Reflective and reflexive practice
Reflective practice involves deliberately pausing to think about what you do and why. It’s more than casual thinking – it requires a conscious effort to analyse decisions, consider outcomes, and connect these insights to broader ideas or theories. Reflexivity takes this further, challenging us to examine our own values, attitudes, thought processes, and assumptions. While reflection might uncover a missed detail or provide insight into why something went wrong, reflexivity seeks to uncover the deeper reasons behind those gaps—how our beliefs and behaviours influence our decisions and relationships. For a concise introduction, my post Why reflection and reflexivity matter in a complex world explores how these practices help individuals and teams navigate challenges, enhance decision-making, and foster meaningful change. It also includes practical strategies for integrating these approaches into daily life and work.
These practices are closely linked to planning, monitoring and evaluation (PM&E), as well as systems thinking, action research and adaptive management. The resources below offer both practical tools and theoretical perspectives to help individuals, teams, and organisations integrate reflection and reflexivity into their work. These include guides for tools such as After Action Reviews (AARs) and Strategic Learning Debriefs to support effective learning and action.
Why reflection and reflexivity matter in a complex world
In this 2024 post, Will Allen provides an introduction to reflection and reflexivity. The post also explores how these practices help individuals and teams navigate challenges, enhance decision-making, and drive meaningful change. It also includes practical strategies for integrating reflection and reflexivity into daily life and work at individual, team, and organisational levels.
Reflection and reflexivity: what and why
This chapter by Gillie Bolton from her book Reflective Practice: Writing & Professional Development introduces reflective practice, outlining its broader political and social responsibilities. It defines reflection and reflexivity, providing clear explanations and practical examples. Brightside’s introductory page – What is reflective practice – complements this by highlighting how reflective practice improves the quality of professional work and bridges the gap between theory and practice. These resources also draw links to models like Kolb’s learning cycle and tools such as After Action Reviews.
The reflective practitioner
This guide from the UK General Medical Council (2021) offers tailored advice on reflective practice for doctors and medical students. It demonstrates how structured reflection can enhance professional growth, improve patient care, and support ethical decision-making. Although focused on healthcare, its principles – such as creating safe spaces for reflection and linking insights to professional standards – can be applied across many sectors.
Making experience count: The role of reflection in individual learning
This 2016 working paper by Giada Di Stefano and colleagues highlights how reflection can amplify learning by increasing self-efficacy. Drawing on the words of John Dewey, “We do not learn from experience … we learn from reflecting on experience,” the authors show that structured reflection improves both goal achievement and learning outcomes, making experiences more productive and impactful.
Bridging disciplines, knowledge systems and cultures
This 2014 paper by Will Allen and colleagues outlines an action research approach that helps interdisciplinary teams reflect critically on their engagement practices. The authors share lessons about improving collaboration in integrated science, management, and policy initiatives, with practical implications for others working in similar fields.
Reflective practices for transformational leaders
This guide explores how reflective practices can support transformational leadership by fostering self-awareness, adaptability, and critical thinking. It provides practical strategies and frameworks to help leaders reflect on their actions and decisions, aligning them with long-term goals and values. While aimed at leadership development, its principles are widely applicable to anyone seeking to enhance their reflective capacity and drive meaningful change.
Reflecting on reflective practice
Linda Finlay’s paper explores key definitions and models of reflection, addressing ethical and professional challenges in applying these practices. It concludes with suggestions for educators and professionals on fostering effective reflective practice, particularly through critical reflection.
Reflection and reflective practice in health professions education: a systematic review
Karen Mann and colleagues use a systematic literature review to evaluate the effectiveness of reflection in health professional education. They identify key variables influencing reflective practice and discuss implications for teaching and research, making this resource valuable for educators and practitioners alike.
Reflective practice
This entry introduces the concept and history of reflective practice, presenting models such as those by Kolb, Gibbs, Argyris, and Schön. It also highlights the application of reflective practices in sectors such as education, health, and environmental management, making it a useful starting point for exploring the topic further.
Practical tools and resources for reflection and reflexivity
After Action Review
This guide from the Leading Virtually team offers clear guidelines, facilitation tips, and a sample AAR to help teams understand how these reviews work in practice. The BetterEvaluation AAR page complements this with additional guidance, including variations like the “Retrospect,” making both resources practical and adaptable tools for learning and improving team performance. These short guides are ideal for integrating reflection into team workflows efficiently.
Measuring our own reflexivity
This tool by Victoria Shaw and Brian Watts helps practitioners assess and develop their reflexivity across nine competencies, including inclusion, adaptability, and self-reflection. Designed for individual or group use, it supports learning and participatory engagement in complex systems work. A Miro version is available for online facilitation.
Strategic learning in practice: Tools to create the space & structure for learning
Jewla Lynn’s 2012 guide explores how organisations can create space and structure for reflection through tools like Theories of Change and Strategic Learning Debriefs. These tools help teams link planning, implementation, and learning.
Evaluation to support strategic learning: principles and practices
This 2011 guide by Julia Coffman and Tanya Beer highlights how reflection can drive continuous learning in organisations. It emphasises the use of tools like Theories of Change, After Action Reviews, and Strategic Learning Debriefs to integrate reflection into ongoing work. By creating intentional spaces for reflection, teams can turn learning into actionable insights, improving decision-making and adaptability in dynamic contexts.
Listen to others, listen to yourself: Combining feedback review and reflection to improve iterative design
Yu-Chun Grace Yen and colleagues demonstrate how combining reflection with feedback review enhances iterative design processes. Their research underscores the value of lightweight, structured reflection activities in improving outcomes and driving more effective revisions in creative work.
Managing critical reflection in practice requires the use of a range of processes and techniques. And introduction to these concepts see Why reflection and reflexivity matter in a complex world. This concept is necessarily closely linked with a range of other topics on this site. There are direct links with planning, monitoring and evaluation, participatory action research, Theory of Change (TOC), and the other strands involved in social learning.
