Reflective Journal

For Assignment or Dissertation Help, Please

Contact:
Muhammad Sajid Saeed
+44 141 4045137
Email:
todrsaeed@gmail.com
Skype ID: tosajidsaeed

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
Unit: Human Resource Management

This reflective journal reflects on the experience that student had during the
preparation of the HRM workshop and presentation. The journal is supported by a
number of reflective learning and group based theories such as John Driscoll model,
Belbin team role theory, and Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing model. In this
whole assignment, the author tried to link theory with practice.

Table of Contents
1. Introduction.......................................................................... 3
2. Theories of reflective learning................................................3
2.1 Dewey Reflection as rationality.......................................................3
2.2 Schn Reflection and the professional.............................................4
2.3 Kolb Experiential learning................................................................4
2.4 Gibbs Learning by doing..................................................................4
2.3 Boud & Walker Reflection as holistic act..........................................4
2.5 Moving forward..................................................................................5
3. Enquiry Based Learning (EBL)................................................5
4. Critical discussion on group processes....................................6
4.1 Forming..............................................................................................6
4.2 Storming.............................................................................................6
4.3 Norming.............................................................................................7
4.4 Performing..........................................................................................7
5. Reflection on topic & presentation.........................................7
6. Conclusions..........................................................................9
References...............................................................................9
Appendices.............................................................................11
Appendix A.............................................................................................11
Appendix B.............................................................................................13

1. Introduction
This assignment is concerned with reflective learning on HRM workshop.
The main theme of this report is to reflect upon the workshop by
integrating theory with practice. For this, various theories of reflective
learning are reviewed in this report and Driscoll (2000) theory is selected
for reflection on personal experience. Apart from this, this report also
contains a critical discussion on group processes. Under the light of
Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing model, this section explains how
the group was formed and performed throughout the workshop. This
report also gives an idea about the topic and presentation such as what
topic was easy/difficult/interesting for the author and how successfully he
performed. This section discussed under the reflection theory of Driscolls
theory of what, so what, and now what. Finally, the report concludes with
a reasoned conclusion with key points and demonstrating what the author
learned throughout the whole process, and how it might impact on the
future.

2. Theories of reflective learning

The linguistic meaning of the term reflection is to thoughtfully examine
and evaluate someones knowledge that he learned after experiencing an
event. Indeed, it is something which is done by many people formally and
informally as a part of learning strategy in their daily lives. During this
they underpin their identities by communicating with their senses and the
experiences of self and others (Demetriou, 2000).
Many reasons motivate people to learn new knowledge and develop skills.
Some people learn as they require skills and knowledge as per
requirement of a new job while others just learn to polish their existing
skills and abilities for future growth in their careers. Another group of
learners intend to learn what they are interested in and they enter in the
learning places to acquire particular knowledge.
In the following subheadings some popular theories of reflection are
discussed.

2.1 Dewey Reflection as rationality

John Dewey gave the idea of reflective learning rationally in 1933. He
perceived reflection as another thoughtful dimension of learning as a part
of learning and development in education sector. In his words, while we
cannot learn or be taught to think, we do have to learn to think well,
especially acquire the general habit of reflection (Dewey, 2007). In his
opinion, reflection is based on reason and a persistent act. He further

described reflection as a watchful concept and belief form of knowledge

which leads meaningful outcome. Furthermore, it also embraces cognisant
and purposeful effort to develop idea based on organisations rationality
and evidence (Dewey, 2007). Amusingly, from the point of view of modern
education, the idea given by Dewey in the form of knowledge and belief
shows his keenness to relate rationality with emotional issues.

2.2 Schn Reflection and the professional

Schns (1983) theory is based on Dewey to some extent. However, his
focus was to relate rational reflection with professional practice and
learning and development. He argued that reflection can be used to
combine theory and practice, and such procedure can lead expertise.
Therefore, his ultimate objective was to develop implicit knowledge which
demonstrates expertise with the intention that it can be further improved.
Based on these grounds, he developed a model called reflection-inaction/reflection-on-action. Reflection-in-action highlights experiences,
processes, decision-making and feelings during an event while reflectionon-action indicates new knowledge and information from theoretical point
of view in conjunction with the feelings, processes, and actions taken by
the person.

