The Significance of Reflective Learning in Higher Education Settings

This essay delves into the concept of reflective learning within the context of higher education, emphasizing its role in developing critical thinking and adapting to dynamic environments. It explores various models and frameworks, including Gibbs' reflective cycle, Bloom's Taxonomy, and Kolb's experiential learning cycle, to illustrate how students can enhance their learning through self-assessment, feedback, and iterative improvement. The essay discusses the importance of both formative and summative assessments, highlighting the significance of feedforward and feedback mechanisms in fostering student growth. It underscores the benefits of reflective learning in achieving professional goals and long-term educational objectives, providing a comprehensive overview of its application in higher education settings. The essay also examines the role of different forms of reflection, such as auditory and kinesthetic, and their impact on student understanding. Furthermore, it discusses the importance of a well-structured feedback system and how it contributes to the development of high-quality work. Finally, the essay emphasizes the significance of reflective learning in improving students' overall performance and ability to acquire skills and knowledge.

Orientation for Success
in Higher Education

Table of Contents
INTRDOUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION
The concept of Reflective Learning basically focuses on the development of critical thinking
skills through exploring different areas for improvement and internal process of examining
strengths. It is basically a broad educational framework and the objective of reflective learning
basically comprises of the various learning when it comes to business, they are now search for
effective approaches in order to cope up with the ongoing change that generally happens in
political, economic, social and other conditions. In reference to reflective learning, it has been
recognised as the concept of providing students with related information and in-depth
knowledge. In order to help the students to perform in better way, this approach incorporates
interactive discourse with an awareness of the settings related to social, political and emotional
of students. Reflective Learning plays a very important role in student’s life for the purpose to
achieve professional objectives and goals related to long-term educational through application of
the enthusiasm and principles to education. In reference to education, the model is proposed by
the Gibbs in the year 1981. In context to Gibbs Model, it basically serves as an effective example
in reference to reflective learning. Also the Bloom’s Taxonomy and Kolb’s reflective model is
combined for the purpose to examine the impact of Feed Forward and Feedback in a reflection
based teaching strategy on final evaluations.
MAIN BODY
Experience and Education by American psychologist and philosopher John Dewey which
were published in the year 1938. When it comes to reflective method, it may aid in developing
concepts and theories through providing frameworks for these activities. In relation to the
Gibbs’approach, it helps in building a six stage cyclically organized platform in the same way as
part of the structure building. In relation to Gibbs model, it basically comprises of feelings,
evaluation, analysis, action plan and conclusion. In relation to an activity or event, the learners
are basically expected to reflect on should be described in depth when it comes to Explanation
Stage (Roberts, 2018). The evaluation and feelings stages get deep into the underlying emotions
to a greater extent. In reference to analysis stage, it generally involves thorough strategy in order
to deal with same occurrences in the future is developed. At conclusion stage, it basically
involves the detailed description of how the incident was managed and handled. As a self-
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reflection exercise, i will look at the my work and will make sure if the citations and references
sections have any problems which need to be addressed (Santamaría-Cárdaba and Vicente-
Mariño, 2021). During the evaluation stage, my teacher’s bad and good opinions played a very
important role. During the analysis stage, i also realised that i required support for the purpose to
resolve my issues. In addition to that, i overcome my challenges in the conclusion stage after
peer mentoring, lot of practice and constant efforts. In case of action plans they were both
efficient and successful were created for the purpose to find from the conclusion stage. With the
help of Gibbs ‘methodology, it really supported me in improving the overall performance of my
modules in this manner. In case of reflection, it could take various forms such as kinaesthetic,
visual and auditory. When it comes to auditory features, it basically comprises of rhyme, sounds,
rhythm and music. With the support of auditory reflection, it helps in youngsters thinking
backwards. In reference to the Kinesthetic Reflection, it is basically a learning method that
generally uses associated emotions and physical movement (Janke, 2022).
In case of reflective learning, it basically requires an effective and efficient feedback system.
When it comes to feedback system, written and oral feedback is not only kind of feedback which
is used in different situations. It also comprises of Hampel, self reflection and peer evaluation. In
case of recording of the performance, it basically requires both spoken comments and written
feedback which are generally accompanied through performance recordings. With the help of
written words, i received from the participating in different sessions, i have also improved my
skills related to citation and writing which plays a very important role in generating high-quality
work( Mishra, 2020). It was really a very supportive to hear feedback due to my honesty and
directness of presentation. In reference to Feed forward and feedback, the past is considered to be
