Key terms and concepts

Recount

Recording of interactions/people that occurred in a particular incident/event. There is no attempt to provide reasons or justification. There is no reframing or attempting to view the event from another perspective.

Technical/Descriptive reflection

An account that beings to provide possible reasons for what took place. Technical reflection may compare what happened against a set of criteria or expected outcomes in order to evaluate whether achieving the goals or criteria have been met.

Communicative/hermeneutic reflection

Some reframing of the incident/event from other perspectives to try to place the reflector in another person’s shoes and identify how they might have felt. It often takes the form of a dialogue with self, or others if reflecting in a group. The reflection is still only taking place in the context of a particular incident/event

Reflection on action occurs after the event or experience.

“We may reflect on action, thinking back on what we have done in order to discover how our knowing-in-action may have contributed to an unexpected outcome. We may do so after the fact, in tranquility, or we may pause in the midst of action to make what Hannah Arendt (1971) calls a “stop-and-think.” In either case, our reflection has no direct connection to present action.” (Schön, 1991, p.26)

Reflection-in-action occurs during the event or experience

“Alternatively, we may reflect in the midst of action without interrupting it. In an action-present—a period of time, variable with the context, during which we can still make a difference to the situation at hand—our thinking serves to reshape what we are doing while we are doing it. I shall say, in cases like this, that we reflect-in-action”. (Schon, 1991, p. 26)