Why you should reflect on 2016

Photo courtesy of Carlie Currier

By Rebecca Pall

After a momentous occasion, one may stop and think about the events that have transpired and how their life has been altered.  With December bringing the year to a close, one of the most important things that one can do is look back at the year behind them and think about the good and bad that has happened, as well as how they have changed as a result, and what they might have done differently.  Time dedicated to reflection is important, and can add a lot to future life events.

Jo Ayoubi, an expert in productivity, gives her insight on why reflection is so important.

“Reflection can take many forms and encompass many activities,” Jo said. “Working with a coach – where the coach guides your reflection through questioning – is one of the most effective ways of learning through reflection. And self-assessments can be a powerful, structured way of helping learners to think about their effectiveness in the activities that they carry out as part of their role.”

A little over a year ago, I started working with a life coach.  Upon working with my coach, I looked at what I did well, and what I did not so well.  I asked myself what went well, and what I could have done better.  This has taught me to look back on my actions, and handle situations that are less than ideal in a more positive way.

According to the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, a global community of educators, “To be reflective means to mentally wander through where we have been and to try to make some sense out of it.”  

This comes into effect especially when falling-outs between two people takes place.  I went to camp a couple of years ago, and later lost touch with the people that I went on the trip with.  I didn’t really understand why that happened, and I assumed that it was my fault, even though I had done nothing wrong.  I learned through the process of self-reflection that sometimes things happen and it’s not necessarily our fault.  There is always something we can learn from that.  In my case, I learned that if people want to keep in touch with me, then they can make a similar effort that I have made.  As long as I put in effort, it’s beyond my control whether or not they want to continue a relationship.

Taryn Sanders, a member of the United Federation for Teachers, gives some more insight on why it’s important to reflect.  

“You may have asked yourself why the math lesson went so well or why the social studies lesson seemed to confuse the students so much,” Taryn said.  “We’ve all been there! As teachers, we spend many hours planning and executing lessons, but when some lessons that we thought were going to go well do not, we may wonder, “What happened and why?”

Asking ourselves questions helps us to reflect upon what we did and why we made the choices we did.  This helps with the future because if like situations arise, we are more equipped to handle them, given some insight that we may have gained in the past.  Reflection is deliberate and structured thinking about choices. It is an integral step to improving our practice. Through reflection we, as educators, can look clearly at our successes and struggles and consider options for change.”  

Regardless of age or occupation, we as humans pan things in our heads of how we want certain things to go: interviews, first dates, meetings, and more.  When they go wrong, we may assume we are at fault, but for no reason in particular.  All that we care about is that something went wrong, even if it’s beyond our control, and figure out why it went wrong.  

Reflection is a very important key role in wrapping up the year.  There are things that we can assess, and alter to make one experience even better than the next.