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The Importance of Self-Reflection: How Looking Inward Can Improve Your Mental Health

Sanjana is a health writer and editor. Her work spans various health-related topics, including mental health, fitness, nutrition, and wellness.

Dr. Sabrina Romanoff, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and a professor at Yeshiva University’s clinical psychology doctoral program.

Sunwoo Jung / Getty Images

Why Is Self-Reflection So Important?

When self-reflection becomes unhealthy, how to practice self-reflection, what to do if self-reflection makes you uncomfortable, incorporating self-reflection into your routine.

How well do you know yourself? Do you think about why you do the things you do? Self-reflection is a skill that can help you understand yourself better.

Self-reflection involves being present with yourself and intentionally focusing your attention inward to examine your thoughts, feelings, actions, and motivations, says Angeleena Francis , LMHC, executive director for AMFM Healthcare.

Active self-reflection can help grow your understanding of who you are , what values you believe in, and why you think and act the way you do, says Kristin Wilson , MA, LPC, CCTP, RYT, chief experience officer for Newport Healthcare.

This article explores the benefits and importance of self-reflection, as well as some strategies to help you practice it and incorporate it into your daily life. We also discuss when self-reflection can become unhealthy and suggest some coping strategies.

Self-reflection is important because it helps you form a self-concept and contributes toward self-development.

Builds Your Self-Concept

Self-reflection is critical because it contributes to your self-concept, which is an important part of your identity.

Your self-concept includes your thoughts about your traits, abilities, beliefs, values, roles, and relationships. It plays an influential role in your mood, judgment, and behavioral patterns.

Reflecting inward allows you to know yourself and continue to get to know yourself as you change and develop as a person, says Francis. It helps you understand and strengthen your self-concept as you evolve with time.

Enables Self-Development

Self-reflection also plays a key role in self-development. “It is a required skill for personal growth ,” says Wilson.

Being able to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses, or what you did right or wrong, can help you identify areas for growth and improvement, so you can work on them.

For instance, say you gave a presentation at school or work that didn’t go well, despite putting in a lot of work on the project. Spending a little time on self-reflection can help you understand that even though you spent a lot of time working on the project and creating the presentation materials, you didn’t practice giving the presentation. Realizing the problem can help you correct it. So, the next time you have to give a presentation, you can practice it on your colleagues or loved ones first.

Or, say you’ve just broken up with your partner. While it’s easy to blame them for everything that went wrong, self-reflection can help you understand what behaviors of yours contributed to the split. Being mindful of these behaviors can be helpful in other relationships.

Without self-reflection, you would continue to do what you’ve always done and as a result, you may continue to face the same problems you’ve always faced.

Benefits of Self-Reflection

These are some of the benefits of self-reflection, according to the experts:

• Increased self-awareness: Spending time in self-reflection can help build greater self-awareness , says Wilson. Self-awareness is a key component of emotional intelligence. It helps you recognize and understand your own emotions, as well as the impact of your emotions on your thoughts and behaviors.
• Greater sense of control: Self-reflection involves practicing mindfulness and being present with yourself at the moment. This can help you feel more grounded and in control of yourself, says Francis.
• Improved communication skills: Self-reflection can help you improve your communication skills, which can benefit your relationships. Understanding what you’re feeling can help you express yourself clearly, honestly, and empathetically.
• Deeper alignment with core values: Self-reflection can help you understand what you believe in and why. This can help ensure that your words and actions are more aligned with your core values, Wilson explains. It can also help reduce cognitive dissonance , which is the discomfort you may experience when your behavior doesn’t align with your values, says Francis.
• Better decision-making skills: Self-reflection can help you make better decisions for yourself, says Wilson. Understanding yourself better can help you evaluate all your options and how they will impact you with more clarity. This can help you make sound decisions that you’re more comfortable with, says Francis.
• Greater accountability: Self-reflection can help you hold yourself accountable to yourself, says Francis. It can help you evaluate your actions and recognize personal responsibility. It can also help you hold yourself accountable for the goals you’re working toward.

Self-reflection is a healthy practice that is important for mental well-being. However, it can become harmful if it turns into rumination, self-criticism, self-judgment, negative self-talk , and comparison to others, says Wilson.

Here’s what that could look like:

• Rumination: Experiencing excessive and repetitive stressful or negative thoughts. Rumination is often obsessive and interferes with other types of mental activity.
• Self-judgment: Constantly judging yourself and often finding yourself lacking. 
• Negative self-talk: Allowing the voice inside your head to discourage you from doing things you want to do. Negative self-talk is often self-defeating.
• Self-criticism: Constantly criticizing your actions and decisions.
• Comparison: Endlessly comparing yourself to others and feeling inferior.

Kristin Wilson, LPC, CCTP

Looking inward may activate your inner critic, but true self-reflection comes from a place of neutrality and non-judgment.

When anxious thoughts and feelings come up in self-reflection, Wilson says it’s important to practice self-compassion and redirect your focus to actionable insights that can propel your life forward. “We all have faults and room for improvement. Reflect on the behaviors or actions you want to change and take steps to do so.”

It can help to think of what you would say to a friend in a similar situation. For instance, if your friend said they were worried about the status of their job after they gave a presentation that didn’t go well, you would probably be kind to them, tell them not to worry, and to focus on improving their presentation skills in the future. Apply the same compassion to yourself and focus on what you can control.

If you are unable to calm your mind of racing or negative thoughts, Francis recommends seeking support from a trusted person in your life or a mental health professional. “Patterns of negative self-talk, self-doubt , or criticism should be addressed through professional support, as negative cognitions of oneself can lead to symptoms of depression if not resolved.”

Wilson suggests some strategies that can help you practice self-reflection:

• Ask yourself open-ended questions: Start off by asking yourself open-ended questions that will prompt self-reflection, such as: “Am I doing what makes me happy?” “Are there things I’d like to improve about myself?” or “What could I have done differently today?” “Am I taking anything or anyone for granted?” Notice what thoughts and feelings arise within you for each question and then begin to think about why. Be curious about yourself and be open to whatever comes up.
• Keep a journal: Journaling your thoughts and responses to these questions is an excellent vehicle for self-expression. It can be helpful to look back at your responses, read how you handled things in the past, assess the outcome, and look for where you might make changes in the future.
• Try meditation: Meditation can also be a powerful tool for self-reflection and personal growth. Even if it’s only for five minutes, practice sitting in silence and paying attention to what comes up for you. Notice which thoughts are fleeting and which come up more often.
• Process major events and emotions: When something happens in your life that makes you feel especially good or bad, take the time to reflect on what occurred, how it made you feel, and either how you can get to that feeling again or what you might do differently the next time. Writing down your thoughts in a journal can help.
• Make a self-reflection board: Create a self-reflection board of positive attributes that you add to regularly. Celebrate your authentic self and the ways you stay true to who you are. Having a visual representation of self-reflection can be motivating.

You may avoid self-reflection if it brings up difficult emotions and makes you feel uncomfortable, says Francis. She recommends preparing yourself to get comfortable with the uncomfortable before you start.

Think of your time in self-reflection as a safe space within yourself. “Avoid judging yourself while you explore your inner thoughts, feelings, and motives of behavior,” says Francis. Simply notice what comes up and accept it. Instead of focusing on fears, worries, or regrets, try to look for areas of growth and improvement.

“Practice neutrality and self-compassion so that self-reflection is a positive experience that you will want to do regularly,” says Wilson.

Francis suggests some strategies that can help you incorporate self-reflection into your daily routine:

• Dedicate time to it: it’s important to dedicate time to self-reflection and build it into your routine. Find a slot that works for your schedule—it could be five minutes each morning while drinking coffee or 30 minutes sitting outside in nature once per week.
• Pick a quiet spot: It can be hard to focus inward if your environment is busy or chaotic. Choose a calm and quiet space that is free of distractions so you can hear your own thoughts.
• Pay attention to your senses: Pay attention to your senses. Sensory input is an important component of self-awareness.

Nowak A, Vallacher RR, Bartkowski W, Olson L. Integration and expression: The complementary functions of self-reflection . J Pers . 2022;10.1111/jopy.12730. doi:10.1111/jopy.12730

American Psychological Association. Self-concept .