2.3 Kolb Experiential learning

Kolbs (1984) experiential learning cycle has a central role in the literature
of reflective models. His learning cycle is based on four key stages such as
concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation,
and active experimentation. The concrete experience shows what people
do or experience; and during reflective observation stage, a reflection of
experience is performed and experience is reviewed critically. The third
stage deals with a conclusion where it is identified that what the learner
has learned from the experience and finally the last stage deals with the
planning of what to do next based on what has experienced. These four
stages are presented in figure 1 in appendix A. Kolbs model through the
cyclic procedures allows learners to identify, review, question, and
reconstruct his experience. In the words of Kolb (1984) knowledge is
continuously derived from and tested out in the experiences of the
learner (p. 27).

2.4 Gibbs Learning by doing

The discussion on reflective models cannot be completed without
discussing Gibbs (1988) reflection cycle. Several people believe that they
have learned from their past experiences but if they do not think or reflect
on their experience then maybe they cannot perform well again next time.
This is why Gibbs reflective cycle is meaningful for them to reflect upon
their past experiences and analyse and evaluate them to be careful in the

future. Gibbs model consists of six stages including: description (what

happened?), feeling (what you felt?), evaluation (was it good or bad
experience?), analysis (what you did in response?) conclusion (what else
could you have done?), and action plan (what will do you if it will happen
again?). The model is presented in figure 2 in appendix A.

2.3 Boud & Walker Reflection as holistic act

Dewey focused on emotions implicitly while Schn emphasised on
professional expertise. On the other hand, Boud and Walker (1998) raised
the question about the suitability of reflective procedures in which an
individuals emotions are neglected and therefore, they highlighted the
need to investigate a variety of experiential dimensions. They emphasised
on the idea of integrating different ideas of reflection which are partly
taken into account for teaching and learning practices because they are
less favourable to address experiential learning. And therefore they do not
provide opportunities to the learners to investigate feelings, hesitation,
inner discomforts, doubts, and other related issues (Mezirow, 1990).
However, their model provides the idea of reflective practice and
generally known as reflection as holistic act (Boud and Walker, 1998).

2.5 Moving forward

In 1994, Driscoll developed a simple model of experiential learning cycle
by adding three important questions such as what, so what & now what. In
this model, all previous models were summarised in three simple
questions. What represents the purpose of returning to the situation. This
means to show what was actually happened and how the person reacted.
On the next stage i.e. so what, the person need to understand the context
of the problem by demonstrating the good or bad feelings. Finally, at
the last stage i.e. now what, the person modifies the future outcomes by
developing an action plan to deal with the situation if it comes again
(Driscoll, 1994, 2000).
Another theorist Moon (1999) defined reflective practice as a set of
abilities and skills, to indicate the taking of a critical stance, an orientation
to problem solving or state of mind (p. 63). This definition summed up a
number of tasks linked with learning and practice in education context.
Similarly some other researchers also described reflective learning and
practice in their own way. For instance, Biggs (1999) described reflection
as an exact mirror of what is in front of it. However, it gives back not
what it is, but what might be, an improvement on the original (p. 6).
Likewise, in the opinion of Cowan (1999), reflection in education context is
the analysis and evaluation of individual experiences, and an effort to
generalise findings from that thinking.

3. Enquiry Based Learning (EBL)

EBL is an approach which covers all the perspectives of education ranging
from developing policies to classroom practices where teachers adopt
different ways of teaching to allow students to learn quickly through
experiments (Cleverly, 2003). EBL supports both students and teachers.
From students perspective, EBL measures the effectiveness of learning
and development activities throughout the course. It helps students to
generate needs based on evidences and reflect on their practical
experiences. In this way, they get the chance to evaluate their strengths
and weaknesses. According to Cleverly (2003), enquiry based learning
shows a solid, positive connection between learning and practice and then
result in improved outcomes through high quality studies. They further
explained the term high quality study which allows someone to observe
and measure outcomes showing the cause and effect.

4. Critical discussion on group processes

In 1965, Bruce Tuckman developed a group process model based on four
stages such as forming, storming, norming, and performing. This model is
still very relevant and practical where group processed are involved and
teams are facing challenges to deal with problems and finding their
possible solutions for the best possible outcomes. Also, this model is the
foundation of other models that are developed after this. This section
carries a critical discussion on group processes during the workshop in
University.

4.1 Forming
At the forming stage, the group members greatly rely on leaders direction
and guidance. Even a small agreement is based on the approval of the
leader. There are unclear responsibilities and roles of the group members,
and leader is required to answer several questions about aim, goals and
external relationship. There are no defined procedures and members need
to test their tolerance (Tuckman and Monetti, 2010).
Belbin (2012) team role theory was employed to form the group with clear
objectives and assigning initial responsibilities to the group members. The
author was assigned two important roles such as team worker and
completer/finisher. By playing team worker role, the author worked on the
topic of justice and fair guidance from employees point of view. The
author gathered relevant material on this topic and completed my data
collection and presentation part. On the other hand, the author also
presented this topic on workshop day. Writing conclusion was also the
responsibility of the author and thus it shows completer/finisher job

because before writing conclusion, one needs to identify errors and should
be anxious in polishing the work in order to bring perfection.

