Asking more key questions of self-reflection

ABSTRACT

The ability to reflect is fast becoming a skill that is globally recognised for its ability to benefit our learning, work and life. Support for individuals to engage in reflective activity can be found in an abundance of sources that include journal articles, online face-to-face coaching and mentoring opportunities, and published guides. However, when learners and professionals in the workforce seek to self-reflect, limited information is available at both a theoretical and practice-based level. Fuelled by concluding comments made in Asking key questions of self-reflection (Brownhill, 2022), this thoughtpiece offers a fresh literature-based exploration of this essential skill; this is facilitated by asking and answering more key questions such as who can and should self-reflect, and where and when can self-reflection be undertaken. Efforts to encourage individuals to engage in self-reflective activity are supported by a presentation of more stimulating ideas for use and adaptation. Written to be accessible in both content and scope, this thoughtpiece serves as an original and complementary ‘go-to’ that has the potential to help individuals self-reflect as part of their learning and/or professional development with increased clarity, appreciation and confidence.

KEYWORDS:

• Self-reflection
• key questions
• self-reflectors
• spaces
• time

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Self-reflection is labelled as a Personal skill under the sub-category Self-development and autonomy.

2. Key questions, such as Who can and should self-reflect?, Where can self-reflection be undertaken?, and When can self-reflection be undertaken? were used to narrow my exploration of the available literature, these questions being of particular interest to me from a theoretical and practice-based perspective. Specific terms such as self-reflectors, spaces and time were used to search different databases, e.g. Scopus and British Education Index, for relevant literature that was largely published between 2000 and the present day. Whilst most of the information collected was of worth, some of it offered disjointed and, at times, confusing insights.

3. Questions answered in the first thoughtpiece include What is ‘self-reflection’?, Why is self-reflection so important?, and How can self-reflection be undertaken?

4. Critical self-reflection refers to the process of questioning one’s own assumption, presuppositions, and meaning perspectives (Mezirow, 2006).

5. Wilson (2008, p. 183) refers to this as both ‘reflection-on-the-future’ and ‘reflection-before-action’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Simon Brownhill

Simon Brownhill is a Senior Lecturer of Education (Teaching and Learning) at the School of Education, University of Bristol. Specialising in pedagogy, he teaches on the MSc Education programme and supervises doctoral students (EdD and PhD). He previously worked as a Senior Teaching Associate as part of Education Reform and Innovation at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, principally serving as one of the lead trainers for the NIS Centre of Excellence levelled courses in Kazakhstan. His varied research and writing interests include supporting and training adult learners, children’s writing (fiction and non-fiction), effective behaviour management in the classroom (3-11+), men who work in the Early Years (0-8), and creative assessment. Simon has published his work in high-impact peer-reviewed journal articles (e.g. Gender and Education) and has presented his research at international conferences, serving as a Keynote speaker in Ireland, Portugal and Indonesia. He is co-author of the award-winning book Men in Early Years Settings: Building a Mixed Gender Workforce (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2019).