Dishon N, Oldmeadow JA, Critchley C, Kaufman J. The effect of trait self-awareness, self-reflection, and perceptions of choice meaningfulness on indicators of social identity within a decision-making context . Front Psychol . 2017;8:2034. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02034

Drigas AS, Papoutsi C. A new layered model on emotional intelligence . Behav Sci (Basel) . 2018;8(5):45. doi:10.3390/bs8050045

American Psychological Association. Rumination .

By Sanjana Gupta Sanjana is a health writer and editor. Her work spans various health-related topics, including mental health, fitness, nutrition, and wellness.

Reflecting on Group Presentation with Rolfe’s Reflective Cycle Essay

Over the course of the last decade, reflective practice in the advancement of knowledge in a plethora of areas, including business, education, social work, and healthcare, has been becoming continuously more widespread. Patel and Metersky (2021) state that reflection is considered to improve learning, which is why it is so popular in so many spheres. According to Schwind and Manankil-Rankin (2020), deliberate reflection on any experience gives meaning to people’s three ways: of being, knowing, and doing (or, alternatively, ontology, epistemology, and praxis). When it comes to the most widely used reflective models, Rolfe’s reflective cycle is one of these, and it is deemed applicable in any context due to its clarity and subsequent ease of employment (Galutira, 2018). The following reflective essay uses this model to guide my thinking about teamwork, leadership, and time management in relation to creating a group Powerpoint presentation. The aims of this essay are to evaluate the experience of such a type of work and to describe how the things I have learned can be applied to my future nursing practice.

Rolfe’s reflective cycle is a reflective model created to help people assess their experiences or empirical learning activities. In terms of group and teamwork, Rolfe’s model is an effective tool for each member to evaluate how they can improve their teamwork skills ( Use the ‘What? So what? Now what?’ model, no date). This method’s history dates back to the 1970s when an American schoolteacher Terry Borton wrote a book in which he proposed a reflective practice framework founded on three questions: what? so what? and now what?

Borton’s scheme was adapted for clinical use by John Driscoll, although his version could be implemented in various disciplines. In addition to that, Rolfe et al. took Borton’s model and refined it further for use in a clinical setting and pastoral work ( What? So what? Now what? model of reflection , no date). Rolfe and his colleagues left the structure of Borton’s scheme unchanged but expanded each question to include extra questions to stimulate deeper reflection. As stated by Business Bliss Consultants FZE (2018), this is aimed at increasing self-awareness, analysis skills, and skills of problem-solving. The ‘what?’ phase of Rolfe’s model contains questions to help objectively review what took place. The ‘so what?’ phase is a more subjective study of the consequences. Finally, the ‘now what?’ phase is a look at the way the lessons learned can be beneficial for the future.

I believe that the main reason why my group succeeded in creating a presentation without major quarrels or disagreements was because of our good teamwork, which was due to the strategy we all agreed upon for the working process. This strategy consisted of having each member of the team assigned a specific task in the beginning based on what each person is good at – for instance, finding appropriate references, doing research, or creating presentations. We communicated to check where everyone was with their part of the work every week. However, it would have been harder to do had our group been larger; but since there were five of us, communication was effective, and each person’s voice was always heard. To interact with one another, we created a WhatsApp group chat, and while it proved to be productive, we still felt that a lack of face-to-face meetings was a significant drawback. Moreover, for our work to be more organized, we selected a team leader, Wendy, who was chosen due to her having had experience with working in groups and making presentations before.

In addition to that, one unfortunate circumstance that I found myself facing was my poor time management skills. It seems that I had initially underestimated the amount of work it would take for me to finish my part of the task. As a result, in the final stages of preparation, I worked for hours in the end and felt exhausted when it was done. However, since our group scored an A, I consider it all to have been worth it.

What this experience tells me about myself is that I have to be less confident when approaching such tasks and put more effort into planning how, when, and what exactly to do. This is especially important when working in groups or teams because other people rely on you to do your work efficiently and timely. Academic literature on effective team communication points at the necessity of each member of the team to feel that they are responsible for the final outcome (Harris and Sherblom, 2018). In addition to that, according to Marlow et al. (2018), when it comes to a successful group, it is not the frequency of communication but its quality that matters. It explains why us discussing things in a group chat once a week was more than enough for the eventual success of the project.

Moreover, this experience taught me that for group work to be productive, there must be a leader in a team. As I have mentioned earlier, we appointed Wendy to be our leader, and I believe that had it not been for her, it would have been more difficult for us to make progress. As per Northouse (2021), a true leader is someone who is focused on developing others, leads by example, and ensures that the communication between team members is effective. All of this is about Wendy, who was an inspiration for all of us to aim to work harder and was always there to help anyone who struggled with anything.

I believe that I have learned a lot from working on this project with my peers. First of all, for the sake of not only my mental health but also other people succeeding, I plan to start working on my time management skills. In addition to that, I will ensure that I remember everything that I have learned about group work and apply it to the next team project in which I will participate. In terms of how I can apply the reflections on our work to my future nursing practice, I now have an understanding of how to be an effective team player and a good leader. Both of these qualities are important to deliver safe and high-quality nursing care, which is my, and every other nurse’s, ultimate goal.

In conclusion, reflective practice is essential to improving learning and evaluating one’s skills for future development. One of the most effective and popular reflective models is Rolfe’s reflective cycle, which is based on a person asking themselves three simple questions: what? so what, and now what? When expanded into a series of additional queries, these give one an opportunity to analyze their work and think of ways to enhance it. I applied it in assessing the work of my group on a presentation and found that it is extremely efficient in supplying one with food for thought and identifying benefits and drawbacks. I will use the knowledge that I have gained from working with this reflective model in my future nursing practice to be a great team player and a successful leader.

Reference List

Business Bliss Consultants FZE (2018) Rolfe’s reflective cycle . Web.

Galutira, G.D. (2018) ‘Theory of reflective practice in nursing’, International Journal of Nursing Science , 8(3), pp. 51-56.

Harris, T.E. and Sherblom, J.C. (2018) Small group and team communication . Waveland Press.

Marlow, S.L., Lacerenza, C.N., Paoletti, J., Burke, C.S. and Salas, E. (2018) ‘Does team communication represent a one-size-fits-all approach?: a meta-analysis of team communication and performance’, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes , 144, pp.145-170.

Northouse, P.G. (2021) Leadership: theory and practice . Sage Publications.

Patel, K.M. and Metersky, K. (2021) ‘Reflective practice in nursing: a concept analysis’, International Journal of Nursing Knowledge , 33(3), pp. 180-187.

Schwind, J. K. and Manankil-Rankin, L. (2020) ‘Using narrative reflective process to augment personal and aesthetic ways of knowing to support holistic person-centred relational practice’, Reflective Practice , 21(4), pp. 473–483.

Use the ‘What? So what? Now what?’ model: a great example of reflective questioning (no date). Web.

What? So what? Now what? model of reflection (no date). Web.

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How to write a Reflection on Group Work Essay

Here are the exact steps you need to follow for a reflection on group work essay.

• Explain what Reflection Is
• Explore the benefits of group work
• Explore the challenges group
• Give examples of the benefits and challenges your group faced
• Discuss how your group handled your challenges
• Discuss what you will do differently next time

Do you have to reflect on how your group work project went?

This is a super common essay that teachers assign. So, let’s have a look at how you can go about writing a superb reflection on your group work project that should get great grades.

The essay structure I outline below takes the funnel approach to essay writing: it starts broad and general, then zooms in on your specific group’s situation.

Disclaimer: Make sure you check with your teacher to see if this is a good style to use for your essay. Take a draft to your teacher to get their feedback on whether it’s what they’re looking for!

This is a 6-step essay (the 7 th step is editing!). Here’s a general rule for how much depth to go into depending on your word count:

• 1500 word essay – one paragraph for each step, plus a paragraph each for the introduction and conclusion ;
• 3000 word essay – two paragraphs for each step, plus a paragraph each for the introduction and conclusion;
• 300 – 500 word essay – one or two sentences for each step.

Adjust this essay plan depending on your teacher’s requirements and remember to always ask your teacher, a classmate or a professional tutor to review the piece before submitting.

Here’s the steps I’ll outline for you in this advice article:

Step 1. Explain what ‘Reflection’ Is

You might have heard that you need to define your terms in essays. Well, the most important term in this essay is ‘reflection’.