the focus of feedback and the present is the focus of feed forward. We are basically involved in
the endless cycle of guidance that basically creates impulses that may not or may lead to
confirmation. When it comes to feed forward philosophy, it basically states that the behaviour of
the receiver should be predictable. When it comes to Feed forward, the Bloom’s Taxonomy and
Kolbs Reflective Mode comes to mind. In case of educational paradigms, David.A.Kolb’s
Experiential learning Cycle is considered to be one of the most important educational paradigms.
As per this concept, students who are highly engaged seeks knowledge while being exposed to
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new difficulties and experiences which also comprises of dangers and risks. In context to the
learning process, it comprises of active investigation, concrete learning, abstract conception and
reflective observation( Sa'id, 2022). With the use of Bloom’s Taxonomy, it could help in
categorising the Learner outcomes which is basically a collection of three hierarchical
frameworks which is Affective, Cognitive and Psychomotor goals which are basically
considered as the three divisions of the learning objectives. As per the various findings, it has
been revealed that students should actively participate in all the six levels of this taxonomy while
using the feed forward in practice( Li and Tian, 2021).
Due to the central role assessments, it plays a very important role in the summative,
formative and educational process in education are intertwined. For the purpose to succeed in
today’s more diverse learning environment, it is very important to have both the constructive and
summative efforts. During the past days, summative assessments were considered to be the most
important and the common method when it comes to assessment of student’s performance. For
the purpose to offer students with appropriate critical evaluation, the work of students was
collected and was compared to the standard performances. In context to students, it makes is very
easy for the students when they see formative assessment as a continuous process. Real time
feedback and progress of student is tracked for the purpose to assist them in improving their
learning skills(Cabrera, 2018). As compared to previous generations, formative assessment is
considered to be more effective in the higher education system. When it comes to evaluation of
grades of the students, the students ability to do research and motivation to study has give more
weight in this method. As compare to summative analysis it is still used more often as compare
to the formative assessment. It is basically considered to be true for all the educational levels. In
relation to summative evaluation, it is considered to be more deliberate than formative evaluation
since it generally uses retrospective and comprehensive approach. As per the various finding, the
concept of Feedforward and reflective feedback may considered important for the purpose to
enhance the summative assessment procedures and future formative procedures.
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CONCLUSION
In context to Higher education setting, reflective learning plays a very important role in the
life of students. With the help of the above essay, it really helped in demonstrating how the
reflective strategies supports the students in long term attempts and improving their learning
capacity to expand their knowledge and better understanding .In case of students, who have
learned to reflect using Gibbs’ model basically comprises of a total of six stages of reflective
procedures that generally ranges from a general description to a well defined action plan and is
typically based upon various activities and previous experiences which eventually improves their
ability to acquire skills and knowledge related to earlier endeavours and also focusing on
development of effective strategies for future issues based on training and previous experiences.
In case of Gibbs’s reflective learning method, it helps in providing a constructive learning
environment for the students who are basically committed to professional activities and long
term learning objectives. Also when it comes to emotional detachment, it allows for more
spectrum and objectivity of emotions to be experienced. Also a brief examination of feed
forward and feedback is also discussed in the above essay which also draws on the Bloom’s
Taxonomy of learning styles and Kolb model of experiential learning.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cabrera, N.L., 2018. White guys on campus: Racism, White immunity, and the myth of" post-
racial" higher education. Rutgers University Press.
Janke, S., 2022. Give me freedom or see my motivation decline: Basic psychological needs and
the development of students' learning goal orientation. Learning and Individual
Differences, 96, p.102158.
Li, Z. and Tian, M., 2021, July. Description of role orientation of college teachers in online
education under epidemic emergency. In International Conference on Human-Computer
Interaction (pp. 172-182). Springer, Cham.
Mishra, S., 2020. Social networks, social capital, social support and academic success in higher
education: A systematic review with a special focus on
‘underrepresented’students. Educational Research Review, 29, p.100307.
Roberts, J., 2018. Professional staff contributions to student retention and success in higher
education. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 40(2), pp.140-153.
Sa'id, K.S.A., 2022. The Impact of Market Orientation, Entrepreneurial Orientation, and
Relationship Orientation on the International Performance of SMEs. In Multidisciplinary
Perspectives on Cross-Border Trade and Business (pp. 203-221). IGI Global.
Santamaría-Cárdaba, N. and Vicente-Mariño, M., 2021. Communicating Sustainable
Development in Higher Education: Evaluation of Education Experiences and Proposals for
Teachers’ Orientation. In The Palgrave Handbook of International Communication and
Sustainable Development (pp. 193-213). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
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