Reflect on my roles as student in the university based on Gibbs theory Free Essay Example

1.1 Introduction:
Reflective practice is “the capacity to reflect on action so as to engage in a process of continuous learning”, which, according to the originator of the term, is “one of the defining characteristics of professional practice”, Schön, D. (1983) Reflective practice can be an important tool in practice-based professional learning settings where individuals learning from their own professional experiences, rather than from formal teaching or knowledge transfer, may be the most important source of personal professional development and improvement. I am going to reflect on my roles as student In the university, The reflective model I have chosen to use is Gibbs model (Gibbs 1988).

Graham Gibbs discussed the use of structured debriefing to facilitate the reflection involved in Kolb’s “experiential learning cycle”. He presents the stages of a full structured debriefing as follows: (Initial experience)

Description:
“What happened? Don’t make judgments yet or try to draw conclusions; simply describe.” Feelings:
“What were your reactions and feelings? Again don’t move on to analysing these yet.” Evaluation:
“What was good or bad about the experience? Make value judgements.” Analysis:
“What sense can you make of the situation? Bring in ideas from outside the experience to help you.” “What was really going on?”
“Were different people’s experiences similar or different in important ways?” Conclusions (general):
“What can be concluded, in a general sense, from these experiences and the analyses you have undertaken?” Conclusions (specific):
“What can be concluded about your own specific, unique, personal situation or way of working?” Personal action plans:
“What are you going to do differently in this type of situation next time?” “What steps are you going to take on the basis of what you have learnt?” Gibbs, G.

(1998), Gibbs, G. (2001). Gibbs’ suggestions are often cited as Gibbs’ reflective cycle or Gibbs’ model of reflection (1988), and simplified into the following six distinct stages: Description

1.2 Why is reflective practice so important?
Reflective practice is important for everyone – and nurses in particular – for a number of reasons. First, nurses are responsible for providing care to the best of their ability to patients and their families . They need to focus on their knowledge, skills and behaviour to ensure that they are able to meet the demands made on them by this commitment. Second, reflective practice is part of the requirement for nurses constantly to update professional skills. Keeping a portfolio offers considerable opportunity for reflection on ongoing development. Annual reviews enable nurses to identify strengths and areas of opportunity for future development. Third, nurses should consider the ways in which they interact and communicate with their colleagues. The profession depends on a culture of mutual support. Nurses should aim to become self-aware, self-directing and in touch with their environment

. They can only achieve this goal if they make full use of opportunities to gain feedback on their impact on patients, patients’ families, their colleagues and the organization as a whole. Gaining this feedback involves using complex skills in detecting patterns, making connections, and making appropriate choices. Reflective practice enables nurses to develop their skills, increase their knowledge, and deal with emotionally challenging situations. Developing my reflective practice early on in your education will pay dividends on every clinical placement I undertake, building a strong foundation for a successful career in nursing.

Developing reflective practice involves asking myself what worked, what didn’t, and what you would change for a better outcome in a particular situation. By effectively assessing my own and other’s practice, I will gain new skills and knowledge as a nurse. A vital part of the reflective process is to plan for changes in your behavior. One way to tackle this is to adopt the creative thinking strategy devised by Walt Disney. He had three stages to his strategy, based on different characters, each of which surfaced at appropriate points in the process of creating new projects.

These three characters were: The Dreamer. This character looks towards ideas for the future. The main focus is on how the imagined future feels and looks. In this phase, people say: ‘I wish… What if…? Just imagine if…’ The Realist. This character is action-oriented, looking at how the dream can be turned into a practical, workable plan or project given the existing constraints and realities. The realist weighs up all the possibilities, asking: ‘How can I…? Have I enough time to…?’ The Critic. This character is very logical and looks for the whys and why nots to a given situation.

The critic evaluates the plan, looking for potential problems and missing links, and says: ‘That’s not going to work because… What happens when…?’ Effective planning of personal learning requires a synthesis of these different processes. The dreamer is needed in order to form new ideas and goals. The realist is necessary as a means of transforming these ideas into concrete expressions. The critic is necessary as a filter for refining ideas and avoiding possible problems

2.1 reflect on my roles as student in the university based on Gibbs theory: First stage of Gibbs (1988) model of reflection requires a description of my roles as student: Only one week before coming to Malaysia my husband and I celebrated our wedding. A wedding transforms both men and women. For whatever reason, spouses begin to talk each other for granted. It is probably because they know that will be together until death do us part. I really believe that even great marriages have terrible years, so bad that you are just tempted to give up. And do not. Hold on. There will come a time when you will look back on this moment as the prelude to something fuller and richer than you have ever experienced (from the movie “hope springs”) A relationship is like a house. When a light bulb burns out, you do not go out and buy a new house, you change the light bulb.