So, let’s have a look at what reflection is…

Reflection is the process of:

• Pausing and looking back at what has just happened; then
• Thinking about how you can get better next time.

Reflection is encouraged in most professions because it’s believed that reflection helps you to become better at your job – we could say ‘reflection makes you a better practitioner’.

Think about it: let’s say you did a speech in front of a crowd. Then, you looked at video footage of that speech and realised you said ‘um’ and ‘ah’ too many times. Next time, you’re going to focus on not saying ‘um’ so that you’ll do a better job next time, right?

Well, that’s reflection: thinking about what happened and how you can do better next time.

It’s really important that you do both of the above two points in your essay. You can’t just say what happened. You need to say how you will do better next time in order to get a top grade on this group work reflection essay.

Scholarly Sources to Cite for Step 1

Okay, so you have a good general idea of what reflection is. Now, what scholarly sources should you use when explaining reflection? Below, I’m going to give you two basic sources that would usually be enough for an undergraduate essay. I’ll also suggest two more sources for further reading if you really want to shine!

I recommend these two sources to cite when explaining what reflective practice is and how it occurs. They are two of the central sources on reflective practice:

• Describe what happened during the group work process
• Explain how you felt during the group work process
• Look at the good and bad aspects of the group work process
• What were some of the things that got in the way of success? What were some things that helped you succeed?
• What could you have done differently to improve the situation?
• Action plan. What are you going to do next time to make the group work process better?
• What? Explain what happened
• So What? Explain what you learned
• Now What? What can I do next time to make the group work process better?

Possible Sources:

Bassot, B. (2015).  The reflective practice guide: An interdisciplinary approach to critical reflection . Routledge.

Brock, A. (2014). What is reflection and reflective practice?. In  The Early Years Reflective Practice Handbook  (pp. 25-39). Routledge.

Gibbs, G. (1988)  Learning by Doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods . Further Education Unit, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford.

Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001). Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Extension Sources for Top Students

Now, if you want to go deeper and really show off your knowledge, have a look at these two scholars:

• John Dewey – the first major scholar to come up with the idea of reflective practice
• Donald Schön – technical rationality, reflection in action vs. reflection on action

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Step 2. Explore the general benefits of group work for learning

Once you have given an explanation of what group work is (and hopefully cited Gibbs, Rolfe, Dewey or Schon), I recommend digging into the benefits of group work for your own learning.

The teacher gave you a group work task for a reason: what is that reason?

You’ll need to explain the reasons group work is beneficial for you. This will show your teacher that you understand what group work is supposed to achieve. Here’s some ideas:

• Multiple Perspectives. Group work helps you to see things from other people’s perspectives. If you did the task on your own, you might not have thought of some of the ideas that your team members contributed to the project.
• Contribution of Unique Skills. Each team member might have a different set of skills they can bring to the table. You can explain how groups can make the most of different team members’ strengths to make the final contribution as good as it can be. For example, one team member might be good at IT and might be able to put together a strong final presentation, while another member might be a pro at researching using google scholar so they got the task of doing the initial scholarly research.
• Improved Communication Skills. Group work projects help you to work on your communication skills. Communication skills required in group work projects include speaking in turn, speaking up when you have ideas, actively listening to other team members’ contributions, and crucially making compromises for the good of the team.
• Learn to Manage Workplace Conflict. Lastly, your teachers often assign you group work tasks so you can learn to manage conflict and disagreement. You’ll come across this a whole lot in the workplace, so your teachers want you to have some experience being professional while handling disagreements.

You might be able to add more ideas to this list, or you might just want to select one or two from that list to write about depending on the length requirements for the essay.

Scholarly Sources for Step 3

Make sure you provide citations for these points above. You might want to use google scholar or google books and type in ‘Benefits of group work’ to find some quality scholarly sources to cite.

Step 3. Explore the general challenges group work can cause

Step 3 is the mirror image of Step 2. For this step, explore the challenges posed by group work.

Students are usually pretty good at this step because you can usually think of some aspects of group work that made you anxious or frustrated. Here are a few common challenges that group work causes:

• Time Consuming. You need to organize meetups and often can’t move onto the next component of the project until everyone has agree to move on. When working on your own you can just crack on and get it done. So, team work often takes a lot of time and requires significant pre-planning so you don’t miss your submission deadlines!
• Learning Style Conflicts. Different people learn in different ways. Some of us like to get everything done at the last minute or are not very meticulous in our writing. Others of us are very organized and detailed and get anxious when things don’t go exactly how we expect. This leads to conflict and frustration in a group work setting.
• Free Loaders. Usually in a group work project there’s people who do more work than others. The issue of free loaders is always going to be a challenge in group work, and you can discuss in this section how ensuring individual accountability to the group is a common group work issue.
• Communication Breakdown. This is one especially for online students. It’s often the case that you email team members your ideas or to ask them to reply by a deadline and you don’t hear back from them. Regular communication is an important part of group work, yet sometimes your team members will let you down on this part.

As with Step 3, consider adding more points to this list if you need to, or selecting one or two if your essay is only a short one.

8 Pros And Cons Of Group Work At University

You’ll probably find you can cite the same scholarly sources for both steps 2 and 3 because if a source discusses the benefits of group work it’ll probably also discuss the challenges.

Step 4. Explore the specific benefits and challenges your group faced

Step 4 is where you zoom in on your group’s specific challenges. Have a think: what were the issues you really struggled with as a group?

• Was one team member absent for a few of the group meetings?
• Did the group have to change some deadlines due to lack of time?
• Were there any specific disagreements you had to work through?
• Did a group member drop out of the group part way through?
• Were there any communication break downs?

Feel free to also mention some things your group did really well. Have a think about these examples:

• Was one member of the group really good at organizing you all?
• Did you make some good professional relationships?
• Did a group member help you to see something from an entirely new perspective?
• Did working in a group help you to feel like you weren’t lost and alone in the process of completing the group work component of your course?

Here, because you’re talking about your own perspectives, it’s usually okay to use first person language (but check with your teacher). You are also talking about your own point of view so citations might not be quite as necessary, but it’s still a good idea to add in one or two citations – perhaps to the sources you cited in Steps 2 and 3?

Step 5. Discuss how your group managed your challenges

Step 5 is where you can explore how you worked to overcome some of the challenges you mentioned in Step 4.

So, have a think:

• Did your group make any changes part way through the project to address some challenges you faced?
• Did you set roles or delegate tasks to help ensure the group work process went smoothly?
• Did you contact your teacher at any point for advice on how to progress in the group work scenario?
• Did you use technology such as Google Docs or Facebook Messenger to help you to collaborate more effectively as a team?

In this step, you should be showing how your team was proactive in reflecting on your group work progress and making changes throughout the process to ensure it ran as smoothly as possible. This act of making little changes throughout the group work process is what’s called ‘Reflection in Action’ (Schön, 2017).

Scholarly Source for Step 5

Schön, D. A. (2017).  The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action . Routledge.

Step 6. Conclude by exploring what you will do differently next time

Step 6 is the most important step, and the one far too many students skip. For Step 6, you need to show how you not only reflected on what happened but also are able to use that reflection for personal growth into the future.

This is the heart and soul of your piece: here, you’re tying everything together and showing why reflection is so important!

This is the ‘action plan’ step in Gibbs’ cycle (you might want to cite Gibbs in this section!).

For Step 6, make some suggestions about how (based on your reflection) you now have some takeaway tips that you’ll bring forward to improve your group work skills next time. Here’s some ideas:

• Will you work harder next time to set deadlines in advance?
• Will you ensure you set clearer group roles next time to ensure the process runs more smoothly?
• Will you use a different type of technology (such as Google Docs) to ensure group communication goes more smoothly?
• Will you make sure you ask for help from your teacher earlier on in the process when you face challenges?
• Will you try harder to see things from everyone’s perspectives so there’s less conflict?

This step will be personalized based upon your own group work challenges and how you felt about the group work process. Even if you think your group worked really well together, I recommend you still come up with one or two ideas for continual improvement. Your teacher will want to see that you used reflection to strive for continual self-improvement.

Scholarly Source for Step 6

Step 7. edit.

Okay, you’ve got the nuts and bolts of the assessment put together now! Next, all you’ve got to do is write up the introduction and conclusion then edit the piece to make sure you keep growing your grades.

