Using a reflection framework can guide you through different steps and levels of critical thinking and evaluation towards a case study. Breaking a case study example down into such steps allows you to move from the detailed description of a situation, event, or experience to being able to relate and connect these case details with course concepts, readings, and theories to make sense of the situation. This assists you to understand the how and why reasons for these case details and interpret them by using existing knowledge and theory to explain the significance and insights of learning, which helps build awareness of professional practice (Ryan, 2011).
| Report/Respond |
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| Relate |
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| Reason |
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| Reconstruct |
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Stages |
Example |
Language features |
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Reporting and Responding |
On the weekends I like to do a long walk along the beachside path. Last Sunday, I stopped to watch the waves for a minute. While I stood there I was horrified to watch a family with young children enter the water outside the flagged area. I wonder why they did that. Did they not see the signs? |
Introduce the topic by explaining its connection to your coursework. A reflection is personal, your language can be subjective and somewhat less formal than other academic writing. Note the use of personal language: I, my, we. Using a narrative (story) approach can sometimes show the contrast between different experiences. |
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Relate |
As I stood there watching the children struggle in the choppy waves, I remembered my surf lifesaving training from school, and how crucial it is to swim between the flags. I also remembered reading an article about how many people choose to swim outside the flags. I looked around to find that no one else was watching. Despite being a strong swimmer myself, I decided not to go down to the water. |
Use past tense to report on your past personal experiences. A good reflection will draw links between experience and ideas raised in unit readings and discussions. Use reporting verbs (characterisers, believes, encourages) to integrate sources into your reflection. Use present tense when you discuss theories of other writers. |
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Reason |
I spent a few more minutes watching and worrying about that family. I think perhaps that they were from overseas, and that they were not aware of the rule that you should swim between the flags. I suspect also, that they underestimated the strength of the waves Research by Surf Lifesaving Australia (2010) revealed that international visitors are high risk in the ocean because many do not speak English well, they do not know very much about surf safety and they limited swimming skills. Even though I was hesitant, at this point I decided that I had an ethical obligation to tell the family that they needed to swim between the flags. |
Again, draw links between the experience and the ideas in unit readings. |
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Reconstruct |
As I crossed the sand I saw another person talking to the family in the water, and they all walked out together. I was glad that a potential crisis was averted. Since then I have found that 35 of the 78 people who have drowned at Queensland beaches since 2005 were international visitors or migrants (Hinchcliffe, 2015). In future, I could just keep walking, hoping that someone else would help, but what might happen if I do that? What I will do, though, is head straight down to the water and try everything I can to get their attention, rather than standing by and waiting. This incident has had a strong emotional impact on me as the outcome could have been very different, so I am also going to explore ways that I can become more involved in community education about beach safety.
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Conclude reflection by linking back to the original idea you wanted to explore in your introduction. Be clear about what the experience has taught you. Avoid using words that are too general, for example: “Overall this was a great experience. I learned a lot.” What was great? |
This video (11 min) from Dr Amina Yonis shows the process of preparing for a reflective writing essay using the 4Rs model. Note that steps 1 and 2 (reporting and responding) in this video can be combined into one step.
