A Reflection on Critical Reflection

Experiential Learning plays a powerful and significant role in adult learning. A majority of the things we know, such as the best technique to brush our teeth to how to drive a car are learned through experiences. These are things you didn’t learn how to do from a textbook or in a lecture. Often we only critically reflect on the extremely negative experiences, such as when in a car accident. It is actually hard not to critically analyze a near death experience, as this is second nature to ensure our survival for the next time we are faced with that situation. But how about everyday activities or situations, even positive experiences that could still be improved upon?

Critical reflective learning is the meat of experiential learning. When an experience occurs, whether it is positive or negative, the important part is to consider why that outcome was achieved, and what might be done in the future to improve on it.

Mezirow was the theorist who defined Critical Reflection. He stated that “Perhaps even more central to adult learning than elaborating established meaning schemes is the process of reflecting back on prior learning to determine whether what we have learned is justified under present circumstances. This is a crucial learning process egregiously ignored by learning theorists.”

One may question whether shoulder checking is the best technique to use before changing lanes, perhaps the situation was more complex and there were multiple distractions that played into the situation as well. Perhaps what was previously taught was sufficient but what you failed to learn was that shoulder checking is useful when you are already previously aware of everyone around you and have been monitoring the situation for some time.

Critical reflection is different from reflection in that it is not just observing what happened but going more in-depth and considering all of the reasons of why and how that outcome was achieved.

A "Critical" Reflection Framework. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.education.vic.gov.au/Documents/childhood/professionals/support/reffram.pdf

Atherton, J. (2013). Critical Reflection. Retrieved from http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/critical1.htm

Experiential Learning. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiential_learning

Kenny, N. (2010). What is Critical Reflection? Retrieved from http://opened.uoguelph.ca/pdf/Critical Reflection.pdf