Reflexion is...
* The day to day activity we engage in and gives us information that we can draw from experience.
* A tool that helps you to see where things are missing and enables you to find them.
* The idea that inner processes exist and can engage with experience.
These are some meanings about reflexion but by the end or during an experience, You are the judge of what does reflexion mean to you and how it affects you. Remember; there is No right or wrong.
In order to reflect on our experiences we need to be aware of our 'Reflective thought'. This is the tool that will show us ways to be aware that we are having an experience, to find links to other experiences and to find meaning for ourselves.
You will only learn by an experience if you are active, aware and persistent and take consideration of any belief or form of knowledge from the beginning until the end of an experience.
I would like to share an experience with you and later on I will explain how I reflected on it.
On Tuesday the 30th of October I attended the 2nd meeting of Module 1 which was based on 'Reflexion'.
There we met Adesola Akinleye who helped us understand the meaning of Reflexion and the ways we can approach our experiences in order to 'invest' on a brighter future. Here is one of the exercises we did during the class.
We had to split in two's and hold the ends of a long stick with our fingertip. The rules were to keep silent whilst moving the stick around and if we drop it to yell hooray!
The first time I tried it with my partner I realised that it was something new to me. I kept watching her moves in order to connect and follow her skepticism. It wasn't long until I found out how to keep my fingertip on the stick whilst turning, bending and experimenting unusual moves. I have to admit that I cheated sometimes to save the stick from falling down but when it did fall I realised that it wasn't such a big deal! You always learn from your mistakes, so next time I applied a different way of reacting and I concentrated on how my partner works. She used her patience and calmness to move slow, in control and with thought behind every move and I used my imagination and experimentation to try new and interesting positions and moves. You always have to connect with your eyes and use your strenghts to achieve a good result.
This experience tought me to be patient, observe, react and connect with the other person (without talking).
Now I want to link my experience with the learning cycle and explain how it applies on me.
David Kolb's idea of a learning cycle is a reflexion on How you learn and a Tool for Approaching experience. The cycle consists of four stages:
* Concrete Experience (having an experience)
* Reflective Observation (reflecting on the experience)
* Abstract Conceptualisation (learning from the experience)
* Active Experimentation (trying out what you have learned)
You don't need to follow a pattern you can enter the cycle where you feel your experience reflects the most.
In my case I entered the cycle on the 'concrete experience' as it was something completely new to me. Gradually, by observing and learning from it I managed to understand the purpose of the exercise and finally make it an experience. If I was to do something that I am more familiar with, like sing in front of an audience; I would have entered the cycle on the 'active experimentation'. I am performing a song which is something that I'm used to doing, but I am still learning from the experience, so next time I will apply what I've learned in order to improve and become better in my profession.
Dewey's idea about reflective thought and experience is based in active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the further conclusions to which it tends.
I as a person believe and consider education one of the most important things in life, but to be educated doesn't mean that you are fully engaged and experiencing life to the fullest. Knowledge is important but being engaged with your inner thoughts and feelings is more critical in order to capture the right moment and make it an experience. To have knowledge of your inner feelings but using what you have learnt throughout life are the key ingredients that will help you become a better version of yourself!
Donald Schon introduced the idea of reflexion-in-action, and reflexion-on-action. To me both ways of reflexion are equally important. If you reflect IN the middle of an experience, it means that you are paying full attention and you're concentrating on what you are doing IN the moment. If you are looking back ON the experience, it means that you're taking in consideration what you have applied earlier and you are answering and solving any queries you might have noticed after the experience.
Jennifer Moon states the fact that is important to find ways to articulate tacit knowledge and experiences, because they are real when their put into words but they also have understanding and meaning in them that are important to access. I believe that tacit knowledge and experiences are real even if they haven't been put into words; if you have experienced something that has really touched you then it's real. You can feel it, you can sense it, is there; is just something that you can't express with words but it still has a meaning for you and that makes it important.
Michael Polanyi also disagrees with the statement that we have to articulate tacit knowledge and experiences, by simply saying: 'I shall consider human knowledge by starting from the fact that we can know more than we can tell.'
Miranda Tufnell and Chris Crickmay have a different idea on how we can approach reflexion. This idea is called muscle memory; something that dancers and people in other practical fields are more familiar with.
By using your unconscious mind during the creative process you stop being aware and in control of yourself; you just follow your instict and then everything comes naturally. The secret is to push away any thoughts and just concentrate on what you are trying to achieve in the moment. This way you are reflecting in action and by looking back at it, you are reflecting on action. Is a very useful technique which comes through practice and experience and it can be very satisfying once achieved.
'Without a sense of the body, of sensation and feeling, we lose connection to what is around and with us, to the immediate and present moments of our lives' (Tufnell and Crickmay, 2004).
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