Bit of a coincidence today. This morning I found myself at a seminar about the need for reflection in my line of work. It seems the current wisdom is you can't be reflective enough and, as usual, I'm doubtful of the wisdom of the wisdom. I reckon you can over-do it, a tendency to which yours truly is more than a little prone, I'm afraid.
Anyway, after the diversion of the seminar there I was back at the chalk-face (metaphorically - sadly the real chalk has gone) when one of my drama guys asked me to sign off on some material in a file our students need to keep as one of the requirements of the diploma programme they're on. This involves 'reflections' - as they've come to be known these days - on each activity he undertakes, which is where the drama link comes in. He had a couple of things in there related to stuff we'd done in drama, with some really interesting and insightful comments on his involvement in one thing he'd acted in, and some routine, clichéd comments on a kind of fun, 'action day' connected to our work. The routine comments were not terribly engaging and, of course, he knew it, and that was fine by me. I mean, it was going to be a stretch to find anything meaningful to say. In fact, when he pointed out, with a distinct note of irritation in his voice, that it was a bit daft to expect anything of depth by way of reflection on the day I heartily agreed.
Which brings me to my point. If you start expecting people to reflect on everything in writing (presumably to 'prove' they have reflected) you will pretty much guarantee that most sane people will be completely turned off the notion of reflection. And you will encourage a good deal of unreflective verbiage just to get something written and the whole thing over with.
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