4.2 Storming
At storming stage, decisions are not easily taken within the group. Group
members compete with each other to acquire particular positions in order
to establish their influence. At this stage, the purpose of the group is clear
but still certain uncertainties are persevered. Several factions and cliques
are often formed with the struggle of group members. However, team
clearly focused on its ultimate aims and group members are advised by
the leader to compromise with each other and stay away from conflicts
and emotional issues to enable progress (Tuckman and Harper, 2012).
After successfully forming the group and building trust among team
members, the group leaders explained the idea of workshop clearly so
that the group members understand how to tackle conflicts at both
individual and group levels. The group leader suggested members to use
any psychometric test to understand their personalities. The author has
conducted myers-briggs personality test to judge his personality. The
outcome of this test in Appendix B indicates ESTJ code which specifies
authors personality as Extravert-Sensor-Thinker-Judger.

4.3 Norming
At this stage, the agreement and tasks are assigned to the group
members by the leader. Responsibilities and roles are well defined and
clearly accepted and the group is ready to take big decisions in response
to the agreement. Smaller decisions are delegated to individual group
members to save time and collective efforts. The group discusses the role
and working styles of group members and generally, the leadership role is
more shared by the group (Tuckman and Monetti, 2010).
The roles defined during forming stage were reviewed at this stage and
tasks were officially assigned to each group member. The topics were
assigned to each group member during team-building event in the
university. During this activity, various factors were considered such as
personality type, self-management, time keeping, availability of material
from authentic sources etc. These activities were recommended to
individual team members to support their team roles. In addition, Belbin
roles were revised as well.

4.4 Performing
At this stage now the group is strategically more aware of purpose and
goal of the group. Each group member has a shared vision and fully
capable of performing his task without the interference and guidance of
the group leader. Further guidance is not required because the team is

already agreed on the criteria established by the leader at the storming

stage. The focus of each individual is to complete his given task to play
his role in achieving collective goal of the group. The conflicts arose are
now settled positively by making changes in the work structure and
activities. Now team members help each other in performing delegated
tasks and activities from the leader. The group requires no further
instructions or assistance. The only help group members may require from
leader is to assist them regarding personal and interpersonal development
(Tuckman and Harper, 2012).
This stage was critical in terms of delegating works to team members. All
group members already had defined roles and topics but the plan was
established for the workshop and deadlines were set to combine the
individual tasks. The agenda was clear to everything and each group
member was working on his task individually. In fact, some team workers
were helping others in achieving their targets as well. For example, one of
our group members helped the author in setting up data in power point
slides.

5. Reflection on topic & presentation

In this section, the author reflects upon presentation topic using Driscoll
(1994, 2000) model. As mentioned earlier in section 2.5 that Driscoll
model is based on what, so what and now what questions as shown in
figure 3 in Appendix A.
The presentation topic was British business has been left battered by a
succession of era-defining scandals. While many factors influence ethical
behaviour at work, critically discuss the role HR can play to promote ethics
and fair treatment in the workplace The subtopic on which author worked
was justice and fair guidance and concluding the presentation. He found
this topic extremely hard because the data about this topic was not easily
available. Only particular data was available in books and journals and
required information especially regarding fair treatment of employees and
related policies and procedures were difficult to find from the authentic
sources.
In order to deal with this problem, the author discussed this matter with
my group members and reworked on some topics on which relevant data
was not available from authentic sources. After a detailed meeting our
group reached the solution of including data from relevant and reliable
sources only. The author also spoke with one of his seniors in the
University and he suggested to employ snowballing approach for
searching and selecting relevant and latest data from the databases of

