductory paragraph. This introduction should help set the stage for the reader and should contain the main point of the paper. This would be a good paragraph in which to include information about how the subject and the material impacted your life, whether it reinforced your current views or caused you to change your way of thinking.
2. Write a paragraph or two about the impact the lecturer, classroom/tutorial discussions or the textbook material had on you during the course. Describe emotions you felt you felt or changes you experienced in your personal life due to the topic or the subject. If your opinions on different subjects changed due to these factors be sure to provide your previous opinion and explain why you changed your stance. If your opinions did not change, explain why.
3. Describe a moment during the class that was the most eye-opening for you. One example would be if during a lecture/tutorial the lecturer/tutor used a specific story