Here’s a few important suggestions for this last point:

• You should always write your introduction and conclusion last. They will be easier to write now that you’ve completed the main ‘body’ of the essay;
• Use my 5-step I.N.T.R.O method to write your introduction;
• Use my 5 C’s Conclusion method to write your conclusion;
• Use my 5 tips for editing an essay to edit it;
• Use the ProWritingAid app to get advice on how to improve your grammar and spelling. Make sure to also use the report on sentence length. It finds sentences that are too long and gives you advice on how to shorten them – such a good strategy for improving evaluative essay  quality!
• Make sure you contact your teacher and ask for a one-to-one tutorial to go through the piece before submitting. This article only gives general advice, and you might need to make changes based upon the specific essay requirements that your teacher has provided.

That’s it! 7 steps to writing a quality group work reflection essay. I hope you found it useful. If you liked this post and want more clear and specific advice on writing great essays, I recommend signing up to my personal tutor mailing list.

Let’s sum up with those 7 steps one last time:

• Explain what ‘Reflection’ Is
• Explore the benefits of group work for learning
• Explore the challenges of group work for learning
• Explore the specific benefits and challenges your group faced
• Discuss how your group managed your challenges
• Conclude by exploring what you will do differently next time

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 5 Top Tips for Succeeding at University
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 50 Durable Goods Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 100 Consumer Goods Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 30 Globalization Pros and Cons

2 thoughts on “How to write a Reflection on Group Work Essay”

Great instructions on writing a reflection essay. I would not change anything.

Thanks so much for your feedback! I really appreciate it. – Chris.

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13 Self Reflection Worksheets & Templates to Use in Therapy

While valuable for clients and students, it is equally vital for therapists, coaches, and mental health professionals.

Literature across multiple disciplines confirms that reflection serves therapists by improving “learning and performance in essential competencies” (Aronson, 2011, p. 200). In therapy, it helps the client “manage personal feelings, such as anxiety and inadequacy, and their impact on others” (Fisher, Chew, & Leow, 2015, p. 736).

This article introduces the basics behind reflection along with questions and worksheets that encourage and support the reflective process and maximize the benefits for therapists, clients, and students.

Before you continue, you might like to download our three Meaning and Valued Living Exercises for free . These creative, science-based exercises will help you learn more about your values, motivations, and goals and will give you the tools to inspire a sense of meaning in the lives of your clients, students, or employees.

This Article Contains:

Fostering reflection skills: the basics, 50+ questions to ask your clients or students, 5 helpful reflection worksheets & tools, journaling & diaries: 2 useful templates, top 3 activities for practicing reflection, 3 fun games to inspire clients, positivepsychology.com’s reflection resources, a take-home message.

While reflection has no single, universal definition, Aronson (2011, p. 200) frames it as the “process of analyzing, questioning, and reframing an experience in order to make an assessment of it for the purposes of learning (reflective learning) and/or improve practice (reflective practice).” It has multiple uses in various contexts.

Reflection is central to most therapies. Indeed, Socratic questioning (using open yet focused questions) is widely used in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to encourage reflection and unpack deeply held beliefs (Bennett-Levy, Thwaites, Chaddock, & Davis, 2009).

Within therapy , Bennett-Levy et al. (2009) recognized that reflection can be beneficial for both the therapist and the client, and can be considered from several perspectives.

• Reflective practices Reflection as part of the clinical experience, using journals, video, and group activities.
• Reflective skills The ability to reflect on oneself through therapeutic interaction and self-awareness of feelings and thoughts.
• Reflective systems Reflection results from the interaction of several processes, including the individual’s memory, skills, and reflective system.
• Reflective processes Reflection involves the ability to observe (possibly via visualization) and then reflect or conceptualize to engage in further processing, including elaboration, problem solving, and self-questioning.

Bennett-Levy et al. (2009, p. 121) offer the following helpful definition of reflection:

“Reflection is the process of intentionally focusing one’s attention on a particular content; observing and clarifying this focus; and using other knowledge and cognitive processes (such as self-questioning, logical analysis and problem-solving) to make meaningful links.”

The benefits of reflection carry across to the learning process found within educational environments. It forms the second of the following four-stage model used by coaches engaging with students to understand the learning process (Adams, 2016):

• Attending to and focusing on the relevant features of their experience
• Actively reflecting on their experience
• Extracting learning from that experience
• Planning how to create new ways of behaving in response to the learning

Reflection and learning are also highly applicable outside of school.

While reflection is vital to self-awareness and healing for clients, it is also a powerful and insightful tool for therapists.

Mental health professionals must be self-aware and cognizant of the skills they are using, because “in no other profession does the personality and behavior of the professional make such difference as it does in counseling” (Meier & Davis, 1997).

The following questions can be helpful for new and existing counselors and their clients to increase self-awareness and knowledge of counseling techniques (modified from Bennett-Levy et al., 2009):

• Observe the experience (such as the session or intervention). How did I feel? What did I notice?
• Clarify the experience. What did I learn? Was it helpful? What did not change?

The following two points are more applicable for therapists:

• Implications of the experience for clinical practice What are the implications for and impacts on one-to-one therapy, supervision, consultation, etc.?
• Implications of the experience for how I see myself as a therapist What are the implications of this experience for my understanding of cognitive therapy and theory?

Considering each question in turn can provide insights that encourage greater knowledge of the therapeutic process and promote lessons to take forward to future sessions.

Asking appropriate questions is a crucial aspect of reflection and central to deeper, long-lasting learning (Aronson, 2011; Adams, 2016).

Reflection questions for students

The following three sets of questions promote reflection in students by considering academic performance (modified from ones used by the Colorado Department of Education ):

Reflective Questions for personal academic performance

These Reflective Questions  prompt the student to think about what they are learning, why they are learning, and how they can improve the overall process.

The student answers the first question regarding what they have been learning and then selects a sample of other questions to prompt reflection.

They then complete the last column with their thoughts for later review by themselves or a therapist, coach, or counselor.

A sample of the questions includes:

What have you been learning about (today, this week, or this semester)? Why do you think these objectives and this subject are important? Did you give your best effort on your most recent assignment?

Reflective Metacognition Questions for students

Reflective Metacognition Questions help students reflect on how and what they think .

The questions are grouped under the following subsections and can be answered individually, in pairs, or as a group exercise, with a summary of the answers placed in the final column.

• Reflection and collaboration
• Self-reflection

Example questions include:

What are your thoughts about what was said? Are there any other similar answers or alternative answers? Why do you think this answer is true?

Reflection Questions in Therapy

Reflection is an essential part of therapy.

Using the Reflective Questions in Therapy worksheet, the therapist can encourage and facilitate the process of reflection in the client, such as (Bennett-Levy et al., 2009):

What do I wish people better understood about me? What behaviors and beliefs do I want to let go of? Have I been receiving enough support this year?

Download 3 Meaning & Valued Living Exercises (PDF)

These detailed, science-based exercises will equip you or your clients with tools to find meaning in life help and pursue directions that are in alignment with values.

Download 3 Free Meaning Tools Pack (PDF)

By filling out your name and email address below.

During CBT and other therapies, the client is often given a workbook or journal to capture reflections on the practice or skills they develop as they progress through treatment.

Reflection reinforces learning within the sessions and, more importantly, leads to deeper insights between sessions (Bennett-Levy et al., 2009).

Learning From My Past

The Reflections on Learning From My Past worksheet helps the client capture and reflect on an event from their past and consider how different behavior may have led to an alternate outcome.

The client is asked a series of questions about the incident, such as:

What happened or what was the event? How did it make you feel? How did you handle it?

Self-Reflection Behavior Review

At the end of the year or looking back on the client’s life, it can help to look for patterns in behavior.

The Self-Reflection Behavior Review worksheet is a valuable way to summarize events and see the recurring traps into which the client falls.

The summary provides a valuable talking point during therapy sessions and can be referred to later in order to assess how behavior has changed and improved.

It asks the client to consider:

Do you see a pattern in your behavior? How could you act differently in the future? What situations should you try to avoid?

Who Am I Self-Reflection

In life, we are often so busy with everyday tasks that we forget to take stock of who we are, what we are good at, and what is important to us.

Clients or students can use the Who Am I Self-Reflection worksheet to think about what they are good at, what significant challenges they have been confronted with, and what inspires them.

