What is reflection?
In the academic context, ‘reflection’ is defined as; “a generic term for those intellectual and affective activities in which individuals engage to explore their experiences in order to lead to new understandings and appreciations. It may take place in isolation or in association with others. It can be done well or badly, successfully or unsuccessfully.” (Boud, Keogh and Walker, 1985, p.19 as cited in Huang, 2006, p.5) Needless to say, engaging in reflection at an academic level is more than passively remembering and more about actively assessing what was learnt. With that being said, reflection for action according to Open Campus (2015) is supposed to encourage students to; “self assess to determine how ready we are for the task and take strategic actions to deal with hindrances to success but with consideration being given to factors such as timeline (a resource factor), the complexity of the task and the competencies we already possess.” (p.85). The information gleaned from “reflections should challenge behaviours or cultural practices and myths that segregate and disempower…” (Open Campus, 2015, p.89)
So, when I became aware of the reflective exercises, I was elated. I knew that I would have the opportunity to validate my understanding of the material. This first reflective exercise asked that reflection be based on the material covered [Units 1-3], personal experiences and knowledge and on the idea that “youth participation is most promising when