It was very difficult for both of us (my husband and I) to start our marriage life in foreign country without any family support, learning and studying English with a lot of changes in our roles. I am now going to enter into the second stage of Gibbs (1988) model of reflection, which is a discussion about my thoughts and feelings: As student in university I should try to respects the safety and well-being of other people in the learning experience, recognizing my knowledge, skills and abilities, limits of responsibilities, legislative authority and supervision requirements. Understanding and clarifying my roles. Use clear, accurate and effective communication skill in professional interactions, identifying my needs as student, I should try to identify my responsibility and try to improve my ability and quality of my objectives. Becomes familiar with and follows the agency’s policies, procedures and principles.

On top of these I should try to cope myself with the new situation as student how live in the multicultural country with different cultures, languages, foods, climate condition, even driving direction and roles. My mother tongue is Persian then Kurdish, the educational system in Iran is very different with here for example most of the time we study Persian text, for the first time it was very difficult for me to study the English text. Evaluation is the third stage of Gibbs (1988) model of reflection and requires the reflector to with state what was good and bad about the event. By living in Malaysia I can choose more suitable education methods for myself because there are more options. The course and teaching methods are quite different from my country. Secondly, I can improve my foreign language furthermore I can contact with others.

Thirdly, it helps me to promote the mutual understanding of between my mother land and other destination countries. It gives me this opportunity to exchange information with the locals. I can get better understanding of the destination countries. Similarly, the locals also can get more clear recognition about other countries.

On the other hand Believing in certain values and traditions when you are in a country which has the opposite ideals, can sometimes cause stress. Being far from my country and families, trying to cope with the climate and geographical area, trying the new foods and tastes, having allergy to some of foods and products, learning English and try to communicate with other people with English language, high cost of living and studying are the most difficulties of studying in Malaysia. Stage four of Gibbs (1988) is an analysis of the event, where Gibbs encourages the reflector to make sense of the situation. When I first time came to Malaysia I have experienced the cultural shock. Just as it took time to adjust to a different culture when I arrived here. I experience these kinds of symptoms: Restlessness

The coping skills and strategies that were successful help me to adjust to my host culture are: Get involved Identify a support group of other study abroad students Suspend judgment until you understand a situation Always, always keep a sense of humor Because of different in geographical area the air pressure in Malaysia is lower than Iran thus the amount of oxygen is lower. Because of these matters After 2 days of arriving to Malaysia I had a severe headache and I was extremely sleepy I try to visit a doctor, she recommend me to do regular exercise.

In conclusion, stage five of the Gibbs (1988) model, I really glad to have this chance to study in Malaysia and especially in university of Malaya, gaining an incredible experience and having international friends are the most important things which I have acquired by studying in Malaysia. By living in multicultural society I have this chance to expose to other cultures and learn about them. This leads to respect to other people and adapt to each other. I learn how to improve my talents and passions. I learn to develop tolerance for everything and eventually acceptance. In general being a student in university of Malaysia help me to balance myself and cope myself with my new roles as a wife and students in the university.

3.1 Conclusion
In conclusion my reflection skills have developed through the production of this assignment. Using a model of reflection has helped me to structure my thoughts and feelings appropriately. My level of awareness concerning evidence based practice, and its importance, has been enhanced with the use of critical reflection. My competence has been further developed and I now feel that my personal and professional development is progressing. Using this reflective model has helped me to realize that my learning is something which I must be proactive in. Furthermore as a student nurse I have recognized that reflection is an important learning tool in practice. I realized that Reflective practice is the process of developing new Insights through self awareness and critical reflection upon experiences both in the moment and from past experiences. Reflection is a remarkable learning tool, research methodology, and leadership strategy to gain clarity of inner beliefs and enhance the art of being present in the moment.

References:

Gibbs, G. (2001). Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning Methods [monograph online]. Reproduced by the Geography Discipline Network. Gibbs, G. (1988) Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods, Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development, Oxford Polytechnic. London: Further Education Unit. ISBN 1-85338-071-7. Section 4.3.5 Schön, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner, How Professionals Think In Action, Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-06878-2.a