Some questions to consider include:

Think of something significant that went wrong. What did I learn from it? What am I passionate about? What do I love most about myself?

Student Work Reflection

Students can help their existing and future learning by thinking about how they are approaching their work and using metacognitive skills to drive future improvements (Adams, 2016).

The Student Work Reflection is a set of simple repeating questions to consider how they approach each task in school.

It asks the student to consider:

How could I improve? What am I still working on? What am I most proud of?

Reflection on Group Activities

Reflection is equally important in group tasks as in individual tasks. The Reflection on Group Activities  is for an educational or therapy setting to assess the success and learnings from a group activity.

Working individually or in groups, students can answer questions such as:

What went well? What did not go well? What could we try next time?

As an intervention, it is a creative way to engage clients in a therapeutic activity, increasing self-awareness  and personal growth.

It can be helpful to capture some of the key events of the day. The act of writing what happened and reviewing it later can be insightful and help you recognize positive and negative patterns in your behavior.

Daily Reflection of Feelings

Use the Daily Reflection of Feelings journal with the client to record how their day went and capture the feelings they experienced.

Questions include:

What was the best part of the day? What would you change about the day if you could? What are you looking forward to tomorrow?

Daily Reflection of Behavior

Clients and therapists can benefit from reviewing significant events that occurred between sessions.

Use the Daily Reflection of Behavior  journal with clients to capture daily behaviors that were unexpected or parts of habits that the client wishes to change.

What happened? How did I behave? Why did it happen?

How to start a creative journal – Johanna Clough

Several techniques can encourage the process of reflection in clients and students.

• DARN The DARN acronym forms an important aspect of motivational interviewing . With the use of evocative change questions, the client is invited to engage in reflection to consider the change, including:

Desire questions – What I would like, wish, or want to do? Ability questions – Capturing the idea that change is possible. Reasons questions – Recognizing the reasons for change. Need questions – Identifying the urgency of the change.

• OARS OARS is another acronym important to the process of motivational interviewing to elicit change talk through the use of the following:

Open questions encourage the client to talk. Affirmations include statements of understanding and offers of support. Reflections  capture and rephrase what the client has said Summarizing provides a check-in with the client by summarizing what has been said.

OARS encourages reflection in both the therapist and the client.

• Socratic questioning Observing and taking part in Socratic questioning can be a valuable opportunity to learn about the process of encouraging reflection in others and in oneself.

Consider the five questions:

What happened? When did it happen? Where did it happen? Why did it happen? How did it happen?

Try out the following three activities with clients or students.

Your life as a play

You can carry out this reflective exercise in small groups of three or four people.

Ask each person to describe their ideal life in three acts, as though it were a play.

What past dreams were achieved? What is the present (good and bad)? What is your ideal future?

Share with the group, discussing each of the acts, adding humorous insights along the way. End with your positive view of how the future might look.

Shield of honor

This activity is ideal for reflection in multiple small groups.

Ask each group to create a shield out of a large piece of paper.

Divide the paper into four equal rectangles, representing:

• Skills and abilities they offer
• Skills and abilities they need to improve
• Frustrations
• What they are proud of

Tell the group they are only allowed to use drawings and pictures – no words.

After 20 minutes, ask each group to share what they have created.

Reflection on communication

Individuals are grouped into pairs and asked to sit back-to-back.

One person is given either a pen and paper or building blocks and asked to create a novel design.

Ask them to describe what it looks like, while the other person attempts to recreate the design on their side.

Once finished, the two can compare what they have created and discuss the communication process.

17 Tools To Encourage Meaningful, Value-Aligned Living

This 17 Meaning & Valued Living Exercises [PDF] pack contains our best exercises for helping others discover their purpose and live more fulfilling, value-aligned lives.

Created by Experts. 100% Science-based.

Throughout this post, we’ve discussed the importance of clarifying wants, behavior patterns, and forces of motivation to better understand what brings meaning throughout one’s life. To this end, we invite you to check out our free Meaning & Valued Living Exercises Pack .

This pack features three of our top tools from the Positive Psychology Toolkit©, all of which center on the theme of values-based living:

• The Top 5 Values This exercise draws on key principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to help clients begin brainstorming their values. Following this, clients will then prioritize these values in a list to identify those most central to who they are.
• Self-Eulogy This exercise invites clients to consider how they’d like to be remembered at their funeral as a means to identify and clarify values. Based on this, they can then consider how well they are living in alignment with these values.
• The Scoreboard Metaphor This exercise helps clients recognize how to enact their values through goal-setting. In particular, it draws on the metaphor of a basketball game to illustrate how living into one’s values is an ongoing process and that the paths by which we pursue our goals are opportunities to enact our values in daily life.

You can access all three exercises for free by downloading our Meaning & Valued Living Exercises Pack .

Additionally, if you’re looking for further reading on the topic of self-reflection, be sure to check out our blog post featuring ten book recommendations .

If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others discover meaning, this collection contains 17 validated meaning tools for practitioners. Use them to help others choose directions for their lives in alignment with what is truly important to them.

Reflection engages clients and students in the process of analyzing, questioning, and reframing an experience. It encourages individuals or groups to learn and improve, and promotes deeper, longer lasting learning (Aronson, 2011).

Within therapy and coaching, reflection can help individuals manage their feelings (such as anxiety or self-doubt) and recognize how their behavior affects others (Fisher et al., 2015).

In an educational setting, research shows that questions and exercises prompt learners to improve core competencies (Aronson, 2011).

In any environment, reflection involves metacognition. Individuals must step outside of their existing cognition to think about their thinking . It is a skill that is best learned through practice.

Therapists, coaches, counselors, and teachers can help by prompting the client or class to consider what they have learned, what has gone well (and hasn’t), and what they could have done differently.

The takeaways from reflection can change a person’s view of what has already happened and influence how they behave in the future.

The exercises and questions within this article will engage others, promoting the reflective process and offering deeper understanding and tools for future learning.

We hope you enjoyed reading this article. Don’t forget to download our three Meaning and Valued Living Exercises for free .

• Adams, M. (2016). Coaching psychology in schools: Enhancing performance, development and wellbeing . Routledge.
• Aronson, L. (2011). Twelve tips for teaching reflection at all levels of medical education. Medical Teacher , 33 (3), 200–205.
• Bennett-Levy, J., Thwaites, R., Chaddock, A., & Davis, M. (2009). Reflective practice in cognitive behavioural therapy: The engine of lifelong learning. In J. Stedmon & R. Dallos (Eds.), Reflective practice in psychotherapy and counselling (pp. 115–35). Open University Press.
• Fisher, P., Chew, K., & Leow, Y. J. (2015). Clinical psychologists’ use of reflection and reflective practice within clinical work. Reflective Practice , 16 (6), 731–743.
• Hayman, B., Wilkes, L., & Jackson, D. (2012). Journaling: Identification of challenges and reflection on strategies. Nurse Researcher , 19 (3), 27–31.
• Meier, S., & Davis, S. (1997). The Elements of Counselling . Brooks/Cole.

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Don’t Underestimate the Power of Self-Reflection

• James R. Bailey
• Scheherazade Rehman

Focus on moments of surprise, failure, and frustration.

Research shows the habit of reflection can separate extraordinary professionals from mediocre ones. But how do you sort which experiences are most significant for your development?

• To answer this questions, the authors asked 442 executives to reflect on which experiences most advanced their professional development and had the most impact on making them better leaders.
• Three distinct themes arose through their analysis: surprise, frustration, and failure. Reflections that involved one or more or of these sentiments proved to be the most valuable in helping the leaders grow.
• Surprise, frustration, and failure. Cognitive, emotional, and behavioral. These parts of you are constantly in motion and if you don’t give them time to rest and reflect upon what you learned from them, you will surely fatigue.

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here .

Empathy, communication, adaptability, emotional intelligence, compassion. These are all skills you need to thrive in the workplace and become a great leader. Time and again, we even hear that these capabilities are the key to making yourself indispensable — not just now but far into the future. Soft skills, after all, are what make us human, and as far as we know, can’t be performed well by technologies like artificial intelligence.

