Journaling

Journaling relates to a number of activities which involve externally expressing your experiences and your thinking about those experiences.  This can be thought of as the outputs of the encoding sub-system to the environment being fed back into the inputs of the attending sub-system for reprocessing.

This expressive reflection could involve any mode of external expression:

• writing and re-writing
  Try different ways of writing. Some people find that using pen-and-paper slows down their writing and gives more room for thinking. You may want to write in full descriptive sentences or just record immediate impressions and key words/phrases in bullet point. Perhaps experiment with different coloured papers or inks for different elements of reflection — e.g. what, so what, now what.
  Going back to your immediate reflections and rewriting or transposing them to another format can also help with the reviewing process.

• speaking and audio recording

• drawing (or other non-verbal representation), e.g. story-boarding or concept mapping

• performing (physical/embodied expression), e.g. acting or dance

You can also try using alternative narrative construction.

Although often presented as an individual/solo activity, expressive reflection can be dialogic and collaborative.  

Examples of dialogic approaches include:

• Letter writing — recounting your experiences and thoughts as if communicating them to significant other people. This encourages you to consider the perceptions of the recipients in your construction of your narrative.

• Dialogue scripting — recounting experiences as a discussion between different people. This could be between yourself and someone else, between two or more aspects of yourself (I-positions) or between two or more other people talking about you. (See Perspective shifting and self-distancing)

Frameworks

A number of (linear or cyclical) frameworks have been developed to give a structure to this expressive reflection. They could also be used to elicit the perspectives of other people involved in an experience (see Cognitive interviewing, Brookfield's mirrors, MECSTAT and Socratic questioning). 

ReCoCa analysis

This is a structured analysis based on the components of the reflective system.

What? So what? Now what?

• What? What happened? What did you experience? What did you notice? What triggered the reflection?  (Representation)

• So what? Why is it important or significant? What does it mean to you or others? (Comparison)

• Now what? What are the implications? What do you need to do about it? What changes do you need to make? (Causation)

5Rs

• Reporting - describing the details of the experience (encoding)

• Responding - expressing your reactions to the experience, your evaluations and emotional reactions (evaluating)

• Relating - linking the experience to previous experiences or existing knowledge (correlating)

• Reasoning - seeking explanations for the experience (backwards extrapolating)

• Reconstructing - planning future actions and changes to practice (forwards extrapolating)

Gibbs Reflective Cycle

• Description - recall the context, participants, sequence of events, intentions and outcomes

• Feelings - record how your (and other people's) emotions changed throughout the event

• Evaluation - identify the positive and negative aspects of the event from various perspectives

• Analysis - identify possible cause-and-effect explanations of the event and alternative possibilities

• Conclusion - identify what you have learnt from your reflection and record new insights

• Action plan - identify how you will continue your learning and apply your insights in future

SPEAKING

• Setting and scene — What was the context and physical circumstances of the event?

• Participants — Who was involved and what were their roles and relative status?

• Ends — What were the aims and intentions of the participants and how transparent were they?

• Act sequence — What happened and in what order?

• Key — What was the emotional tone of the situation (see context analysis)?

• Instrumentalities — What were the practical affordances and constraints of the situation that might have influenced the way actions were performed?

• Norms — What were the (explicit or implicit) rules of the situation and was everyone aware of them?

• Genre — What were the narrative themes of the experience? (See Archetypes.)

Schema diary

A technique from Schema Therapy. which involves recording:

• Triggers — Characterising the trigger events

• Emotions — Naming and characterising the emotions experienced

• Thoughts — Describing thought processes

• Behaviours — Describing helpful and unhelpful behaviours

• Schemas — Identifying and naming the schemas driving those behaviours

• Views — Articulating alternative views of the situation

• Concerns — Recording concerns and evaluating their relative salience or validity

• Coping styles — Identifying potential maladaptive coping modes (overreaction, surrender, avoidance)

• Alternatives — Identifying potential alternative behaviours

Stream of consciousness journaling

In contrast to structured journaling, which tends to rely on rational, deliberative processing, stream of consciousness journaling attempts to tap into non-conscious processes. It involves recording thoughts and impressions about the topic of reflection as they arise in your mind. You don't need to think about constructing coherent sentences or linear narratives. Just record whatever comes into your mind (including any associations or digressions) without judging or filtering. 

Stream of consciousness journaling can be iterative — you use the outputs of your original journaling as an input to prompt further streams of consciousness. This can be done after a period of incubation.

Subsequently, you may choose to arrange your spontaneous impressions into a structured format through concept mapping.

Others are available here

https://www.ed.ac.uk/reflection/reflectors-toolkit/all-tools