הרהורים על רפלקציה

… what is clear just one week into the term is that while collection of evidence is easy, reflection is hard.

Reflection as a concept should be abandoned in management educational practice because of:

• Lack of consistent definition
• Lack of operational value – we can’t tell students how to do it
• Some minor, but potential dangers if we could tell students how to do it
• Lack of necessity – we do not see how such an ill-defined concept is necessary for helping students to learn.

Students get fed up with this, and feel it is playing a game – they know if they say ‘I think I could have done better at this’, then they’ll get marks. Whereas if you said ‘I think I did everything right’ you won’t.

We don’t sit down at a keyboard and go “Um, time to reflect”. In fact we mull things over, move thoughts about in our heads, have ideas (and forget them) at the most mundane times – making tea, driving the car, walking to the shops. Recording these reflections, at least for me, becomes a set of notes or memos. It is later that they come together into a way of thinking about something and I may or may not have a reason to write it down more coherently – often it is just stored in the head.