Reflective Learning Style or Passive Learning Style?

Are you familiar with passive and reflective learning styles?  A passive learner is someone who reads textbooks, writes responses that are expected and listens to lectures.  A reflective learning style is more active.  You may challenge theories, ask questions and try to learn from your experiences.  Would you describe yourself as having a passive or reflective learning style?

How Do You Benefit from a Reflective Learning Style

Most pediatric occupational and physical therapists and teachers are reflective learners.  We work with many different children that are all unique.  Each child presents with his or her own talents and challenges.  By having a reflective learning style, we can learn from each child, build on our experiences and help the next child even more!

Parents benefit from being reflective learners as well.  If you are a parent, think back to your first born.  It felt like every decision you made, required reflective learning.  You question yourself, you seek out new answers and you try even harder the next day.

By encouraging students to have a reflective learning style, it helps them to become motivated, life long learners who seek out innovative ideas and out of the box thinking.

How to Achieve a Reflective Learning Style

Here are 10 suggestions to help you become a more reflective learner to develop your own skills as a therapist, teacher, parent, or student.  You can download a copy of the “I Can Be a Reflective Learner” to hang up in your classroom or office at the end of the post. 

1. Think about your past experiences and learn from them.
2. Engage in ongoing questioning.
3. Ask others for feedback.  Seek out people who will provide you with open and honest feedback.
4. Remain open to other suggestions, ideas, or approaches.
5. Be responsible for your own learning.
6. Take action with your newly acquired knowledge and understanding.
7. Practice your new skills while maintaining your values and beliefs.
8. Always work to improve.
9. Always look to gain new knowledge.
10. Practice reflective journaling.  A reflective journal helps you analyze your professional and personal growth.  By keeping a record of your ideas, reasons, actions, techniques, and assessments you can plan for your future and facilitate a positive outcome.  Reflection is defined as “the process of stepping back from an experience to ponder, carefully and persistently, its meaning to the self through the development of inferences; learning is the creation of meaning from past or current events that serves as a guide for future behavior.” (Daudelin, 1996).

Try Reflective Journaling

You can start reflective journaling right now!  Whether you want to encourage student, professional or personal growth, reflective journaling can help jumpstart reaching new goals.

Reflective Journaling for Therapists, Teachers, Parents and Students digital download includes the materials to help you analyze your personal and professional growth.  By keeping a record of your ideas, reasons, actions, techniques, and assessments you can play for your future and facilitate a positive outcome.FIND OUT MORE.

Would you like a copy of the “I Can Be a Reflective Learner” poster?  Sign up to receive the weekly email newsletter and special announcements from Your Therapy Source.  You will be redirected to download the digital poster to print.

References

Daudelin, M. W. (1996). Learning through experience through reflection. Organizational Dynamics, 24(3), 38–48

Larrivee, B. (2009). Authentic classroom management. Creating a learning community and building reflective practice, Third Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, p. 11.