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Reflection On The Word ' Reflection '

Decent Essays

For me the word ‘reflection’ means taking time to really dig deep into my thoughts, to contemplate something meaningful and significant, to make a decision that often involves me and my future. It has a personal and emotional connection. Daudelin (1996) uses the word ‘reflection’ to encourage managers to create time to recognise the value of learning from past and current work situations (‘experience’) and to adapt this learning to new situations. I would prefer to choose the words ‘thought’ or ‘consideration’ when applying the idea of reflection to my own work environment. To fix my thoughts on what I have learned or to carefully consider how to approach a problem would, for me, be a better fit. I might, however, choose to reflect on how the past year has been or to reflect on the direction the organisation is taking, but not, as Daudelin suggests, bring the word into every day use.
Boud et al. (1985) suggest that we can’t learn from experience alone and ask the questions: What transforms experience into learning? What enables learners to profit from the situations they find themselves in? How does experience relate to new situations?
Daudelin (1996, 39) offers a definition of reflection that catches its relation to learning:
Reflection is the process of stepping back from an experience to ponder, carefully and persistently, its meaning to the self through the development of inferences; learning is the creation of meaning from past or current events that serves as a

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