Reflecting on Reflection

“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.”

                                                         Peter F. Drucker

Reflection is a personal and a professional development activity. With all the "action" in our personal and professional lives,effective and meaningful reflection must be done with conscious effort. Powerful and productive change does not occur without deliberate reflection. Consider the following:

INFORMATION + ACTION = KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge is the result of information and action. Yet, knowledge of actions taken is still not wisdom. It is in the reflective process that we are able to see if the knowledge used and action taken have produced something of value and worth. So,

KNOWLEDGE + EXPERIENCE + REFLECTION = WISDOM

Wisdom born of reflection allows us to grow, develop, change, inspire, produce, attract, influence, contribute,...teach. I believe that if we can teach ourselves and our students to make reflection an integral part of living and learning, we have really done something that makes knowledge deep and lasting. Here are some ways to get the reflective conversations going:

• If I were to do it over again...
• I now know...
• Now that I am done, I understand...
• I want my actions to make a difference, so…
• I now realize that..
• I am really proud of...
• Next time, I could...
• I’ve learned that…
• I’ve always wondered…

So as the hustle and bustle of your week begins, make sure to set aside time for reflection and know that when you do, it is worth every second!

Photo on Flickr by Electron Cloud

 

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Comments

[Shannon]

Angela,
You are a 1/2 marathon runner! We will always look back at Sunday's race and be so amazed. We so did this, and nailed it! Reflection is so important to think how I would do things differently, what worked, and to remind me of that feeling of accomplishment to push me to race again. Thanks for your positive energy and support! I'm so proud of you!

[Angela Maiers]

Shannon, it was reflection on what worked, what did not, what we could do differently, ect...that allowed us to do what we did! We are wiser now, and we are SO ready to do this next year! See you at the finish line!

[Jocelyn Wallace]

Shannon and Angela, you are my girls! I feel so priviledged to run the races with you, both the Half Marathons and the races of life. If I were to do the half marathon all over again, I wouldn't change a thing because I did it with two of my favorite people. My big reflection is that although reaching the goal felt AWESOME it is really secondary to the great feeling that we have a friendship that can't be torn, even in our quirky imperfections and human-ness. Thank you for letting me chatter away and share MY reflections with you as we run. I LOVE YOU GUYS.

[Angela Maiers]

The privileged is ALL mine girlfriend! I agree, lessons learned were WAY bigger than the race. It is lifelong-the entire expereince!!

[Amy]

One of my personal favorite sayings is "keep the lesson, throw away the experience". That is the heart of reflection to me. Great post - love your blog - it helps me think through my "teacher" role at home with my son and daughter.

[Angela Maiers]

Amy, what a powerful quote. It is in reflection that we gain our best life lessons. It is in this we grow! Thanks-I will add that one to my collection!

[Galba Bright of Tune up your EQ]

I agree that reflection is vital if we are to be effective in our sometimes chaotic world. I'm not so sure about the idea of throwing away the experience. The processing of an event is a critical part of distilling the lessons learned, yet the recall of an experience, for example the feelings generated, the smells, touch and other sensations can stimulate recall and promote deeper learning. When I design a role play for an Emotional intelligence Learning programme, I want learners to process the experience AND remember the experience itself. Your thoughts ?

[Angela Maiers]

Galba, I fully agree. It is in the processing of an event that we learn. As you said, the senses play a critical role in helping us distill and remember the essential thoughts and feelings making the memories and the learning deep and lasting. I look forward to reading and learning more about how you use role play to help foster this level of reflection. Thanks for the insights and Happy New Year!

[Wendell]

"Reflection is a personal and a professional development activity." Yes! And in peer group settings it can be especially rich and rewarding.

If only we had time or made time or insisted on time to also write down and share our reflections.

That would be one of the things that would help us be a field of 'professionals' (among whom I include home-schoolers), rather than employees.

Thks for the blog, Angela. It's a wonderful aid in reflection and action.

[Angela Maiers]

Wendell, it is so good to hear from you! I think reflection should be a required piece in professional development which is so often "sit and get".

If during the "sitting", educators all levels would reflect on their learning--from their practice, their students, colleagues,parents, and the world around them,we would all be wiser. Thanks for the insight.

[Galba Bright of Tune up your EQ]

Hello Angela:

A recent example of my using role plays in Emotional Intelligence was in coaching a team to prepare for a change in their organisational leadership. They role played being the new manager making the first address to the management team. It helped them surface a lot of fears and helped them to directly experience the different communication styles that their peers used. I wrote about the background here
http://tuneupyoureq.com/2007/10/25/how-to-conquer-your-fears-and-thrive-on-change/

[Galba Bright of Tune up your EQ]

Hello Angela:

A recent example of my using role plays in Emotional Intelligence was in coaching a team to prepare for a change in their organisational leadership. They role played being the new manager making the first address to the management team. It helped them surface a lot of fears and helped them to directly experience the different communication styles that their peers used. I wrote about the background here
http://tuneupyoureq.com/2007/10/25/how-to-conquer-your-fears-and-thrive-on-change/

[Angela Maiers]

Galba, thank you so much for taking the time to share this with everyone. What a fantastic way to
prepare for change. This is a great strategy in the classroom as well. Looking forward to reading and learning more about it. Thanks again for coming back to share!