books and journals from library (Nollaig, 2011). Author gathered some
information about snowballing approach and found it extremely useful for
searching material online or within the library. Therefore by adopting this
approach, the author found some authentic sources from where
meaningful data was acquired. In this regard, Armstrongs (2012) human
resource management practice book was found very relevant and
authentic source of selecting data on required topics.
The author found snowballing approach inherent for finding specific data
from latest authentic sources. It is believed that this learning will help
author in next assignments and projects in terms of searching specific
material.
The presentation day was crucial especially due to the complexity of
justice and fair guidance topic. The author was well prepared. He copied
main points on the paper and decided that he will provide overall idea of
the topic and then will go in further detail of each topic. In fact, this was
not the first presentation but the complexity of topic made the author
slightly under pressure. The time of the presentation was also limited and
on top of that a group member took some additional time before authors
presentation and thus he was short of time as well.
During presentation, everything went well and the author managed to
finish the presentation on time. The author feels that he efficiently
elaborated the topic and explained well. The only problem faced was lack
of eye contact. This was identified by the group later after my
presentation. The author was also afraid of question & answer session
because it is always difficult to face public especially when they crossquestion. Some classmates raised some questions regarding the topic but
thankfully the author answered them and they did not cross-question.
Overall, presentation went well and the author is confident that he
managed to perform well and played his role effectively. This will reflect
the overall result of the group. The important thing learned from this
presentation was the eye contact which is extremely important aspect of
the body language of the presenter (Malone, 1997). However, eye contact
should be maintained for few seconds only by avoid staring which can
make audience uncomfortable.

6. Conclusions
This module and especially the workshop was extremely fruitful in terms
of learning and development. Throughout the whole process, the author
has learned so many things. The understanding of reflective learning
theories gave interesting insights about reflective thinking and writing. By

reviewing these theories in chronological order allowed the author to

understand the purpose and developments made by the theorists in their
theories. This is the reason that the author was able to correctly apply
Driscoll theory of reflection in reflecting the topic and presentation in
section 5.
Another important skill is developed regarding working in a group or how
to effectively play your role once you are a part of the team. In this
regard, the author came to know how to practically apply formingstorming-norming-performing model of Tuckman. Also with reference to
Belbins team role theory, the author came to know how to perform the
role of team player and finisher/completer in a team.
Overall, this experience was overwhelming in terms of learning and
development as well as working in a team and delivering performance.
The author enjoyed a lot while working in a group and no serious conflict
arose. In fact, all the group members were very cooperative and helpful. It
is believed that this experience will be helpful for the author in his
professional life when he will work in organisations on mutual projects.

References
Armstrong, M. (2012). Human Resource Management Practice. 12th
edition, Kogan Page Publishers
Belbin, R.M. (2012). Team Roles at Work. 2nd edition, Routledge
Biggs, J. (1999). Teaching for quality learning at university. Buckingham:
Open University Press
Boud, D., & Walker, D. (1998). Promoting Reflection in Professional
Courses: the challenge of Context. Studies in Higher Education, 23(2)
Cleverly, D. (2003). Implementing Inquiry-based Learning in Nursing.
Psychology Press
Cowan, J. (1999). On becoming an innovative university teacher.
Buckingham: Open University Press
Demetriou, A. (2000). Organization and development of selfunderstanding & self-regulation: towards a general theory, in Boekaerts,
M., Pintrich, P. R., & Zeidner, M. (Eds), Handbook of Self-Regulation,
London, Academic Press
Dewey, J. (2007). Democracy and Education, Teddington, Echo Library

Driscoll, M. P., (1994). Psychology of learning for instruction. Needham

Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon
Driscoll, J. (2000). Practising Clinical Supervision. Edinburgh: BalliereTindall
Gibbs G. (1988). Learning by Doing: A Guide to Teaching and Learning
Methods. Oxford: Further Education Unit
Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential Learning, Englewood Cliffs. Prentice Hall
Malone, S.A. (1997). Mind Skills for Managers. Gower Publishing, Ltd
Mezirow, J. (1990). Fostering Critical Education in Adulthood: a guide to
transformatory and emancipatory learning. San Fransisco, Jossey-Bass
Moon, J.A. (1999). Reflection in Learning and Professional Development:
Theory and Practice. London: Kogan Page
Nollaig, F. (2011). Qualitative Research Methods in Psychology: Combining
Core Approaches: From core to combined approaches. McGraw-Hill
International
Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001). Critical Reflection for Nursing
and the Helping Professions: a users guide. London: Palgrave Macmillan
Schn, D. A. (1983). The Reflective Practitioner. London: Temple Smith
Tuckman, B. and Monetti, D. (2010). Educational Psychology. Cengage
Learning
Tuckman, B. and Harper, B.E. (2012). Conducting Educational Research.
6th edition, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Appendices
Appendix A
Figure 1: Kolbs learning cycle

Source: Kolb (1984)

Figure 2: Gibbs learning cycle

Source: Gibbs (1988)

Figure 3: Driscoll Model

Source: Rolfe et al. (2001)

Appendix B

http://www.123test.com/jung-personality-test/