• James R. Bailey is professor and Hochberg Fellow of Leadership at George Washington University. The author of five books and more than 50 academic papers, he is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, The Hill, Fortune, Forbes, and Fast Company and appears on many national television and radio programs.
• Scheherazade Rehman is professor and Dean’s Professorial Fellow of International Finance. She is director of the European Union Research Center and former Director of World ExecMBA with Cybersecurity, has appeared in front of the U.S. House and Senate, and been a guest numerous times onPBS Newshour, the Colbert Report, BBC World News, CNBC, Voice of America, and C-Span.

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Reflecting with others

Much of the reflection literature highlights the value of reflecting in conversation with other people - this can be in a formal relationship, with friends, or groups. This page highlights the benefits and provides guidance.

Others may ask us the questions we cannot think of ourselves

Reflecting with others provides many benefits to the reflective process. One thing that others might be better at than we are, is asking challenging questions. You might reflect really well by yourself and ask yourself lots of questions, to help identify your assumptions. However, you are likely to ask yourself the same type of questions again and again. Getting someone else to ask you questions might make you challenge yourself in a different way that you would never have thought of yourself.

Others can help us with perspective taking

Many reflective models and reflective theories highlight the importance of perspective taking (for example Brookfield, 1995). This is because imagining others’ thoughts and perspectives can help us understand an experience better and help us plan better actions in the future, for example asking yourself ‘what would someone who excelled at this do?’

Reflecting with others gives you the opportunity to gain their perspective on a situation. They may know things you don’t and that can help you to gain a deeper understanding.

Conversations with others can switch in and out of reflection

It is important to note that there are many types of conversations with other people that are productive, valuable, and important, but not necessarily reflective. For example, being given feedback is both productive, valuable, and important but if it is not paired with asking yourself how you can use the feedback, what it means for your practice, and how and why you do things, it is not a reflective conversation.

Outlined below are some of the different types of conversations and relationships where reflection might happen.  It is very likely that all of these will fluidly switch back and forth between reflective and non-reflective elements.

Choose appropriate boundaries and be authentic within them

Common for all reflective conversations is that you should never share more than you feel comfortable with, and you should also be considerate of sharing information that the person you are reflecting with might not be comfortable knowing.

Put simply, while you can reflect with both a friend and a manager, there are things that we only talk about with friends. Both the questions asked in conversation and your answers should mirror this.  

Some people may feel that you are only authentic if you are 100 % honest, but it is important to remember than authenticity does not come from disclosure, but from being genuine in the information we do share and staying true to ourselves and our boundaries.

Types of reflecting with others

Highlighted below are just a few ways of reflecting with other people; they are split into three types:

With someone more experienced

With a peer.

• With a group

Throughout life you are likely to end up having many senior individuals who facilitate reflection as a part of your development. You can also help shape those relationships by suggesting reflection, if they do not support you in that way naturally.

There is a lot of value reflecting with someone more experienced than you, but there can be equal value in reflecting with a peer. Compared to the more formal relationships outlined above, the types of reflection below might involve less formality.

Reflection in groups

There are multiple ways you might find yourself reflecting in groups. The immediate benefit of reflecting in groups is the added value of multiple perspectives. Therefore it is possible to create a group of critical friends as well as using the method of ‘Structured reflections in pairs’ with more people (see the section above).

Back to ‘Ways of reflecting’

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Self-reflection following a presentation

by Maria Pantalone | Speaking | 0 comments

Similarly, looking at our own presentations from differing perspectives can assist each of us to become better speakers.

The importance of self-reflection following a presentation

After delivering a presentation it is easy to forget about it and move on to the next task. However to grow as a speaker it is important to reflect on what went well and what could be improved upon. This is an important practice whether you are presenting to a few people or a few hundred people.

The review process

When reviewing your presentation, ask yourself these three questions:

• What did you do well?
• What could you improve upon?
• What would you do differently next time?

When giving a presentation each speaker gives part of themselves and so there is often an emotional response to the presentation. For some, this can be an intense response; for others it can be a mild one.

This emotional response will have an impact on your perception of the success of the presentation. So it is important as part of the review process to be aware of the emotions that you may be feeling about the presentation.

If your experience was a good one then the euphoria (or relief) from the presentation will allow you to see it with a positive perspective. If your experience was less than desirable or even disastrous then it is easy to fall into negative self-talk mode diminishing your confidence for future presentations.

Give yourself time to review all aspects of your presentation free from any emotional connection to the presentation. We are often our own worst critics so if you are not able to recognise anything positive about your presentation allow the emotional connection to pass before you begin the self-review.

An additional question to consider

As part of the review process, also consider this additional question:

If you were sitting in the audience, what impression would you have had of the presentation?

By placing yourself in the audience you are able to see your presentation from a different perspective.

Once you have completed your self-reflection it is important to then note your findings and use them when preparing your next presentation.

Self-reflection is one method that you can use to evaluate your presentation. It is an essential component of the evaluation process enabling you to work on specific areas that you would like to improve and to also build upon your current strengths as a speaker.

Do you undertake a self-reflection process following a presentation?

Maria Pantalone

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Charlie’s Blog

Just another university of brighton blog network site.

A reflection on my experience of working in a group

Introduction – The project that I have been involved in was to make a presentation for our chosen company to review their current digital marketing campaign and to make recommendations on how to improve it. The company that we chose was The Bok Shop, “a free-range and vegan fried chicken joint” (The Book Shop, 2017). They have three locations with their first and main restaurant being located in Brighton, viewable in the photo below and if you click the integrated link on the photo it will take you to their website.

History on The Bok Shop, (The Book Shop, 2017)

Planning and Organisation – Firstly, my group arranged an online meeting to discuss the task at hand, as well as identifying any key segments that we would need to include in our presentation. We planned out how and when we should set takes completed by and decided that we should have meetings every so often to ensure progress was being made.

Process – Our process was to gradually complete our slides dividend between us in our early meetings of the group work. When finding any useful sources, we would share these within a document to increase our productivity. The way we did this was via Microsoft Teams, I created a group where we could communicate, share documents and work on the presentation together.

Involvement and Collaboration – Regrettably, I believe that the involvement and collaboration from the other members of my group were not up to an acceptable standard. Although everyone eventually finished their part of the presentation, this required me constantly chasing them up on when they will be doing this work, and why no additional progress had been made. On top of this, not only did I need to complete my part of the presentation but I had to start helping other members and completing slides for them while they work on the other parts that they were allocated. I am not sure whether this was down to a lack of motivation, for example, the other members not reaching the self-actualisation step in the Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs pyramid in this project and therefore not having the motivation to fully involve themselves with this project or explore their creative side (McLeod, 2020).  However, this helped me learn some strong group leadership skills, by being able to manage when the project is not going to plan and being able to get it back on track.

Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs (McLeod, 2020)

Conclusion – In conclusion, working on this group presentation has taught me and expanded my skills when working within a group, that could help further my employability opportunities. Not only am I more confident in taking control of a poor situation and turning it around, but I am more confident in speaking in groups and presenting something I have created and practised. As well as this, I have learnt that I would start sooner after getting the assignment, compared to later on to ensure that my issues would have time to be resolved.

References:

Thebokshop.com. 2017. The Book Shop . [online] Available at: < https://www.thebokshop.com/brighton > [Accessed 7 February 2021].

McLeod, S., 2020. Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs pyramid . [image] Available at: < https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html > [Accessed 7 February 2021].

McLeod, S., 2020. Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs . [online] Simplypsychology.org. Available at: <https://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html> [Accessed 7 February 2021].

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Self-Reflection on a Group Presentation.

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In the past five weeks, my two colleagues and I worked together on our group presentation about A1 steak source made by Kraft Company. The purpose of our presentation was to allow both us learners and instructors investigate the marketing strategy for Kraft Company and A1 steak source. One of the key things that our group did was to work together. Learning to work well with others is significant for any individual pursuing a business profession(Kotler et al.2015). All group members promptly finished their selected tasks. We had extremely productive meetings that benefited each group member. We gathered information exceptionally well and conducted our research effectively. Our research made our presentation persuasive and informative. Thus, we were able to inform the audience about the marketing strategies that Kraft Company applies to market its A1 steak source. Our group did an excellent presentation, but we had challenges in transitions between speakers. There were some instances when two speakers said the same thing.

