A Reflection on Reflection

I'm supposed to write a series of critical reflections for my course. That means thinking about what I thought about in relation to what my teachers were thinking about in relation to the thoughts of at least 8 educational theorists whilst thinking about how I thought about it. So now I'm thinking about how to think about it but getting distracted by thinking about what I'll be thinking about next week and anticipating what my assessor will think of what I thought. The main trouble I am having with this is that meta-cognition is second nature to me, I am an introvert by nature. A daydreamer. Reflecting on things is easy, sorting those reflections into a neat collection of audience ready vignettes might prove more of a challenge. I read Learning Journals by Jennifer A Moon and I have made a couple of unsuccessful attempts at reflection based on some of her ideas. So far I have attempted:

• Video blogging.
• Audio blogging

And, perhaps most importantly:

• Thinking about why those formats have not worked.

Listening to yourself talk is a useful dialogic tool, it gives you feed back on your own thoughts and allows you to develop those thoughts in a more structured manner. However, at least in my own ramblings, it is the seed of a reflection rather than the reflection itself. In order to get any value from a reflection, like a school lesson, it must have an objective. So for all future reflections I will be asking myself, "what do I want to get out of this reflection?" and "What have I learned from it?" For today I have:

1. A clearer idea of the purpose of reflection
2. The need for a purpose within that reflection.

That will have to do for now.