When tackling a reflective assignment, the first hurdle can often be choosing a situation or experience to reflect upon. Sometimes a specific instance stands out as a great learning opportunity but, if not, there are a few things to consider which can help: 

• The situation, event, or decision needs to be sufficiently challenging. Ask yourself, is there an opportunity for true critical reflection? You don't want to select a situation that is too superficial or obvious as this will make in depth, meaningful reflection difficult.
• Choose an event or experience which you learned something from. This learning might be something good or something to not do again or somewhere in between.
• Finally, ensure that you can relate your chosen experience to the learning outcomes for the unit. Remember you will be assessed against those so you want to make life easy for yourself and choose a situation that allows you to reflect that knowledge or ability. 

Once you have decided on a situation the first step might be to write up the event or situation in as much detail as you can remember. This won't end up in your assignment, it is too descriptive! You just need to recall all of the relevant details so you can begin the process of reflection. 

Remember you won't be able to reflect upon every aspect of the experience either, as you likely won't have enough words to go into sufficient detail. It's more likely that you will select a few key aspects to reflect upon and dig into these in detail. How many aspects you choose will depend upon your word count. Always read your assignment guidance carefully to be clear about what you have been asked to do before beginning.

Test your knowledge of reflection by playing the desert island reflection game below:

Explore the image below that outlines the basic steps involved in critical reflection and the types of questions you can ask yourself throughout.  Please note, this is not a model of reflection, just an outline of what might be involved. There are many models that help to guide and structure reflection and you can find out more about them by navigating to the models of reflection section of the library guide. 

Take a look at the University of Hull's guides to some of the most common reflective models. The page offers an overview of the models and some pros and cons which could be a good starting point when considering what model would be best for your own reflective writing. 

Sometimes your final write-up will reflect the model you have used to structure your reflection, i.e. you might include subheadings and discuss your reflections at the time and then how you feel after the event. Sometimes you may be asked to simply use the model to structure your thinking to inform a different kind of assignment. Always ensure that you read your assignment brief carefully to understand what you have been asked to produce. 

Ghaye, T. (2014) Reflection: principles and practices for healthcare professionals. Quay Books, a division of MA Healthcare Ltd.

Schön, D. A. (1994) The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. London: Routledge.

University of Edinburgh (ND) Reflection toolkit. Available at: https://www.ed.ac.uk/reflection (Accessed: 4 August 2023). 

University of Hull (ND) Reflective writing: reflective frameworks. Available at:https://libguides.hull.ac.uk/reflectivewriting/reflection3 (Accessed: 4 August 2023).