Communicative/dialogic reflection
In this example (below), there has been a distinct shift in the language. There is now a conversation with self. The language is more tentative and exploratory, a willingness to accept uncertainty, not necessarily being sure of what happened and why. There is also some reframing of the incident, an attempt to consider what took place from another person’s perspective, to view the incident from their perspective, to try to place the writer in that person’s shoes and identify how they might have felt. There is also the wondering about alternative strategies that might have been used. However, all of this wondering is still within only the context of the particular event. There is no consideration of anyone or any factors beyond that immediate context.
EXAMPLE
I wouldn’t have wanted to be in Serena’s position! Daniel and others got really quite aggressive! I wonder why Daniel was so steamed up! It just showed how much anger – and maybe personal experience – people have had with workplace bullying. Some obviously think we shouldn’t be focussing on the perpetrator at all! Poor Serena! Obviously others were concerned that we didn’t have the time to effectively focus on all perspectives while making a clear statement that the behaviour wasn’t acceptable. I wonder how Serena felt? I mean she began by trying to understand and – even sympathise- with Daniel’s and the others’ comments and feelings but as it went on and things got more heated she started to get really defensive – and that only made things worse! And the discussion finished with lots of arguing as group members were leaving. I wonder how that is going to affect all of us with the presentation due end of next week? Maybe if Serena had not got so defensive things wouldn’t have got so out of hand. I wonder how she could have handled that differently. But maybe Daniel should have tried to consider Serena’s suggestion.
Identifiers:
- Demonstrates a ‘stepping back’ from the event/action/experience leading to a different level of mulling about, discourse with self and exploring and reframing the experience/Such reflection is integrative of different factors/perspectives and more analytical in nature. This reflection only considers the immediate actors and context of the site in which the event/action/interaction/experience occurred.