Brain Work
We often use the terms self- reflection, critical reflection, and reflective practice interchangeably to represent the deliberate act of cognitively processing, exploring, or making meaning of information (Dewey, 1933). Reflection is “brain work” where we introspectively wrestle with our thoughts in order to make sense of our experiences. (Kolb, 2015). With reflection, whether it’s framed as solitude, journaling, or mind mapping, the underlying principle involves the mental processing of information, ideas, beliefs, and experiences to enable self-awareness or self-sense making. This is quite different from meditation or a mindfulness practice where we focus our attention on the present moment, without allowing thoughts to enter our awareness.
Many of the Levelhead micro-lessons focus on building a reflection practice because reflection has been shown to:
Help us weave ideas together, make connections among disparate information, discover, create, and see inter-relationships among concepts or experiences. In other words, reflection integrates the new with the known (Stoder & Cushon, 2017).
Promote self-awareness, empathy, and cultural sensitivity (Cseh et al., 2013).
Facilitate deeper processing of complex problems and more effective decision-making (Donovan et al., 2015).
Provide us the opportunity to cognitively and emotionally re-energize ourselves (Lanaj et al., 2019).
Types of Reflection
Deliberate reflection can occur in both structured and unstructured ways. The regimented, planning-centered person is likely to prefer a structured reflection and the creative or more spontaneous person is likely to prefer a less structured process. Ideally, we would engage in both approaches to gain the most benefit from our reflective practice. Here’s a brief description of these two approaches:
Structured Reflection. This type of reflection practice is organized around a few questions which might be evaluative or exploratory. That is, systematically reflecting on explicit questions that give structure to our thoughts. These questions might be broad such as “What do I understand now that I didn’t before?” or “How do specific ideas, events, or relationships intersect and influence the problem at hand?”.
Unstructured Reflection. This type of reflection takes the form of stream of consciousness thinking or something similar to day dreaming. This reflective process is fluid, allowing thoughts to flow without restriction, permitting ideas, insights, and connections to randomly surface. Many people find this creates a space for creativity, inspiration, and innovation, and removes the restrictions and inhibitions that restrict our thinking and feelings.
The key to getting the most from either approach is capturing thoughts in a concrete manner such as transforming those thoughts and feelings into a written (digital or handwritten) or voice recording. Many find that returning to and reviewing their previous reflective notes enables them to track the evolution of thoughts and feelings, provides the opportunity to reflect on the transitory nature of experience, and helps them to make sense of their experiences. While we provide an easy-to-use digital “journal sticker” and reflective lessons, each professor using the Levelhead-Ed program determines the type and frequency of the reflection they require.
How Much Reflection Time is Needed?
One of the key questions people ask is “how much time do I need to spend in reflection to make it beneficial?”. Many people believe that they need to commit a lengthy amount of time for these types of activities. Research shows that people who spent 15 minutes reflecting upon lessons learned at the end of the day over a 10-day period improved their job effectiveness over those who did not engage in deliberate reflection (Di Stefano et al., 2015). Other studies show that just a few minutes of daily reflection can help us stay motivated toward our goals and enhance our well-being (Lanaj et al., 2019).
Ultimately, to enjoy the value and benefits from a reflective practice, we need to be willing to regularly create space in our schedule for this powerful practice. And, this is why Levelhead-Ed, integrated into the classroom, works. With the professor requiring reflection via the syllabus and incorporating it into grading, students begin to experience the benefits. They may be skeptical or reluctant at first, but in the end, there are growth and insights readily found. Here are a couple of recent snippets from students:
“Doing this [7-Day] challenge every day has made a very positive impact on my life. In the last week, there were a few times when I was unable to focus and needed to relax, so, I turned on my phone and listened to Levelhead.”
“Levelhead made me realize that not everything is about me and that others need me as well.”
Interested in learning more? We’ve included an example of one of our self-reflection practices below. Of course, we’d also love to partner with you to help more students like the ones above. Please feel free to reach out to Kevin Walsh at kevin@getlevelhead.com to discuss further.
REFERENCES
Bono, J. E., Glomb, T. M., Shen, W., Kim, E., & Koch, A. J. (2013). Building positive resources: Effects of positive events and positive reflection on work stress and health. Academy of Management Journal, 56(6), 1601–1627.
Dewey, J. (1933). How we think. Boston, MA: Courier Corporation.
Di Stefano, G., Gino, F., Pisano, G. & Staats, B. R., (2015). Learning by thinking: Overcoming the bias for action through reflection. Working Paper. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School. Retrieved from http://k12accountability.org/resources/For-Principals/Learning_Through_Reflection.pdf
Johnson, O. E. (2020). Creating Space to Think: The What, Why, and How of Deliberate Reflection for Effective Leadership. JCLD/TABLE OF CONTENTS, 20.
Kolb, D. A. (2015). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of Learning and Development (2nd Ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Lanaj, K., Foulk, T. A., & Erez, A. (2019). Energizing leaders via self-reflection: A within-person field experiment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 104(1), 1.