When I saw the scholars list of our group at first, I was disturbed in mind since they were unfamiliar to me and I had a little background of our study. I was not confident about what to tell my colleagues about the subject. I did extensive research and discussed with my group members. Reading materials can not only help one understand terms but also exchange thoughts and expand one’s knowledge(Baker, M and Saren M,2016). I read different papers and gathered enough content to discuss and share knowledge with other group members. My public speaking and presentation skills have improved dramatically over the past five weeks.

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I feel that my knowledge about the topic had been extended after reading various materials and engaging in discussions with my team members. For instance, in the past, I never understood why the company intended to drop the word steak from A1 in 2014 changing it to A.1 source. After the discussion, I was able to understand the reason behind the change. Kraft Company changed the name strategically to reflect modern dining habits (Sauter,2009). During the preparation of the presentation, I realized the importance of teamwork.I found out that group work can effectively increase the effectiveness of a project. Moreover, I found out that when reviewing other scholars’ work I should be critical not to accept all their views.

During the research for our group presentation, we came along various papers that related to our topic. However, it was difficult for us to select the appropriate papers that would give deep insights into our presentation. For instance, during the first week we read many papers that related to the marketing mix of A.1 steak sauce for Kraft Company; however, most of them just discussed the subject from a narrow perspective. Kraft Company uses various marketing strategies to promote their sales (The Kraft Heinz Company Press Room, 2019). I tried to find papers from renowned scholars and kept in mind that they should not deviate from the main topic-A.1 steak source. We submitted our thoughts on each paper and asked our teacher’s opinion on the materials we had selected. The teacher provided us with invaluable help on the papers that we were supposed to use and guided us in picking up the class reading materials.

As the presentation was a group task instead of a personal project, it highlighted more on teamwork instead of singular work. We need to adjust when faced with different norms, thoughts, and opinions on a particular question. We communicated through emails and physically met in round table discussions during the presentation preparation time. We shared our understanding and views about the study and jointly developed our approaches to conducting the research and techniques to use during the presentation. I thank my colleagues so much for the invaluable assistance they accorded me during the entire presentation preparation time. I was able to learn a lot from them.

I feel privileged to work with my colleagues in developing a good presentation. My team members are great companies who always motivated and polished my creativity during group work. Since we had three people in our group, we both agreed that each was to exhaust the research area allocated submit the findings for review and discussions. This method was advantageous because it assisted us in identifying difficult areas and handling it collaboratively. I had prepared a lot for our presentation.

Additionally, I scanned the presentation before going for the presentation. However, sometimes I lacked an explanation for the content. In other instances, I repeated what others had said. Also, I realized that I was speaking very fast making it hard for the audience to grasp my content. In the future presentations, I should be more attentive to the cohesion between my speaking speed and the time allocated. Moreover, I will try to overcome my nervousness and become more interesting by using body language and interaction with my listeners.

My strengths and weaknesses were demonstrated in the presentation. During our research, we found out a lot of information about A1 steak sauce. I feel that I did my best to skim through the available information and picked out what was more insightful and persuasive about the topic. In our class, we constantly read how to maintain confidence before an audience. Sometimes I could forget and overthink thus pausing during my speech. Also, I did not talk confidently to my audience due to overthinking about forgotten points. As such, my speech sounded spasmodic in some instances. During the semester I did several presentations, and I felt confident every time I spoke before my class. I think if I continue practicing I would become a great public speaker.

I think our group drew various marketing strategies used by Kraft Company. I feel that by our class tasks and presentations we have assisted our classmates in understanding the terms and concepts of marketing used by Kraft Company to sell A1 steak sauce. As such, I feel that we are on our way to becoming excellent researchers. What I gained from this group presentation is not only teamwork but also research skills. Additionally, I learned to be a good teacher because when sharing our findings with the team we had to act the role of a teacher. I learned that the way one presents information is important than the information itself.I discovered that to be a good presenter one has to prepare thoroughly before each speech in front of the audience as many times as possible. The project was made up of many activities such as selecting reading materials, reading, analyzing the essential points, preparing the PowerPoint, and making the actual classroom presentations the tasks had various challenges but I found them beneficial to me. This presentation has helped me to be more organized, and I feel it is a milestone in my academic life.

Baker, M. J., & Saren, M. (Eds.). (2016). Marketing theory: a student text. Sage.

Kotler, P., Burton, S., Deans, K., Brown, L., & Armstrong, G. (2015). Marketing. Pearson Higher Education AU.

The Kraft Heinz Company Press Room. (2019). News.kraftheinzcompany.com. Retrieved 19 March 2019, from https://news.kraftheinzcompany.com/press-release/brand/after-50-years-a1-steak-sauce-ends-exclusive-relationship-beef-drops-steak-name-

Sauter. (2009). A1 Steak Sauce Marketing Strategy. Slideshare.net. Retrieved 19 March 2019, from https://www.slideshare.net/DannySauter/a1-steak-sauce-marketing-strategy.

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Group Work Self-Reflection Questions for Students

Group work self-reflection questions for students are a key factor in effective group work and a best practice for teachers using small groups.

When students work in collaborative groups, it’s critical to have self-reflection questions for them to consider when the group work is done or you risk wasting terrific, real data.

I’ve written about how to get gifted kids to work in groups , and this is one more step towards best practice.

Working in a group is more than just about the work. It’s also about the group, and if we don’t allow for self-reflection of that group work, we ignore a large part of what it was we were trying to teach.

We also make it more likely that they will make the same errors over and over again when working in groups.

For the teacher, reading these self-reflection responses can give us information that will inform our assignments of students into groups, as patterns will develop that we can use to tell which students will be most likely to work well together.

How it works:

• I don’t use all of them on any one assignment! I choose two(ish), depending upon the assignment and its length.
• Not every student responds to the same questions. Sometimes I give choice, and sometimes I assign different questions to different students.
• The questions sometimes depend upon the students’ role in the group, meaning that some are specifically for those who were leaders of the group and some are for those who were not.
• By giving different questions after different projects, I can make the questions targeted to the assignment, and the experience doesn’t become “samey” for the students.
• Responses to these questions are not graded for content, only thoroughness.
• No naming of other students is allowed in a critical way. If they have an issue with a specific student, I have them put an asterisk next to their response, and I will follow up with them privately. I do this so that if the graded paper falls into the wrong hands it doesn’t cause more contention.
• When you see the word “I” in the question, it means me, as the teacher.

Group Work Self-Reflection Questions

Here’s a list of the self-reflection questions I use in my classroom:

• How do you think you did working with this group compared with groups you’ve worked with in the past?
• If you were to work with this same group again, what is one change the group could make to work together more effectively?
• What was the greatest challenge you had as a group?
• On a scale of 1 – 10, 10 being best, how well do you feel you demonstrated respect for the opinions of others in the group?
• What is one change you could make in the way you listen to others that would improve your effectiveness in working in a group?
• How would you rate yourself, on a scale of 1 – 10, on how well you were willing to agree with group decisions? What could you do to move yourself up a number on that scale?
• What was the hardest thing for you personally about working in this group?
• Was this group easier or harder to work with than groups you’ve worked with in the past?
• Was the group the right size for the task, or would it have been better larger/smaller?
• Do you feel that you accepted the final selections of the leader of the group with grace?
• As the leader of the group, how did you show respect for the different opinions of the members of the group?
• How balanced do you feel the efforts of the group members were?
• As the leader of the group, what were your greatest challenges?
• If you had done this yourself, would the outcome have been better or worse?
• Would you like to work with this same group again?
• Was there one person who added more than his/her share to the group?
• If you could pick one person in the group to whom to give a specific compliment about their work in the group, who would it be and what would you say?
• In what ways was the group more effective than an individual working alone would have been?
• Did I divide the responsibilities within the group fairly?
• Did the role you were assigned fit your strengths?
• Would you like to fill this same role in a future group project? How would you do an even better job next time?
• If you could have had a different role in the group, what role would you have wanted?
• What took the most time deciding as a group? Why do you think it was a challenging decision?
• Did I give you adequate time to get to know each other and come together as a team?
• Thinking of the class, choose four other people who would be your “dream team” group.
• What is one skill you have that you feel really benefitted the group?
• What is one skill you have that you feel wasn’t really used in this project?
• Do you harbor any resentment over anything that happened or didn’t happen in the group during the project?
• When did your group come to a grinding halt or when were you tempted to just take over?
• In what ways did the group work better/worse than it did in previous projects?
• What does your group do more quickly than it used to?
• What are the challenges your group still faces that just don’t seem to be improving?
• Why do you think that your group struggles with _______?
• What changes should I make to make it easier for groups to work effectively?
• What should I know about you to make it easier for you to work in groups?

