What Is Brookfield’s Reflective Model?

Reflection is an important part of academic and professional learning. It allows students to reflect on their past experiences, see what they did well, and know what might be better in the future. Reflecting also helps you create self-awareness and become more effective at developing critical thinking skills, which is very crucial in personal and academic development.

The Brookfield Reflective Model is one of the best frameworks applied in the process of reflection. It aims at guiding the learner to study his or her experiences in various ways, which stimulates deep and substantial learning and not superficial thought.

In case you want to learn more about yourself as a student and write better academic work, the Reflective Model by Brookfield can be the right place to begin.

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What Is the Reflective Model of Brookfield?

The Reflective Model of Brookfield was created by one of the greatest scholars in adult education, Stephen Brookfield. This model will be used to encourage critical reflection, in which the learners should be able to evaluate their actions, beliefs, and assumptions using different perspectives.

In its essence, this model will assist you in discovering biases, challenging preconceptions, and becoming more effective in terms of learning. Brookfield thought that to reflect, learners could not afford to use one viewpoint but had to seek the experiences in multiple ways – what he referred to as Brookfield's 4 lenses.

The key objective of the model is to enable learners to critically examine their behaviour, identify areas in which they need enhancement and apply the knowledge to future scenarios.

The Four Lenses of Brookfield’s Reflective Model

It is worth knowing that each of the lenses provides you with a different perspective to look at your learning experiences before you get into the lenses. The combination of these lenses provides a more balanced and complete reflection.

a. The Self (Our Autobiography as Learners)

This lens makes you think of your personal experiences as a learner. Consider your experience – why did you make the trip, what were your problems along the way, and how did you problem-solve them? As an example, you can remember a moment when you were working on a project that did not work out, but you finally managed to succeed, which will allow you to understand your resilience and learning strategies.

It is in this light that you get to know how the past experiences affect your current learning behaviours and choices. It will enable you to determine your strengths and weaknesses and create a growth mindset.

b. The Students’ Eyes (or Learners’ Perspective)

In this lens, you see what you are doing through the eyes of other people. This includes taking into account the comments of classmates, tutors or members of a group.

As an example, when your peers tell you that your presentation was not clear, do not interpret that negatively, but make use of their comment to perfect your communication skills. Such an attitude will teach you to be empathetic and understand how other people view your work.

Through this reflection, the students are open-minded and have the feeling of collaborating, which will increase teamwork and learning results.

c. Colleagues’ Experiences (Peer Perspective)

This is the lens of focusing on learning through interaction and discussions with colleagues or peers. The discussion of your learning experience with other people can be a good source of information.

To illustrate, you may discover that a fellow learner has a study method which makes them comprehend concepts more effectively. You can use such techniques to enhance your performance. Such sharing of experiences leads to group learning and makes you look at challenges from another perspective.

d. Theoretical Literature

The last lens relates your experiences to the known academic theories or research. This will allow you to base your reflections on evidence-based concepts, and the validity of your analysis will increase.

As an example, when you discovered that group work was useful in boosting your confidence, you could apply it to group learning theories. Connecting real to theory helps make your writing reflective and helps you understand more.

The four lenses of Brookfield would help students to have a balanced and systematic approach to critical reflection.

Why Is Brookfield’s Model Important for Students?

The Reflective Model by Brookfield is also extremely beneficial when applied to university students in the UK, where reflective writing is an important component of the coursework and professional growth. Here’s why it’s important:

Encourages Deep Learning: It challenges you to analyse experience as well as describe experience and encourages critical thought.

Improves Academic Writing: The four lenses allow you to write thoughtful and organised reflective essays.

Enhances Self-Awareness: It enables you to understand your strengths and weaknesses so as to build your individual and academic identity.

Prepares for Professional Life: Reflective skills are also required in nursing careers, school careers, business careers, etc.

Supports Lifelong Learning: Reflection is an ongoing process, with the aid of which you can adapt and evolve after university life.

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How to Apply Brookfield’s Reflective Model in Assignments

It is not as difficult as it sounds to apply this model in your academic writing. To make your reflection meaningful and structured, follow the following steps:

Choose a Learning Experience: Select an important situation or project where you learnt something important.

Use Brookfield’s Four Lenses: Reflect using the Four Lenses: Get feedback on all four lenses from yourself, peers, colleagues, and theoretical references.

Analyse Your Learning: Find out what you have learnt, how you have changed your thinking and what you would have done differently next time.

Link to Academic Theory: Back up your thoughts with citations to research or learning models.

Conclude with Future Goals: Sum up by telling how you intend to use what you learnt in your future studies or work.

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Brookfield’s Model vs. Other Reflective Models

The Reflective Model created by Brookfield has been compared to the Reflective Cycle created by Gibbs and the Learning Cycle created by Kolb by many students. Compared to Gibbs, who dwells on a six-step approach, and Kolb, whose approach revolves around experience, the approach taken by Brookfield is unique in its emphasis on multi-perspective.

It not only queries you about what has happened but also how it is perceived by others and what theory tells you about it. This makes it a more holistic and severe reflection tool.

Final Thoughts

Brookfield's Reflective Model will provide a critically useful framework to help develop critical reflection, improve academic writing, and enhance self-awareness. By analysing experiences with several lenses, students will understand their learning journeys more deeply.

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Reflective writing is not just an academic requirement; it's a skill that shapes who you are as a learner and a professional.

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