Mirror, mirror on the wall..my reflection.

As a mature online student, in a unique collaborative unit, I have found it quite challenging to keep up with some of the discussions in our online forums . Enthusiastic at first, I soon found myself surrounded by online learners who,I felt, were much more "academic" than I was.I felt out of touch with many of the theories being discussed and doubted my ability to wade through the rest of the semester. If I look at what I have done so far, I can see that this journey has taken me through some of the things that our own students go through. Issues of self esteem, time management, effort, external stresses and lack of resources. However, I can also see a transformation. I can see someone who has made a website, found new skills and learnt to "look in" and reflect on how far I have come.

The whole notion of reflective practice that Christopher Johns' (Johns, 2000) developed was his "Model for Structured Reflection" . It is a great tool for "Looking in" at ourselves and how we feel about our learning, and "Looking out" to see why we responded to things as we did and what the situation really is or was .It is a way of challenging our natural tendency to judge ourselves too harshly, which in reality, was what I did at the start of my journey. I am still new at reflecting on my work and effort, but as a work in progress, I think I should be proud !

Johns' Model of Reflective Practice

(Image-Charles Darwin University- click on image for credit)