Getting Great at Group Work

If you’d like to get really great at group work, I offer a short, very inexpensive course on it you can take. It’s got four parts:

⭐ Part 1: The Decision Process How can teachers know when to use small groups and when to avoid them? This section focuses on the pedagogical decision-making process, leading teachers to choose group size with focused intent and strong rationale.

⭐ Part 2: Teaching the Skills What are the skills students need to work effectively in small groups, and how can teachers best teach these skills?

⭐ Part 3: Roles & Responsibilities Learn how to divide students into groups effectively, and how to help the students manage their groups with ease.

⭐ Part 4: Collaborative Testing (This part) Learn how to administer collaborative assessments (and why you should). Complete with three examples and grading practices, this section of the course stretches small group pedagogy to the limit!

You can easily re-watch parts whenever you like. It’s the perfect way to make sure your small group instruction is fabulous! Learn more here.

I always feel vulnerable when I share things from my real, live classroom. I hope you find these questions useful. Student responses transformed the way I ran groups, and I think they can benefit all teachers.

You may also like:

• Progress Cards (super helpful for group work)
• What I’ve Tried Cards (for when the group gets stuck)
• How to Get Gifted Kids to Work in Groups

• Read more about: Excellent Teaching

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Self Reflection on 1st Presentation

Self-Critique of my first presentation                                             Presenter: Drilona Aliu

Description of Experience 

Since I was the last one to present in class, I had the advantage of seeing everyone else presenting and catching on their strategies. It seemed that all the previous presenters were very comfortable on presenting and they rarely showed any sign on nervousness. Usually, I am able to control my nervousness by giving a “talk” to myself and I imagine myself as the subject matter expert. By having these positive thoughts in my mind, I am able to control nervousness that may be created as a result of the fear of talking in front of people and sharing something very personal such as part of my childhood.

The most challenging aspect of this presentation was creating a meaningful story through an effective framework that would transmit my emotions as a child and my journey to learn English. I find it very challenging when I have a lot to share but do not know how to properly deliver my message in a logical order. While watching the DVD, I was able to identify that this challenge was evident although I tried to hide it as I was speaking. The most surprising aspect of my speech was that I used a lot of facial expressions. This might have always been the case but because I never watched myself presenting I have not been able to identify this habit. I could have done better in certain areas such as volume and speech rate, but I believe that I gave a good overall impression.

I believe that my first speech was effective and kept the audience interested. There is more room to improve upon the introduction and conclusion such as engaging the audience in my opening question: As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? Such questions are always a good way to start the speech as it keeps the audience interested. I also think that due to time management constraints, I could have done a better job on the conclusion such as ending my speech how this journey affected the path I chose in life. This would “justify” how English has played a role in my life and how he has influenced my personal and professional growth.

I believe that my delivery was generally clear and organized;  however, while watching the DVD I noticed that I need to work more on the speech flow and find effective ways to engage the audience. My posture and eye contact were good but I definitely need to work on my speech rate, such as making more pauses so the audience is able to “digest” the information provided and not feel overwhelmed with the amount of the information at a fast pace. I also think I “overdid” my hand gestures and this is something that I need to improve. Being from the Balkan region, it is part of our culture to excessively use hands when we talk. We are very expressive that way and that may be distracting for many people in the audience. There is also room for eliminating fillers such as um as I tend to use them quite a bit, especially in the beginning of my speech.

Overall, I believe that I have many strengths such as the ability to speak without feeling overwhelmed or very nervous,  to quickly think and avoid mistakes without getting frustrated (mistakes are for human beings), and to deliver my speech with  effective voice projection and eye contact. The main areas for improvement would be to engage the audience as they may relate more to my speech, use fewer facial and hand gestures, speak at a slower pace and make appropriate pauses, and use fewer fillers throughout the speech.

As a result, my goals to improve in public speaking are:

• Effectively organize and clearly deliver my main points. Each main point should be backed up with effective supporting points and examples to make it more illustrative for the audience. The steps I would take to improve on this goal are to develop  a detailed speech outline and rehearse it several times while timing itso I do not run out of time.
• Improve my speech rate. I tend to talk too fast and make very few or short pauses. It is my goal to improve my speaking pace so the audience will be able to follow it better. This can be achieved through multiple rehearsals and ability to select only worthy arguments (quantity vs quality).
• Last but not least is hand gesture control. Watching myself on the DVD made me realize that I use my hands a lot when I speak and sometimes that can be distracting for the audience. I need to work on using my hand gestures appropriately and a way to improve that is through recording myself every time I deliver a speech and reviewing it as that is something I do unconsciously.

There are many other things to improve and I am confident that I will be able to incorporate these changes in my next presentation!

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Self Reflection — Self-Reflection On My Experiences Working In A Group

A Reflection on My Experience Working in a Group

• Categories: Self Reflection

About this sample

Words: 464 |

Published: Nov 8, 2019

Words: 464 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Works Cited

• Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (2009). An educational psychology success story: Social interdependence theory and cooperative learning. Educational researcher, 38(5), 365-379.
• Tuckman, B. W. (1965). Developmental sequence in small groups. Psychological bulletin, 63(6), 384-399.
• Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. (2005). The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-performance organization. Harvard Business Review Press.
• Hackman, J. R. (2002). Leading teams: Setting the stage for great performances. Harvard Business Press.
• Lencioni, P. (2012). The advantage: Why organizational health trumps everything else in business. Jossey-Bass.
• Fisher, R., Ury, W., & Patton, B. (2011). Getting to yes: Negotiating agreement without giving in. Penguin.
• Belbin, R. M. (2012). Team roles at work. Routledge.
• Charkoudian, L., & Moore, W. (2017). Building a strong team culture in a healthcare setting. Journal of Healthcare Leadership , 9, 9-20.
• Belbin, M. (2016). Team Roles and Team Performance: Is there “really” a link?. International Journal of Management & Business Studies, 6(2), 47-58.
• Smith, G. D. (2018). Effective Teamwork: Practical Lessons from Organizational Research. John Wiley & Sons.

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Jess’s blog, critical reflection on group presentations.

Module learning :  

At the start of the course, my goal for this course is simply to improve my writing skills so that I can express my ideas more professionally. I always wanted to improve my report writing skills as I feel that it is the only way to impress and inspire others through my writing. However, this course has taught me that writing a professional report is not the only way to impress others. 

Communication is the key to making things happen. During the lesson, we are not only learning how to write a report professionally but also learning about how to pitch. The pitch helps me to try my best to express my ideas in words. Also, it makes me more confident to talk in front of people. I can now speak and present in front of small crowds confidently without stuttering. I think this is one of the most useful things I have taken away from this module as it can help me a lot in my future career.

I have also learned to provide evidence for information that has been found out by the research. This module encourages us to cite the resources and evaluate the evidence objectively. This skill has helped me to analyze information more effectively as I know that well-reasoned evidence must be supporting information. Now I can do a report with evidence support and in APA citation form.

Project learning:

At the start of the group project, my teammates and I generated some ideas that we were interested in and discussed which idea was the most desirable for the potential users. My teammates and I had a deep discussion and we also collected some of others' feedback to decide which topic we wanted to focus on. This requires a lot of discussion, communication and also teamwork as all of us have different opinions. 

However, me and my teammates learned how to value other's opinions and try to come out with a better solution that everyone agrees. Although there will not be a perfect solution that satisfies everyone, we try to mix and match the ideas and make things up together as a team. As a team, I have learned that sometimes teamwork requires some sacrifice and agreement from each member. We have to be frank and trust each other at all times to do a great job. Therefore, I think me and my teammates have learned more about each other along the way and can come out with a report with a good idea.

For report writing, my team distributed our part and we will research on our own topic. However, we still seek help from each other whenever we face problems or do not know what to do. I think there is a sense of teamwork and communication between us which is really appreciable. Through this project, I have learned that communication is not only about talking but also about the language used, the tone, the facial expression and body language. Communication is more than what I think and I really feel that it changes my way of communicating with others during a discussion or doing a project.

Thank you, Jess, for this well considered and detailed reflection.

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